Direcway, SOHO, hub, wireless router

Hi, all,

We had Direcway installed last week and I've been trying to figure out the network ever since. I'm not a networking person anyway, I'm a programmer and basic computer geek... Anyway!

Config = 2 XP (one home, one pro), 1 2K Pro, connected via hub. All computers to see each other, all the time, for file sharing for accounting home-office. One XP (can't remember if it's home or pro) laptop that was not connected, and one other XP Pro laptop that I liked to have connected but it took too *** long for the network handshaking to figure things out so I stopped trying.

Now we have the Direcway router connected directly into the XP Home box, which is standard installation (what they said, really), and a wireless router for the two laptops to be able to connect. I was able to successfully install the wireless cards into the laptops and fiddle with a little config on the router (SMC, forget the exact model), turned off DHCP and that sort of thing. Address for wireless router is 192.168.2.1, for the Direcway is 192.168.0.1.

Direcway said the network layout is fine, just download a small program from the router/modem and run it on other computers (not direcway one) to configure them to use the one computer as a proxy to connect to Internet. Didn't work.

I have no idea how to hook the wireless router into the wired hub, and I'm iffy about using my Netgear router because then I can't figure out how to get all computers to see each other, they just *don't* see each other.

Sorry if this is all jumbled, but the bottom line is that we want one computer to be the base by which the others connect to direcway, and the others to connect via either hub or router with the wireless hooked into whichever of those we use also.

And to top it all off the internet connection was lost sometime today, as my mother got a DNS Server not found error. Sigh.

Thank you all, very much.

 

Whew!!!

Lets break this thing into smaller pieces.

- give speficic brand & model numbers of the non-PC devices and make sure you are using the correct terms so that the hub isn't really a switch and the direcway device isn't really a modem or something.

- do the 3 PCs hooked to the hub work OK with each other? I.e., can they share files or printers?

- are you locked into the hardware you have now? For instance, could you trade the wireless router for a couple of wireless access points?

 

Yeah, that *was* a lot of info...

I'm writing this from work so I don't have specific on some things, but I'll try.

Hub:
Netgear EN104TP 4 PORT 10 BASE-T Ethernet Hub

Wireless router:
SMC SMC7004VWBR Barricade Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router

Wireless cards:
SMC SMC2335W EZ Connect 2.4GHz/5GHz Universal Wireless Cardbus Adapter

Direcway hardware:
http://www.getdway.com/dw6000.html

Here's a link to my website, with some images:
http://pixelmeow.com/network.htm

The pcs hooked up to the hub *used* to work together. They could share files and printers. Now the computer hooked to direcway isn't available on network.

I just bought the wireless setup last week online, I'd rather stick with it unless I'm totally forced to work out something different and can work an exchange with the website... also got a good deal on them. *without* having to use d-link (spit).

Thanks!

 

I found this http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat and one of the threads http://www.dslreports.com/faq/8507 for professional and this for the consumer http://www.dslreports.com/faq/8504. Apparently if you can put your router in access point mode it works better with the dish hardware.

 

Thanks, Maggie;

I printed those out and will see what I can do with it when I get home tonight. I'll let you know what I get, tomorrow.

 

Okay, results are: everything in the links I've either already tried or didn't work when I did try it. Sigh. I even got on the phone with tech support for Direcway and they said the same thing, to plug the DW into the WAN port for the router and then the other machines into the router, turn everything off and then back on again, but no go. They couldn't help me with the wireless. Got on the phone with SMC's tech support today, who couldn't help me with how to get the wireless to talk to the DW6000. And the business level was a LOT more expensive, IIRC, so we're not looking to go that route.

Sigh. I *still* don't have a network. Any ideas how I can get computers to communicate over the wireless router? Its IP is 192.168.2.1 and everyone is set on dynamic IP. Maybe if I can get the office network up then all I have to do is plug in the internet? I haven't seen anything about "access point mode" on this router, and tech support said this one was not meant for satellite internet. Does that make a difference?

Thanks, everyone.

 

Did you look at this thread? Way beyond my understanding. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,9882234~mode=flat?hilite=DW6000
It looks like if you keep your hub and buy an wireless access point, hook that to a port on your hub, you should be able to have wireless and a wired computer hooked directly to the hub.

I didn't see anything about being able to disable the DHCP Server in the SMC router manual.

 

Thanks, Maggie; I didn't see that one. I'll see what I can do with it tonight when I get home.

One thing I think I'm going to have to do is get a different wireless thingy, the router just may not work. I keep seeing "wireless access point instead of router ", so I've got to see if I can exchange the router I just bought. And I found the way to disable DHCP in the router, by browsing through all the config pages.

Thanks so much for finding this for me...

 

teresa - if you would, please hold off on any hardware trades until maybe tomorrow. I'm in the middle of writing a response with, hopefully, enough how-to things to help you figure out what might be your problem.

It's taking a while since I've always been a wired guy and have to confess I've let the wireless thing sorta sneak up on me. I am now trying to get myself up to speed on all the 802.11 stuff so having to double/triple check what I write to make sure I have it right.

You almost certainly DO NOT want more than one router and the wireless devices can mostly be made to act as a router, a bridge, or other sorts of wireless access point depending on what you need. Like any other computer thing though, the more flexible a device, the more complicated to set up.

 

Okay, with the help of a local network guru, I've finally gotten it working. We have, in order, the satellite cable plugged into the DW6000, which has a cable running from it into the internet port on the Netgear router. The three cabled computers are connected to the regular ports on the Netgear router. The wireless router is connected to a regular port on the Netgear router. The cable connecting the wireless to the Netgear goes into the WAN port on the wireless router.

The IP of the Netgear is 192.168.0.1, the IP of the DW6000 is 192.168.0.3. DHCP is turned OFF on the Netgear because the wireless has no way to "automatically get IP from server ". The IPs of the three wired computers are static, which I set in the properties windows of each network card. The IP of the wireless is 192.168.2.1, and it serves IPs to the two laptops.

I assigned the DNS server address in one computer, and I'm not sure if that made any difference or not. I had issues getting two of the wired computers to "see" the internet, and after putting in the DNS info on one and rebooting, it worked. But, it did NOT work on the other. The other is the only win2k machine, all others are XP (home AND pro).

ALSO: in Internet properties, under Connections, then LAN setup, one wired machine has "automatically detect settings" checked and works. No proxy settings. Direcway's website talks about proxy settings, but that didn't work for me.

WHEW! Finally. I thought you guys should know.

 

They don't make it easy for you do they? I asked my brother but they are still using the older system and he didn't know . Glad you found someone to help you and told us how it turned out.

 

I'm considering putting up a "how-to" page on my website for what I did, including images of the network topology (using boxes and lines, I guess, I don't have Visio [rather, I *do* have it, but don't have the CD key anymore]) and screenshots of the relevant properties pages in Windows. Do you think that's worthwhile, maybe a good pointer for those who come here? IOW, are there enough people out there looking for this to make it worth the effort?

 

After reading the dslreports forum I think it would be a great idea. I guess YAHOO has a forum also. Directway would prefer to sell the business account rather than help the home user get networked.
I have my own little page for myself. Anything I find of interest I put up there. It helped me make sense out of anything that had to do with networking and wireless and sharing. It is just a bunch of notes. I can access from anywhere. But my network links folder is still huge.
I had never even seen a network before I started. I just knew I wanted one.

 

pixelmeow - I think it would be a wonderful idea.

The wireless thing is sort of exploding and any help for folks trying to keep up is great.

Be sure to give us a link to the page.

 

Okay, I'll do it.

Just have to work out some images and I'll post here with a link. I'll need you guys to help me out with wording, so I'm not writing something that's obvious to me but not to anyone else.

Now, off to the other boards to see if I can help or learn there.