Need some help configuring/fixing my wireless setup ; ;

[Atreides]

I've had this setup for a few years now, and it's worked pretty well aside from needing to be reset to factory defaults every once in a while. However recently with power spikes and other stuff it's been acting up, d/cing me and giving me all sorts of connection issues. I know there's a way to cut out some steps (as well as improve my wireless security) and although I'm decently tech-savvy I really need help figuring out exactly what to do.

My setup:

Verizon FiOS comes in through an Actiontech MI424WR wireless modem/router, which is connected via Cat5 to the following:
1) an old mac, was my mom's
2) a D-Link DI-624 wireless router

The DLink wireless router is what I've always used to connect wireless devices in my house to the internet, we used to have cablevision and it was necessary.

The DLink wireless router connects (wirelessly, duh) to 2 DLink DWL-G810 ethernet-to-wireless bridges, one connected via cat5 to my PC (that I play ffxi on), and one connected to my xbox360. I have a macbook as well that connects wireless to the DLink router as well.

The problem is that after I purchased the Dlink router and 2 bridges, I never configured them. They just worked and connected to eachother right out of the box, and after any sort of connection problem (power outage, internet outage), I could just stick a paperclip into the back of each and reset them to factory defaults and they'd work again.

Ideally, what I'd like to be able to do is connect my PC (using the D-Link ethernet-to-wireless bridge) directly to the verizon-provided Actiontec wireless router without having to use the extraneous DLink router. The problem is I don't have any internet configuration options on my PC, it works just like there was a cat5 cable direcly connected to the router (no menu with drop down boxes where I can select a router, etc), as the ethernet-to-wireless bridge is an external box that sits on top of my PC and is hooked into it with a cat5.

Is there any way to make my PC have the option of selecting what I connect to wirelessly through the bridge (buying a wireless card is currently not an option for me) and connecting to the wireless modem from verizon?

Thanks in advance, I'm at my wits end when it comes to d/cs and outages and any help is greatly appreciated.

[Cephius]

I'm a bit confused as to exactly what you're trying to do, but yes, you can configure the wireless router. Each of the bridges is assigned an IP address, if you type that address into your web browser it should prompt for a username and password. The default is usually admin/admin, google the model number if it isn't. From there you can choose what wireless network it connects to. If you don't know what IP the bridge is, log onto your router and look at the DHCP client list, it should be named "new-host" or something like that.

[Atreides]

ya i know what you mean, I'm not sure what the name/IP for my verizon-provided router is though. I'll make a diagram that better explains what I'm trying to do, if it'll help.

I think verizon provided me with information when they installed the modem/router, but I can't find it, I guess I could always call them.

[Cephius]

Your verizon router should be 192.168.1.1, that's the default for most home setups. If not, its likely 192.168.2.1.

If both of those fail, go on your mom's Mac, and see what the default gateway is for the connection. That's your verizon router.
.

[Atreides]

Ok, gonna give it a try later tonight. Here's a pic of what I have currently:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...rlesssetup.png

I basically wanna do away with the light blue box, as it's pretty much unnecessary.

So basically I have to:

1) set a static IP for my PC
2) connect my PC to my bridge's IP address and configure it to connect to the actiontec router

my question is, in case of internet/power outage, will I have to reset my bridge back to factory defaults again? Or should I be able to just go into my configuration settings and reconnect it to that same 192.168.1.1 address? I understand what I'm supposed to do but I kinda get confused when I see multiple numbers and shit.

Also, will I be able to go to that IP address for my bridge from my PC and connect to *any* unpassworded wireless network that it picks up? On my macbook it shows stuff like network name, signal strength etc, I dont know if I'll have that option or if I'll only be able to connect to a specific IP.

[Cephius]

It should be pretty simple really. Disconnect the D-Link router, make sure the Verizon Actiontek router is transmitting a wireless signal, log on to the wireless bridge and connect it to the Actiontek's wireless signal. I think you're just making it out to be harder than it really is.

Yes, you can connect it to any wireless signal that it picks up. You shouldn't need to set a static IP, but I guess you can so it's easy to remember and never changes.

[Atreides]

sweet, thanks, I'll give it a go and let you know how it turns out.

My only question is about my macbook (which ive been connecting wirelessly to the dlink since I know the network is called "default"), I don't see a place under network connect for a specific IP, just a listing of networks by name. I'd like to test connecting to the actiontec first using the macbook, but without a network name I'm not sure how to do this. Should the network name be listed on my mom's pc (the one hooked directly to the actiontec via cat5)?

[Cephius]

The network name should be listed somewhere when you log into the Actiontek router. If you still don't know which one it is, just put the macbook in the same room as the router and the signal with the strongest strength should be the one. I haven't used a Mac for anything except web browsing in the last 10 years, so I really have no clue how to check for names on the Mac OS, but it can't be too hard.

[Atreides]

ok i figured out the previous answer myself, and got the network name, and now I have 2 problems:

1) on my PC, i connected to my DLink bridge's IP address and ran the connection wizard to connect to my actiontec router, and it worked fine. When you're done configuring it reboots the bridge with the new settings and when it does, I can't connect to anything, including the bridge itself's IP address. I just get the page could not be found error.

2) Before doing this I logged into my Actiontec router's IP address (on my mom's cat5-connected mac) and typed in a new password on the verizon screen, now I can't seem to log back in because it's giving me password errors. Every time I try to type a character, it fills in 3 *'s (instead of 1 to represent each hidden/encrypted character for the password), and copypasting the password from a text file doesnt work either. I tried this on my macbook as well and got the same error, not really sure what the problem is.

edit: figured out #2, was a problem with my username not my password. #1 is still happening tho, have no clue what to do ;/

edit: figured out #1, apparently I have to go into my actiontec router and tell it to allow my PC to connect (port forwarding? idk), so hopefully that fixes things. HOWEVER, for whatever reason I can no longer access my bridge's IP address without resetting it to factory defaults, so I'm not sure what to do in case I ever need to change anything. Any ideas on this?

[Atreides]

oh and i realized that when I configured the bridge I neglected to change the SSID name to match that of my network, but when I reset to defaults and tried again with the same SSID name, I get the same error. It seems that after I initially change my bridge's settings to allow it to connect to the actiontec router, I am no longer able to connect to the bridge again. Hmm...

[Cephius]

Were you able to browse the internet on your mom's mac when you were hooked up to the verizon router? You may have to reconfigure it a bit so it assigns IP addresses wirelessly... make sure DHCP client is turned ON on the verizon router. It seems it's not assigning your bridge an IP address which would explain why you have no connectivity to anything.

[Atreides]

yea i can connect to the internet just fine on my mom's mac, and according to my router's info page it's set to DHCP or w/e already. Only thing I see is something about MAC Authentication being disabled, but yea

[Cephius]

Honestly I'd restore it to factory defaults if it's not too much trouble, there's something wierd going on in there and it'll prob be simpler just to start over.

[Atreides]

ill toy around with it a bit later, honestly i'm just pumped it's working. Thanks for all your help!