Using a WRT54G Behind your RPT300 WITH Static IP -- FINALLY!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 20, 2007 Posts: 1

After reading through what seemed like a million useless posts, I finally decided to give up and do some experimenting. I came up with a solution to a problem no one seems to be able to fix, even the so called "level 3 technicians" at Vonage.

What you want to do:

Use your RPT300 as your main routing device, and your WRT54G as a wireless access point. You also want to maintain your static IP address structure in your home or business.

How to do it:

1. Hard reset everything. Start clean. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. If you are unsure how to do this, what you need to do is push in the button on the back of the rpt300 and wrt54g for 20 seconds. Then power cycle them both. No exceptions, just do it!

2. Make sure your network cable going from your Cable/DSL Modem is connected to the blue "internet" port on the back of your RPT300. Take another network cable, and connect it from a "yellow" lan port (rj-45 port) on the back of the rpt300 to a computer.

3. Make sure at this juncture your tcp/ip settings on your computer are set to obtain IP addresses automatically, and not for static IP. If you don't know how to do this, google it Wink

4. Launch firefox (you do use firefox, right? ^_^) and type "192.168.15.1" into the browser window. You will get a dialogue box. Use admin/admin (standard linksys credentials). You will be taken to basic setup screen.

5. Change the "Internet Connection Type" from "Obtain an IP Automatically" to "Static IP". Now, enter the static IP your internet service provider has given you. Yes, most of you will have to call and get one like I had to. I cost me 5 bucks more a month! They should also supply you with their default gateway, and DNS 1/DNS 2 (ignore DNS 3 and WINS unless they specify otherwise). Make a note of your "Local IP Address" and "Subnet Mask" in the "Network Setup" section of this same page. The local IP listed here is your default gateway for your internal (LAN) network. The subnet mask will also need to be used to configure connections to your network (discussed in a moment). Save your changes.

7. Connect the network cable from the back of your computer into the wrt54g now. Type 192.168.1.1 into the browser window, and type admin/admin for the user name and pass again.

8. Change your wireless options and security options as you see fit at this point, including your SSID, WPA password, etc etc. Remember to save your settings. Go back to the basic set up screen when you are finished.

9. In this screen, you will simply go down on the first page, and disable the local dhcp server setting. Next you will put the router ip in as something out of range of the dhcp server in the rpt300. I suggest you end it with .254 (remember, it must be on the same subnet, so if your rpt300 ip is 192.168.15.1, set the wrt54g ip to 192.168.15.154). Save your changes.

10. Connect another network cable from the back of your rpt300 "yellow" ports into a regular port on the back of your wrt54g (not the WAN port).

11. Change your tcip/ip settings to obtain the information you set in your rpt300.

i.e
IP Address: 192.168.15.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.15.1
Primary DNS Server: 72.143.23.22
Secondary DNS Server: 72.143.23.23

Power cycle everything once more for good measure (starting with the cable/dsl modem).

You're done!

You now have 1 router acting as a router, and 1 wireless router acting as a switch/wireless access point.

Congratulations, I hope this helped you Wink

Feel free to send me an e-mail with questions/comments/praises

cinmachina@gmail.com

Posts: 1125 · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:06 am Post subject:

"What you want to do:

Use your RPT300 as your main routing device, and your WRT54G as a wireless access point. You also want to maintain your static IP address structure in your home or business."

I just read the purpose of this post, which begs the question: Why the hell would you willingly use the Vonage device as your gateway to the Internet?

If I've learned anything over the past couple of years here, it's that Vonage devices STINK at routing anything more than Voip traffic and extremely light web browsing. I'd caution people to be very careful with this setup, or you'll be right back here asking questions.