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TomHe · Jun 13, 2007, 01:37 PM

I hooked up an extra router to extend the CAT5 cable and have a spare connection for a laptop. Internet worked fine but printing stopped working. After further investigation I realized the 2nd router was assigning it's own IP addresses, and since it's gateway is 192.168.2.1 it assigned 192.168.2.7 to the computer. However, the router that the printer is on is 192.168.0.1, so the printing stopped working. I thought maybe I could just convert the router to act like a hub to fix this. After scanning the web it was recommended to turn off DHCP on the 2nd router so that the IP addresses would be assigned by the first router (i.e. assigned 192.168.0.x rather than 192.168.2.x). I tried this and rebooted the computer and it still assigned 192.168.2.7. I checked the 2nd router and it confirmed that DHCP is off but when I ran ipconfig /all from the MS-DOS prompt it showed the 192.168.2.7 IP address and said that DHCP is on. I think I also tried turning off NAT and the firewall on the 2nd router but I don't think that made any difference. What am I doing wrong? Should I be trying something else or do I have to go out and buy a real hub? FYI, I have another real hub hanging off the 1st router that seems to work fine.

cajalat · Jun 13, 2007, 04:57 PM

It would be helpful if you can tell us what the make/model is of your 2nd router that you want to act as a switch. But some general guidelines:

- Make sure that you are NOT using the WAN port on your 2nd Router that you want to act as a switch. Only use the LAN ports.
- Perform an "ipconfig /renew" on your PC to make sure you get a new lease from the DHCP server. After you get an IP address make sure that you got it from the correct device by doing "ipconfig /all" and look for the DHCP server that assigned you the IP. If it is still showing up as the 2nd router then DHCP hasn't been turned off on it.

TomHe · Jun 13, 2007, 07:42 PM

Thanks cajalat, problem solved. Changing the incoming ethernet from the WAN to the LAN port on the router fixed the problem (followed by a computer reboot, of course). Now I can print again. BTW, the 2nd router is a Belkin 4-port. I turned NAT and firewall back on, not that it probably matters in my configuration. Seems like only DHCS needs to be disabled to convert a router to a hub, but you have to remember to not use the WAN port as well. Tom.