Link devices between two connected LANs?

[Frankenburger]

I have a Google Mesh network plugged into my Nighthawk router. The Mesh is used for low priority devices, and devices that otherwise would not reach my Nighthawk. Because of this, the devices connected to the Nighthawk doesn't see the devices connected to the Mesh, and vice versa. For example, my PC (wired to the Nighthawk) can't see the printers on the Mesh, and the livingroom TV (connected to the mesh) can't see my media server on the Nighthawk.

 

Unfortunately, when setting up the Mesh, it's defaulting to mesh mode instead of bridge mode, and it won't let me configure it to bridge from the Nighthawk. Hence why I technically have 2 networks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Really, try not to have dual nat, Id probably just get rid of the nighthawk here and only use the google wifi.

[kirashi]

24 minutes ago, Frankenburger said:

I have a Google Mesh network plugged into my Nighthawk router. The Mesh is used for low priority devices, and devices that otherwise would not reach my Nighthawk. Because of this, the devices connected to the Nighthawk doesn't see the devices connected to the Mesh, and vice versa. For example, my PC (wired to the Nighthawk) can't see the printers on the Mesh, and the livingroom TV (connected to the mesh) can't see my media server on the Nighthawk.

 

Unfortunately, when setting up the Mesh, it's defaulting to mesh mode instead of bridge mode, and it won't let me configure it to bridge from the Nighthawk. Hence why I technically have 2 networks.

Factory reset the Google Mesh network and configure it as bridged so it received IP addresses from the Netgear router on the same DHCP subnet, or opt to use only one network. Totally understand why you proly need the Nighthawk router - in fact, the main reason I'm not ready to switch to a Mesh network system myself is because most of them on the market are either a) overpriced, or b) offer extremely limited administration capabilities and/or lack wired ports.

[Frankenburger]

1 minute ago, kirashi said:

Factory reset the Google Mesh network and configure it as bridged so it received IP addresses from the Netgear router on the same DHCP subnet, or opt to use only one network

I tried a factory reset of the mesh earlier, it didn't give me the option to select bridge. It automatically locked me into mesh mode. Also, using just one network isn't an option. The reason why we got the mesh is because we have dead zones.

[Frankenburger]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Really, try not to have dual nat, Id probably just get rid of the nighthawk here and only use the google wifi.

That's not possible. We have 3 systems that require hard wire.

[kirashi]

Just now, Frankenburger said:

That's not possible. We have 3 systems that require hard wire.

If the Google Mesh system has at least one hardwired ethernet port on each of the AP's, you should be able to connect a wired network switch to them to provide more than 1 ethernet jack in places you need wired connections.

[Frankenburger]

4 minutes ago, kirashi said:

If the Google Mesh system has at least one hardwired ethernet port on each of the AP's, you should be able to connect a wired network switch to them to provide more than 1 ethernet jack in places you need wired connections.

Even so, Mesh has a much slower wireless speed than the Nighthawk. I'd rather deal with the inconveniences of having to switch networks as opposed to lowering the network speed.

[Windows7ge]

Which is closer to your modem the Nighthawk or the Google?

 

The solution is to eliminate one router or the other substituting in a switch or pair of switches. It'll eliminate the double NAT and allow everything to talk to one another.

[Frankenburger]

12 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Which is closer to your modem the Nighthawk or the Google?

 

The solution is to eliminate one router or the other substituting in a switch or pair of switches. It'll eliminate the double NAT and allow everything to talk to one another.

So there's no way to configure the DNS or DHCP between the two for their connected devices to communicate?

 

Unfortunately, eliminating either one is not an option. Both the Nighthawk and the Google Mesh are necessary for different reasons. Getting rid of either would be more of an inconvenience than just manually switching networks when necessary.

[Windows7ge]

9 minutes ago, Frankenburger said:

So there's no way to configure the DNS or DHCP between the two for their connected devices to communicate?

 

Unfortunately, eliminating either one is not an option. Both the Nighthawk and the Google Mesh are necessary for different reasons. Getting rid of either would be more of an inconvenience than just manually switching networks when necessary.

DNS/DHCP are not the answers. In fact you want to disable the router all together.

 

Whichever one is further from the Modem network-wise needs to be put into bridged mode. This should allow it to act as an AP/Switch while letting devices connected to it communicate with the other routers devices.

[Frankenburger]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

DNS/DHCP are not the answers. In fact you want to disable the router all together.

 

Whichever one is further from the Modem network-wise needs to be put into bridged mode. This should allow it to act as an AP/Switch while letting devices connected to it communicate with the other routers devices.

They're both right next to the modem. Bridge mode is not available, only mesh mode.

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, Frankenburger said:

They're both right next to the modem. Bridge mode is not available, only mesh mode.

I don't mean physically. I mean virtually.

 

One router is likely broadcasting 192.168.0.0/24 while the other is 192.168.1.0/24 (or 2.0/24). This "further" network is what we want to try to assimilate into the network that is closer to the modem.

 

It is possible you could disable DHCP and plug the source network into a LAN port instead of WAN but that could get messy. It's not ideal. There's no easy hack to get around NAT in this situation other than Bridged Mode and if that's not an option you need a different router. But, if you had to buy new equipment you'd be better off buying a switch and a proper AP so you can extend the wired and wireless network without an extra router getting in the way.

[Frankenburger]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

I don't mean physically. I mean virtually.

 

One router is likely broadcasting 192.168.0.0/24 while the other is 192.168.1.0/24 (or 2.0/24). This "further" network is what we want to try to assimilate into the network that is closer to the modem.

 

It is possible you could disable DHCP and plug the source network into a LAN port instead of WAN but that could get messy. It's not ideal. There's no easy hack to get around NAT in this situation other than Bridged Mode and if that's not an option you need a different router. But, if you had to buy new equipment you'd be better off buying a switch and a proper AP so you can extend the wired and wireless network without an extra router getting in the way.

The way it's currently set up is the modem is wired into the router, and the mesh is wired into the nighthawk.

 

It's really not a big enough deal to go out and buy new equipment. Just looking to see if there's a way to configure the router/mesh settings.

 

The Nighthawk is 192.168.1.1 and the mesh is 192.168.86.1. I've tried manually changing the mesh to match the nighthawk, but that didn't work.

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, Frankenburger said:

The way it's currently set up is the modem is wired into the router, and the mesh is wired into the nighthawk.

 

It's really not a big enough deal to go out and buy new equipment. Just looking to see if there's a way to configure the router/mesh settings.

 

The Nighthawk is 192.168.1.1 and the mesh is 192.168.86.1. I've tried manually changing the mesh to match the nighthawk, but that didn't work.

So Modem -> Nighthawk -> Google Mesh?

 

The answer would be for whichever device is further from the modem to be put into Bridged mode. If it doesn't support it you're SOL unless it has LAN ports and you disable DHCP. But that's kind of a hacky way of going about it and can cause some conflict issues.

 

Yeah you can't. The way the router(s) see that is as an identical network on both network interfaces (both LAN & WAN). In this situation the router doesn't know which way to route the traffic and everything stops working. A kind of poor analogy would be like having two friends with the same name and you want to tell one of them something. If you say their name both are going to respond which causes a conflict and the message doesn't get sent.