Installed new router on LAN, but cannot find it

[scott-2]

My question is not really about Bubba II itself, but about my new LAN/WLAN router. I'm asking here because I know there are some very knowledgeable and friendly people who might have an idea about this. Also the router documentation and website offers no advice to people who configure the router the way that we Bubba owners configure it. So I turn to you.

I bought a LAN/WLAN router (D-Link DIR-655) to replace my old, dying router. My Bubba is configured for "Router / Firewall / Server" mode as described in the manual. I configured my new router to use the static IP address 192.168.10.2 and disabled the DHCP server in the router.

The router is working great. All wired and wireless devices can access the internet. It is all set up just like it was with the old router. Just like described in the Bubba manual.

My problem is this: As soon as I changed the router's configuration, disabling DHCP and assigning a static IP address, I was no longer able to access the router's admin webpage. It is not responding to pings at its new address.

I tried to confirm it's presence using traceroute, with no luck. On my PC:

Code: Select all

C:\>tracert bubba

Tracing route to bubba.localdomain [192.168.10.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  bubba.localdomain [192.168.10.1]

Trace complete.

The router is between my PC and Bubba, so I thought it would be reported as a hop.

I get a similar result when logged into Bubba and running traceroute to my PC.

Then I tried to find it by running nmap on my LAN. It did not appear in the results.

Can anyone suggest how to locate my router on the LAN? Of course I could perform a hard reset on the router, and start over. I have tried this and found that this scenario is repeatable! I've gone through the router setup twice, ending in the same result.

What is going on here?

[GNOE Inc..]

If I understand this right, you have a preparation like this?

Internet modem (Bridge)
|
- WAN port Bubba (automatic IP detection)
- LAN port Bubba (DHCP enabled)
|
- WAN port New DLink Router (static IP address: ?)
- LAN port New Dlink Router (DHCP?)
|
- Your PC (static/automatic ip detection ?)

Can you fill in the blanks (?)

[RandomUsername]

@Scott,

What you're seeing isn't unusual. I'm not sure of the exact technical reason, but it's basically because you've bridged the WAN and LAN ports on your router so in terms of network topology it no longer exists.

My router is the same and so was my previous one.

One you've set your router up is there any desperate need to access it? You might find plugging a PC directly into the router and manually configuring it with an IP address on the same subnet as the router will allow you to access it.

[EDIT]Having a think, the reason for it being inaccessible is this:

Your public IP address was been assigned to the WAN interface on the Bubba because the router has bridged it's LAN and WAN ports. The Bubba is acting as a DHCP server and because the router has a static IP address it won't request an IP from the Bubba. Therefore, the Bubba doesn't know about your router. Although physically the router is connected to the Bubba's WAN port, all the Bubba can see is the public internet because it has a public IP address assigned to it. That makes sense in my head, I hope I've explained it properly.

[scott-2]

Internet modem (Bridge)
|
- WAN port Bubba (automatic IP detection)
- LAN port Bubba (static IP address 192.168.10.1, DHCP server enabled)
|
- WAN port New DLink Router - empty
- LAN port New Dlink Router (static IP address: 192.168.10.2?, DHCP server disabled)
|
- Your PC (DHCP automatic ip detection enabled)

In other words, the Bubba and all PCs on the LAN are plugged into the LAN ports on the router. The WAN port is unused. Maybe this is the problem? Maybe the 4 LAN ports on the router are better described as a "repeater hub" with no IP router logic and no web server included here? Perhaps the static address 192.168.10.2 only applies to the WAN port of the router.

After posting this message I'll plug in Bubba to the router's WAN port and see what happens!

[scott-2]

No luck so far. It seems like it should be possible to plug my PC directly into the WAN port of the router and access the router's admin page. But I haven't been able to get it to work.

For now the Bubba/router LAN is back to functional and I'll give up on accessing the router's admin page. I was interested in tweaking the router's power management options, but it's not urgent.

[GNOE Inc..]

Your configuration could work. The reason you don't see your router as a hub is because your router is not being setup as an hub!

When your computer connects to the INTERNET it is route is from your pc <--> Bubba <--> modem <--> Internet.

Your D-Link router should be accessed by 192.168.10.2. If this is not the case, try to ping it. A reason could be that the bubba assigned the ip address by it's DHCP server (for example to your computer?). Try to assign an IP-address to your D-Link router outside your Bubba DHCP range.
<edit> Or change the Bubba dhcp start range to 192.168.10.3, this should be the easiest.</edit>

If you want your router between the bubba and your computer, try to go from the Bubba LAN-Port to your D-Link router's WAN port, for example like this:

Internet Modem (bridge)
|
Bubba WAN port (automatic IP detection)
Bubba LAN port (Static: 192.168.10.1, DHCP enabled) (option 2: Static: 192.168.10.1, DHCP disabled)
|
DLink router WAN port (automatic IP detection) (option 2: Static: 192.168.10.2)
DLink router LAN port (DHCP enabled at range (for example) 192.168.11.x))
|
Your computer (automatic IP detection) (this wil have an IP-address assigned in the 192.168.11.x -range)

Remember, with this preparation, when forwarding a port you have to do this twice (in the Bubba and D-link router).

[GNOE Inc..]

No luck so far. It seems like it should be possible to plug my PC directly into the WAN port of the router and access the router's admin page. But I haven't been able to get it to work.

?? WAN port? Looks strange to me, because this way the router admin-page would be accessible from the internet when the router is used a 'normal'-router setup.

Another way to access you router is to disconnect everything and only plug your computer to it (LAN) and give your computer a static IP-address within the 192.168.10.X- range. You should being able accessing the router at IP-address 192.168.10.2.