Networking issues

I wonder if you clever guys and gals can come up with a solution to this issue. I have the following setup:-

Modem - Router 1- Router 2 - 4 pcs
- Router1 - Router 3 - 1Pc

Problem. I cannot get the pc's attached to Router 2 and Router 3 to see each other.

Help!

You should only have one router. A router routes traffic between two networks.

Don't use routers....use switches

As the others say ... only use ONE router.

However, on 2, 3 & 4, if you can turn off DHCP and give each ex-router a fixed IP address say xxx.xxx.xxx.12, 13 & 14 whilst setting the DHPc range in the remaining router to xxx.xxx.xxx.32 to 223 you might get a working network. Turing off DHCP normally changes a router into a switch.

Hi had a switch in place of router 1 and had the same issue. Only the throughput was a lot slower. I also need the additional routers as wireless is affected by something in the far end of the house. Even with good quality access, the signal is interrupted. Router III therefore cannot be removed. For throughput the Routers are also much faster than a switch.

So, turning 2 and 3 into switches might do it. I'll give it a try. Thanks.

You need to turn the routers into Wireless Access Points i.e. a switch with wireless. As well as turning off DHCP you should also avoid connecting to the WAN ports - just use the LAN ports.

In reply to a post by herbert1998:

Hi had a switch in place of router 1 and had the same issue. Only the throughput was a lot slower. I also need the additional routers as wireless is affected by something in the far end of the house. Even with good quality access, the signal is interrupted. Router III therefore cannot be removed. For throughput the Routers are also much faster than a switch.

Can you explain why?

In reply to a post by herbert1998:

Hi had a switch in place of router 1 and had the same issue. Only the throughput was a lot slower. I also need the additional routers as wireless is affected by something in the far end of the house. Even with good quality access, the signal is interrupted. Router III therefore cannot be removed. For throughput the Routers are also much faster than a switch.

This makes no sense at all.

It is quite possible to configure "routers" as switches (in the whole "home networking" context), but the fact you are asking questions like you are doing is telling me that this is not a clever idea and you are going to get into a very big troubleshooting and configuration mess.

Don't do it, spend some money and set it up properly.

Apparently throughput is faster with a modern software based switch in a router. I have no idea whether is right or not, nor do I care.

Thanks for the advice and help btw.

The system is currently working fine, all that I can't do is get all the PC's to see one pc that is in a different part of the house..Internet access is quick, download speeds are as good as the provider (by their own admission) can manage, the PC's attached to router 2 all see each other fine and data loss is not a problem.

As such why do I 'need to set the network up properly''?

Can (some) people please give advice rather than facetious, patronising, comments.

Thanks.

Just a thought, but assuming you now have only one DHCP server having converted the other routers to switches, are all the pc's now on the same subnet? If any IP addresses are on a different subnet, then they won't be seen. Make sure that those that can't be seen are not using static IP. Then use ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew from a command prompt to force them to update correctly.
As far as "throughput is faster with a modern software based switch in a router", that sounds like a load of spherical objects and has no basis in fact.

Edited by deleted (Fri 11-Dec-15 22:35:59)

Is this one PC connected by wireless because it may be you have wireless isolation turned on?

Edited by deleted (Fri 11-Dec-15 22:47:11)

Just a thought -
how do you quantify 'can see each other'?
I've had the situation where machines don't show in the display for 'network', but can be accessed by IP address (first level test is to use ping) in the file browser window

I've always used full UNC's (IP addresses can change) to correct problems in the past i.e. \\ComputerName\foldername\filename. I've also found in the past that checking that file and printer sharing was enabled sometimes resolved addressing errors.