New to Wireless, questions

[slhayes]

Yesterday I was here and jimbo1763 was helping me on this thread:

http://discussions.hardwarecentral.c...96#post1047696

I got my wireless router this afternoon and with a little bit of delay it is working now. I got the Cisco Valet M10 router. When I turn on my netbook and the wireless connections show up I see mine, as a secured network, but I see another that is obviously mine that says it is mine with a -guest after the name and it says an unsecured connection. Why does it show up this way?

Plus jimbo1763 said I should disable DCHP, and I can get to the settings and see what is in my attachment.

Should I just disable it in the setup where it says DCHP server:

???

[ua549]

That is the guest network so that your guests can connect and get to the internet, but not your private network. I'm not familiar with your device, but it should have a setting to disable the guest network.

[slhayes]

Okay, thank you for the explanation on guest. On the other issue, I tried to disable DCHP, but lost my connection on my netbook and put it back on at this point.

[jimbo1763]

See is this helps.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wirel...n-access-point

[slhayes]

jimbo,

that looks like an easy guide, but I am having problems determining my LAN settings. I went on the forums for the router I bought and found this:


================


Re: Can Valet be set as an access point only?
[ Edited ]
Options

09-12-2011 04:08 PM - last edited on 09-12-2011 04:09 PM

You can use your M20 as an Access Point connected to a WIRED router using the connections outlined here in this thread.

The ONLY change I would make is for the following...



If you want your WIRELESS and WIRED networks to share resources, you will need to do the following...



1 - Configure Wired router to have a LAN IP address of 10.8.10.1 - Subnet 255.255.0.0.

The 255.255.0.0 effectively tells you WIRED router that your network is a 10.8.xxx.xxx network.

It will see ALL IP combinations under the xxx octets.



2 - Configure Wireless router to have a LAN address of 10.8.20.1 - Subnet 255.255.0.0.

You can either DISABLE DHCP on the WIRELESS router if you want only your WIRED ROUTER

to issue/accept ALL IP addresses,

or enable DHCP on the WIRELESS router to issue/accept WIRELESS IP addresses only.

This will help you differentiate between WIRED and WIRELESS connections.



Wired IP addresses will be 10.8.10.xxx

Wireless IP addresses will be 10.8.20.xxx

(You can shoose whatever IP octets you want to use. Just be consistent between the first two octets.)



With this configuration you can connect an Ethernet cable from the LAN port of the WIRED Router

to the WAN port of the WIRELESS Router.



=============

If I go to Network and Sharing in control panel I see the LAN and when I go to properties I see what is in my attachment. I am at an impass right now.

[jimbo1763]

If you want to change the IP address on either router, suggest that you do that through each router's settings page, which you access through a web browser using the IP address applicable to each one (that can vary). Usually, it is 192.168.0.1-then navigate to the correct section.

[slhayes]

Looks like I never set up a password and user name for the Dynex. I don't know how long I have had it. It seems like we may have replaced one, but at any rate we have only been here less than 6 years, before that we were on Direcway, go ahead and laugh.

[jimbo1763]

You probably have a default user name-something like admin.

And there may not be a password-you might try leaving it blank.

Or vice versa-no user name and admin for password.

[slhayes]

I found the booklet down the basement and it uses admin in both fields. Thanks, I will tinker with it all later this evening.

[DanceMan]

I strongly suggest changing the user name and password. To make it easy for you, put a piece of tape on the bottom of the router and write them on it. You get security but won't have trouble remembering or finding either of them.

[slhayes]

I did change it when it was first set up, but am having second thoughts on what we came up with. I am going to use a password program I have to generate a random password and change that. Your suggestion of using a piece of tape on the bottom is a good idea. I was trying to think how I would store it so I would not forget it. Thanks, I am going to get to the Access Point in the next couple of days, I was trying to print out all my original settings so I would not have a major problem getting back to a usable internet if anything went wrong last night. I was also searching on the internet to understand the advantages of doing it, although I trust you guys out here and really appreciate all the help jimbo has been sending my way. The thing that brings me back to it, is wanting the connection to be as secure as I am capable of making it without creating a headache for myself. I do my banking online and things that so many of us have the internet for.

[jimbo1763]

You will want to secure the wireless signal for when you are using it. If you want to go further, you may actually elect to turn off the wireless when you are not using it-if you use the wireless router as an access point only for the tablet and are not using the tablet, you can do that simply by unplugging the wireless router.

[slhayes]

Thank you jimbo, I like that option. Will I have to plug the cable from the Win 7 back into the wired router then? I won't be able to to try much tonight, but should be able to try tomorrow.

[jimbo1763]

Thank you jimbo, I like that option. Will I have to plug the cable from the Win 7 back into the wired router then? I won't be able to to try much tonight, but should be able to try tomorrow.

Not sure I understand what you are asking.

[slhayes]

I have had a set back when I was doing the conversion. I fell at the bottom of my basement steps and misjudged where I was at, my ankle turned and I fell to the floor. It happened when I went down there to check our computer at the bottom of the steps. Where I was at with the setup was I had changed the ip for the wired router, and tried to change the wireless router. I know the wired router took the changes but the wireless appeared to hang and I never got very far because I also temporarily lost the connection for the wired router. when I tried to enter the numbers for the wired on the web page it could not find it and I turned on another computer and that one did eventually come in, so I went down the basement to see if that one was coming up and was back upstairs momentarily. It dawned on me that the cable from the wired to the wireless needed to be disconnected, did that then went back down to check the basement one and fell. So at this point my computers are all running with the changed ip on the wired router. I should add that I used the numbers I got off the Cisco site that was posted for the Valet M20, mine is a M10, but they were grouped together at the forum I was looking at. I hope I am clear enough, it looks like I may be here for a while and don't know if I should continue or try to go back to the original settings. I have to correct this, I should have said the cable from the computer to the wireless router was still connected when I lost the connection on that computer, and it dawned on me to take the ethernet cable that was in the wireless needed to be moved back to the wired router. I hope this is better.