Add a wireless router to an existing modem/router... with static IP addresses

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MScrip

Gawd
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Feb 8, 2004
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I work for a dance studio. We have a cable modem with a built-in 4 port switch. (not wireless)

3 of the ethernet ports are currently in use... 2 desktop computers and a DVR security camera system.

The DVR system requires a static IP address for remote monitoring. We have been assigned 5 static IP addresses... and 3 of those are being used for the DVR and the 2 computers.

Now we want to add wireless. I tried connecting a wireless router to the existing modem/router using the available ethernet port.... but I couldn't get it to work. I was thinking it was because of the static IP addresses. I don't know how to configure an additional router if static IP addresses are involved (but I've done router-to-router connections without static IPs with no problems)

Is it possible to add a wireless router or access point to our existing setup? Are our static IPs causing my dilemma?

Charter Business (our ISP) is happy to let us pay an additional $25 a month to replace our modem/router with a wireless version. But the dance studio owner thinks it's a better idea to just buy a wireless router once, and connect it to what we've got already. I agree.

Does anyone have any ideas?
 
Do your static IPs come by DHCP or do you have to configure them manually? Were the desktops/dvr configured manually. If it was automatic then just plugging in a wireless router in the the available port should work. Otherwise you would have to log into the routers setting page and change its WAN side address
 
greengolftee87 said:
Do your static IPs come by DHCP or do you have to configure them manually? Were the desktops/dvr configured manually. If it was automatic then just plugging in a wireless router in the the available port should work. Otherwise you would have to log into the routers setting page and change its WAN side address
Click to expand...

Charter sent an email with all the IP addresses listed. For the computers we had to type them in manually. Not sure about the DVR... I wasn't involved in that. But it probably had to be configured manually as well. I'm pretty sure it's not automatic.

The studio owner sometimes uses her laptop in her office. Since there is an available ethernet port on the modem/router... we can plug it in. But, it also has to be configured for a specific IP address.

But now she has an iPad... and she wants to be able to use it at work. That's the main reason she wants wireless in the office.

Plus any parents who want to hop on WIFI while their kids are in class... or sometimes teachers want to get online with their laptops as well.

When you said "Otherwise you would have to log into the routers setting page and change its WAN side address" are you talking about the second router?

If I plug a new wireless router into the existing modem/router... what exactly would I look for in the settings?

Thank you for your help :)
 
If you want to plug the wireless router into the exisiting wired router, make sure the IP address is not the same.

So if the primary router's IP is like 192.168.1.1 make sure that the wireless router's is something like 192.168.2.1, then once you got that set, just go set your SSID and Encpryption, once that's saved go in and disable the DHCP server functions othe wireless router, plug a ethernet cable in from the primary router into one of the LAN ports on the wireless router (not the WAN or internet port) and it should be good to go.
 
Javelin3o4 said:
If you want to plug the wireless router into the exisiting wired router, make sure the IP address is not the same.

So if the primary router's IP is like 192.168.1.1 make sure that the wireless router's is something like 192.168.2.1, then once you got that set, just go set your SSID and Encpryption, once that's saved go in and disable the DHCP server functions othe wireless router, plug a ethernet cable in from the primary router into one of the LAN ports on the wireless router (not the WAN or internet port) and it should be good to go.
Click to expand...

The existing wired router is also the modem. Does that make a difference?

How do I find the modem/router's IP address? We have 5 static IPs...

The modem/router looks like this:

SMC8014_BIZ.jpg
 
MScrip said:
Charter sent an email with all the IP addresses listed. For the computers we had to type them in manually. Not sure about the DVR... I wasn't involved in that. But it probably had to be configured manually as well. I'm pretty sure it's not automatic.

The studio owner sometimes uses her laptop in her office. Since there is an available ethernet port on the modem/router... we can plug it in. But, it also has to be configured for a specific IP address.

But now she has an iPad... and she wants to be able to use it at work. That's the main reason she wants wireless in the office.

Plus any parents who want to hop on WIFI while their kids are in class... or sometimes teachers want to get online with their laptops as well.

When you said "Otherwise you would have to log into the routers setting page and change its WAN side address" are you talking about the second router?

If I plug a new wireless router into the existing modem/router... what exactly would I look for in the settings?

Thank you for your help :)
Click to expand...

Ok. So what you will have to do is to set up the wireless router the same way you set up the computers. In the router settings there will be a page for setting up the WAN port of the wireless router. Put one of your unused ip addresses from charter and match up the rest of the fields with the same information as the desktops use.
 
greengolftee87 said:
Ok. So what you will have to do is to set up the wireless router the same way you set up the computers. In the router settings there will be a page for setting up the WAN port of the wireless router. Put one of your unused ip addresses from charter and match up the rest of the fields with the same information as the desktops use.
Click to expand...

Sweet! I will try it this week.

Thank you! :)
 
It wouldnt matter the SMC router would still hand out the IP's it basically just turns the wirelss router into a AP thats connected via ethernet. Just make sure disabling DHCP on the wireless router is the last thing you do, otherwise if you need to get back into the wireless router to change settings you will need to configure a static IP on a computer for that IP range on the wifi router, otherwise you gotta reset it and set it back up.
 
The SMC is already a combo modem/router....running in gateway mode.

You can add an access point, or you can add a wireless router as another router....cascaded...and end up with a double NAT setup if its WAN port pulls a 10.1.10.xxx IP from the SMC..or using a public IP from your ISP. Or you can reconfigure that wireless router to just run as an access point....change its LAN IP to be in the same range as the SMC (the SMC modem/router is 10.1.10.1..so make the wireless router something like 10.1.10.253).. disable DHCP on the wireless router, and uplink it to that LAN port of the SMC using a LAN port on your wireless router. You will not use the WAN port of the wireless router.
 
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