Having trouble with setting up a wireless network

[BeenDue]

Hey everyone.

So basically, the apartment building I live in comes with internet service via ethernet jacks that are scattered throughout the unit.
But when I try to set up a wireless network using my D-Link DIR-625 router, no matter what I try, I have problems maintaining a steady internet connection.
I've tried 2 major things.
1) Assign the router an IP address outside the range of the building's built-in router(if that's what it is) and keep DHCP enabled.
2) Disable DHCP and use my router as an access point
I've done both quite a few times. However, I still can't seem to get a wireless network off the ground.

I'm really confused right now as to what I should do. So, any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance ya'll.

 

[thobel]

Hey everyone.

So basically, the apartment building I live in comes with internet service via ethernet jacks that are scattered throughout the unit.
But when I try to set up a wireless network using my D-Link DIR-625 router, no matter what I try, I have problems maintaining a steady internet connection.
I've tried 2 major things.
1) Assign the router an IP address outside the range of the building's built-in router(if that's what it is) and keep DHCP enabled.
2) Disable DHCP and use my router as an access point
I've done both quite a few times. However, I still can't seem to get a wireless network off the ground.

I'm really confused right now as to what I should do. So, any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance ya'll.

When you say Maintain a steady Internet connection. I assume that means you are getting it to work but with poor quality? If so use this tool to check out what channle to use http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2113...ter-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/

I live in an apartment building also and the interference causes me grief on all my 2.4ghz connections (I put as much as I could on 5ghz)

 

[Pinky]

1) You are able to connect to the wireless router using the passphrase, but it never grabs an IP address?

2) If #1, are you sure you have enough IP addresses available to add more computers? [also, try restarting the DHCP service on the domain controller and see if it releases IP addresses that have expired]

3) Interference will usually prevent connection to the wireless router, but sometimes not. Try setting the channel manually, usually it's set to auto, 6, or 7. Because of this being common it's easy to get busy frequency ranges with so many devices defaulting to the same channels.

4) Ensure the router is away from large metal items and other devices that emit electro magnetic fields. For example - avoid putting a wireless router on top of your computer!

5) Make sure the transmit power on the router is set to max, and same for the computer's wifi card (if it has such a setting).

 

[BeenDue]

Thank you for the link thobel.

You're right I can get it to work but, like you said, the quality is poor. I'm not sure what the correlation is between signal strength and performance. However, I am getting at least 4 bars in terms of signal strength most of the time. I also think my OP didn't fully explain my situation. My entire building is under a single ISP that provides service throughout the building. I got sick and tired of trying to set up a wireless network under the aforementioned ISP so I hooked up a seperate connection through a cable company and have been running a wireless network without any problems. Basically, I have 2 wireless networks running. I haven't had any interference issues with secondary network I set up.

 

[BeenDue]

Thank you for the response Pinky.

I am able to connect to the router fine. As of now, its operating as a router and assigning IP addresses like any other router does. The funny thing is, I set up the router under the default D-Link IP address of 192.168.0.1 and then I switched it over to the IP address I was getting from the building (when I connected my computer directly to the ethernet jack on the wall). The IP address I got from the ethernet connection is 172.xx sort. I assigned an IP just outside of that range and thought I was in the clear. But I still can't seem to get anywhere near the speed I should be getting in regards to opening websites. Please let me know if you need any more info.

 

[thobel]

Thank you for the link thobel.

You're right I can get it to work but, like you said, the quality is poor. I'm not sure what the correlation is between signal strength and performance. However, I am getting at least 4 bars in terms of signal strength most of the time. I also think my OP didn't fully explain my situation. My entire building is under a single ISP that provides service throughout the building. I got sick and tired of trying to set up a wireless network under the aforementioned ISP so I hooked up a seperate connection through a cable company and have been running a wireless network without any problems. Basically, I have 2 wireless networks running. I haven't had any interference issues with secondary network I set up.

What you can do is add a wirless bridge to the wireless that works well instea d of using 2 differnet networks. I use a few of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127256

Added advantage is they support 5ghz and most of my devices do also. I now have no problems streaming bluerays from my Server to HTPC in my guest bedroom.

What I did was setup one wired back to main router as an Access Point then setup 2 more as Wireless Bridges and hardwired Xbox/TV/playstations etc to that.

 

[Pinky]

Thank you for the response Pinky.

I am able to connect to the router fine. As of now, its operating as a router and assigning IP addresses like any other router does. The funny thing is, I set up the router under the default D-Link IP address of 192.168.0.1 and then I switched it over to the IP address I was getting from the building (when I connected my computer directly to the ethernet jack on the wall). The IP address I got from the ethernet connection is 172.xx sort. I assigned an IP just outside of that range and thought I was in the clear. But I still can't seem to get anywhere near the speed I should be getting in regards to opening websites. Please let me know if you need any more info.

Try disabling DHCP on the router, and connect the network cable from the shared/building's LAN to one of the LAN ports (NOT the wide area/internet port) on the router. With most routers it will act as a passthrough device and only provide a wireless connection without interfering with any networking configuration coming from the building's network.

 

[BeenDue]

What you can do is add a wirless bridge to the wireless that works well instea d of using 2 differnet networks. I use a few of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127256

Added advantage is they support 5ghz and most of my devices do also. I now have no problems streaming bluerays from my Server to HTPC in my guest bedroom.

What I did was setup one wired back to main router as an Access Point then setup 2 more as Wireless Bridges and hardwired Xbox/TV/playstations etc to that.

Thanks. I'd love to add a wireless bridge to my network and I'll definitely try it out in the future. However, as of now I just want to get an operational wireless network up and running that's connected to my apartment building's network. The only reason I have 2 networks running is because I can't get a reliable connection through the building's ethernet connection. I basically left that one running but I'm connected to the other network that runs on cable.
BTW your network sounds awesome.

 

[BeenDue]

Try disabling DHCP on the router, and connect the network cable from the shared/building's LAN to one of the LAN ports (NOT the wide area/internet port) on the router. With most routers it will act as a passthrough device and only provide a wireless connection without interfering with any networking configuration coming from the building's network.

I'm gonna try disabling DHCP once I get back home later on tonight. I have a couple of questions regarding that method.
1) I read somewhere that I should set the IP of my router(soon to be WAP) to a static IP that I can ask the building ISP to reserve for me. If I'm correct, this should be along the lines of the 172.16.xx.xx IP that I mentioned earlier. The only thing is I don't think I can get a static IP reserved from the ISP for use on my router/WAP. So... would it be ok to give my router/WAP a random IP? Would something like 192.168.6.6 (just an example) work?
2) Is there any way to access the router configuration page after I disable DHCP other than to manually input the IP I gave the router/WAP into my computer? I've disabled DHCP before and I had to reset my router each time to access the configuration page. Once I learned that I could manually input the IP into my computer to access the configuration page I did so. But I think I might have botched the whole WAP setup: disabling DHCP, setting the IP of my router, LAN to LAN etc. So I reverted back to the original way I had my router setup which was just using it as a wireless router like I would with any other ISP.
3) If disabling DHCP doesn't work which steps should I follow next?

I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks so much.

 

[BeenDue]

Ok... So I disabled DHCP and set my router's IP address to 172.16.254.xxx. After doing so, I was able to get a really good connection and websites were loading with ease. I switched back to my secondary network thinking I was in the clear. Today I tried getting back on the network that has DHCP disabled and this time around its back to its old self and not working at all. The first website (ie. yahoo, etc) I open will load but any subsequent websites will not open up. Could it be that I'm using the wrong static IP for my router(now WAP)? As I mentioned before the default gateway for the ISP is 172.16.2.xxx. I don't think I can get a static IP reserved for me through my building's ISP.

 

[Oulse]

My old apartment building used a NATed business cable connection. All I had to do was plug a router into it with default settings, making it a two-layer NAT, and it would work fine. Subnet collisions are not possible, since the WAN and LAN are isolated networks.

Your problem is probably a result of sharing the connection with potentially hundreds of other people. If a few of them are downloading/torrenting and network limits are weak, the whole building's connection will falter. My apartment building had this problem until I complained, and they added caps per room.

 

[BeenDue]

My old apartment building used a NATed business cable connection. All I had to do was plug a router into it with default settings, making it a two-layer NAT, and it would work fine. Subnet collisions are not possible, since the WAN and LAN are isolated networks.

Your problem is probably a result of sharing the connection with potentially hundreds of other people. If a few of them are downloading/torrenting and network limits are weak, the whole building's connection will falter. My apartment building had this problem until I complained, and they added caps per room.

Thanks for the reply, Oulse. When I initially set up my wireless network I did it with the default settings. It works but the connection itself was really unreliable. I'd get 4-5 bars in terms of signal strength but most attempts to load any and all websites would usually time out. The thing is, I'm not sure if my apartment building is using a NATed business cable connection. There's a segment in the building owner's manual that is devoted to internet service and the ISP recommends that you use a wireless access point for a wireless network or else there might be IP conflicts. It also says they(the ISP) would install a WAP for a fee, which I think is preposterous.

I am going to try and put in a complaint to the ISP regarding caps per room. But in the meantime, I'd really like to get a network up and running. I will try reverting back to the default settings and get back to you.

Not even sure if I set up the WAP right though. I disabled DHCP, disabled uPnP, designated a static IP for my router(default gateway is 172.16.2.xxx and I set the IP for my router at 172.16.254.xxx). No idea if I'm even doing that right. I did read somewhere that I'm supposed to disable the firewall as well. I did and it didn't really help. I'd really appreciate any comments regarding my WAP setup as well. Thanks again.

 

[Oulse]

Are you sure the unreliable connection is as a result of the wireless settings? 4-5 bars indicates good signal strength, so your unreliable connection may be a result of the uplink, which is what I was mentioning. Try using the internet without wireless and see if that works consistently.

 

[BeenDue]

Are you sure the unreliable connection is as a result of the wireless settings? 4-5 bars indicates good signal strength, so your unreliable connection may be a result of the uplink, which is what I was mentioning. Try using the internet without wireless and see if that works consistently.

I'm completely clueless as to whether the unreliable connection is a result of the wireless settings. I just tried using the internet with a cable connected directly from the ethernet jack while bypassing my router and it works consistently. Does this mean disabling DHCP and using my router as a WAP doesn't make much of a difference.

I still have it on WAP mode. I tweaked the QOS Engine settings a bit by disabling traffic shaping, automatic uplink speed, and the QOS engine itself. DHCP is still disabled. So is UpNp. I got the QOS Engine idea from a post on another forum I was reading. With the QOS tweaks it was working more consistently but having the same problems today.

 

[Oulse]

DHCP is not the issue if you're able to connect to the router at all with it enabled, as it's only used when first setting up the connection. The ISP isn't the problem if the internet works fine when directly connected.

Make sure you have the newest firmware for your router, from the manufacturer's website. Try defaulting your routers settings (possibly with a button on the back) and simply configure the wireless name and encryption. Test with multiple wireless devices. If that simple configuration doesn't work or is unusually slow, and connecting directly to ethernet works fine, I'd say the problem is a faulty router.

(It's interesting that the first website you go to always loads, while others after do not. Assuming the website you tried wasn't loading from cache, then the router is binding the first connection you start, but fails on later connections. That indicates a hardware/firmware problem with the NAT table.)

 

[BeenDue]

DHCP is not the issue if you're able to connect to the router at all with it enabled, as it's only used when first setting up the connection. The ISP isn't the problem if the internet works fine when directly connected.

Make sure you have the newest firmware for your router, from the manufacturer's website. Try defaulting your routers settings (possibly with a button on the back) and simply configure the wireless name and encryption. Test with multiple wireless devices. If that simple configuration doesn't work or is unusually slow, and connecting directly to ethernet works fine, I'd say the problem is a faulty router.

(It's interesting that the first website you go to always loads, while others after do not. Assuming the website you tried wasn't loading from cache, then the router is binding the first connection you start, but fails on later connections. That indicates a hardware/firmware problem with the NAT table.)

I checked the firmware version and its up to date. I reinstalled the newest version just to be safe.

I just defaulted the router settings and ran the test with different wireless devices. Ethernet(Building ISP)->router->wireless->computer is inconsistent (some pages load, some don't but most of the time its really slow) Ethernet(Building ISP)->router->wired connection->computer is just as inconsistent as wireless. Ethernet->computer works fine so I think you're right, I do have a faulty router. One thing that I'm curious about is the fact that if I use the same router for my cable internet connection(a different ISP) it works fine.

I did try disabling DHCP one more time and here are the results I got.
ethernet->router/WAP->wireless = inconsistent (but not worse or better than default settings)
ethernet->router/WAP->wired = consistent (somewhat confused about how well the wired connection works with DHCP disabled)

Not sure where to go from here besides buying a new router. As I mentioned above, the same router works in default settings (or used to) with my cable modem.

 

[Sentential]

Here's been my experience so far; Dlink has fantastic routing speeds but the Ubicom chipset they use is prone to failure once it exceeds a certian level of IP flows; had this same issue with the DIR-655. If you wanna take a look google DIR-655 unresponsive WAN port and you'll see what I'm talking about.

As far as routers go based on the dozen routers I went through and what I deal with at work, I'd summarize em as follows:

Netgear (aethros based)- good features, good routing, horrific wireless range and poor thoroughput, poor quality wireless radios, does not work well in mixed B/G/N enviroments
Linksys (broadcom based)- poor features, mediocre routing, good wireless range and thoroughput, prone to overheating, often lacks gigabit
Dlink (ubicom based)- good features, poor routing, good wireless range, not good for "family" router, do not buy for seeding/torrenting. numerous firmware issues
Belkin (varies)- hit or miss on all listed above depending on what you get. Lacks consistancy

There's an Asus router I had been meaning to try out; heard good things about it. But as far as routers go I normally defer to: www.smallnetbuilder.com hands down best place on the web for router info

 

[BeenDue]

Thanks Sentential.

I know its a coincidence but I'm actually using a DIR-655 for my cable connection. Thus far, I thought I had a pretty good router but you've proven me wrong! The router that I'm having issues with and the reason why I started this thread is a DIR-625.
Is the router you've been meaning to check out happen to be the Asus RT-N56U? I googled DIR-655 unresponsive WAN port and most of the first page results were about that particular Asus router.
I'm going to be stubborn and try setting up my DIR-625 as a WAP one more time. When I plug in the ethernet cable directly into my computer I get assigned an IP of 172.16.2.xxx with the xxx usually being a lower number. Does that mean I can assign the router an IP of something like 172.16.2.222? When I disabled DHCP before I assigned the router an IP of 172.16.254.xxx so I'm wondering if this could be part of the reason why I can't get consistency.
In the meantime, I'll definitely check out www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Thanks again.

 

[Sentential]

Thanks Sentential.

I know its a coincidence but I'm actually using a DIR-655 for my cable connection. Thus far, I thought I had a pretty good router but you've proven me wrong! The router that I'm having issues with and the reason why I started this thread is a DIR-625.
Is the router you've been meaning to check out happen to be the Asus RT-N56U? I googled DIR-655 unresponsive WAN port and most of the first page results were about that particular Asus router.
I'm going to be stubborn and try setting up my DIR-625 as a WAP one more time. When I plug in the ethernet cable directly into my computer I get assigned an IP of 172.16.2.xxx with the xxx usually being a lower number. Does that mean I can assign the router an IP of something like 172.16.2.222? When I disabled DHCP before I assigned the router an IP of 172.16.254.xxx so I'm wondering if this could be part of the reason why I can't get consistency.
In the meantime, I'll definitely check out www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Thanks again.

As for the issue im talking about see here:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=11321.0

As for using the Dlink as a WAP I dont know if that is going to solve the issue or not, frankly I'd dump it for one of the newer linksys routers or that asus and see where that goes. If you're going to use a WAP id look at something that is 1000mw like an alfa, amped wireless or ubiquiti based. As for the Asus router that was indeed the one I was referencing: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...-dual-band-gigabit-wireless-n-router-reviewed





These are arguably your best 3 routers in a performance test from the website listed above and this is how the Asus fares

 

[Sentential]

Oh and also I want to bring this up; despite how ghetto it sounds if you're having issues with range try using some kind of aluminum dish. Right now I have my wireless adapter configured for my ghetteno which consists of my USB stand hotglued to a pie tin with a hole cut in the center pointed to my router in the other room.

As sad as it sounds it works wonderfully well; better than the wap repeater I installed ironically enough. Might want to give that a try.