Networking for idiots!

Can anyone talk me through connecting to another computer on my network.

In house is a BT INfinity Router to which is connected lappy (wirelessly 192.168.1.65) and TP-Link Powerline adapter (wired 192.168.1.73)

Connected to the other end of the Powerline adapter is an Asante router and to that another Mac which gets IP address (192.168.123.146).

2nd Mac doesn't show up by Bonjour nor can I connect to it with any of the above addresses.

Is there something 'obvious' that I am missing?

Or is it altogether more complicated?

A

Try setting the other Mac's address in the same range, e.g. 192.168.1.X rather than 192.168.123.X. They may well be different networks as far as your hardware is configured.

Sounds like the Asante router is running a DHCP server handing out IP addresses as well as the HH3. You are only supposed to have one DHCP server on a network, you should disable it on the Asante router.

Yes.

I suppose it may be simplest to manually assign IP addresses to the Asante router and second Mac. E.g. 192.168.1.100 for the router and 192.168.1.101 for the second Mac.

Why two routers anyway?

Surely all that was needed was an ethernet switch instead of the Asante router?

ETA: and that is only if you wanted to connect more than one device at the other end, otherwise the PC could have been connected directly to the home plug unit.

Edited by TheHorseman (Sun 05-Feb-12 13:27:39)

I guess if you've got a spare router you can use it as a switch. But, as this thread shows, you have to be careful how you connect and configure it. With switches the price they are it hardly seems to be worth the effort.

You're not meant to use 2 routers ... however it can work.

What you need to do is turn off DHCP on the second router and set the 2nd routers LAN side IP to within the 192.168.1.0/24 range. The IP must be in the same /24 range and not one that could be given out by DHCP. (or you could let it get an IP from the home hub) Then don't use the internet port (WAN port) but instead connect the Ethernet cable from the powerline adaptor to one of the LAN ports on the 2nd router.

This type of setup works but is not what a router is designed to do.

A 'better' set-up would be to get a powerline adapter with a built in wireless access point.

Because I had it!!!

I had it when I has a separate DSL modem quite some time ago...

Exactly...

The far end of the powerline adapter is in the Garden Office and as well as having a venerable Mac Dual G4, it will also need to connect my work Lappy when working from home. I know that's only 2 machines and even a 4 port switch is overkill.