Tricky networking setup help :P

[kappy332]

Hi all! 

 

I've been scouring the internet and finally caved to ask a large community. I have a tricky wifi setup and I cant figure out how to access my WDMycloud NAS drive. 

My desktop is connected to the internet through wifi.  I then share this wifi connection through its ethernet port to a netgear router (which is router mode). The router broadcasts a different SSID and works fine when I connect to it with devices. All the devices connected to the routers SSID see each other and are able to share data. The desktop however can't see devices connected to the routers network and devices connected to the router cannot see the desktop. What I cannot figure out is how to see devices connected to the router either wirelessly or through its lan ports from my desktop. I hope this makes sense. Thanks ahead of time for any help you can offer!! Feel's good to finally be part of the LTT forum!

[Radium_Angel]

22 minutes ago, kappy332 said:

Hi all! 

 

I've been scouring the internet and finally caved to ask a large community. I have a tricky wifi setup and I cant figure out how to access my WDMycloud NAS drive. 

My desktop is connected to the internet through wifi.  I then share this wifi connection through its ethernet port to a netgear router (which is router mode). The router broadcasts a different SSID and works fine when I connect to it with devices. All the devices connected to the routers SSID see each other and are able to share data. The desktop however can't see devices connected to the routers network and devices connected to the router cannot see the desktop. What I cannot figure out is how to see devices connected to the router either wirelessly or through its lan ports from my desktop. I hope this makes sense. Thanks ahead of time for any help you can offer!! Feel's good to finally be part of the LTT forum!

If I understand your post, you are using two different SSIDs?

Why?

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, kappy332 said:

ethernet port to a netgear router (which is router mode)

Thats your problem. Its an issue with NAT and firewall on the router. The router you have connected to your computer Ethernet port is essentially a separate network from the rest of your setup.

[Alex Atkin UK]

As mentioned above, the router is a different network, in fact its probably split twice as the PC will also be performing NAT as you can't simply bridge WiFi like this - its designed for only one client per connection.

 

In that setup you'd really want the router connected directly to the main network, either by ethernet or if using WiFi in WiFi Client mode.  This way you could port forward on the router to the NAS.

Even more ideal though would be a proper WiFi Repeater with a dedicated WiFi adapter for the client (routers than can be flashed with DD-WRT or OpenWRT can do it but they aren't ideal as you'd likely need a USB WiFi adapter for the client part) that connects in WiFi Client AP mode, so avoids NAT altogether, and re-broadcasts the WiFi on a different channel to avoid halving the WiFi speed.

[kappy332]

56 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

As mentioned above, the router is a different network, in fact its probably split twice as the PC will also be performing NAT as you can't simply bridge WiFi like this - its designed for only one client per connection.

 

In that setup you'd really want the router connected directly to the main network, either by ethernet or if using WiFi in WiFi Client mode.  This way you could port forward on the router to the NAS.

Even more ideal though would be a proper WiFi Repeater with a dedicated WiFi adapter for the client (routers than can be flashed with DD-WRT or OpenWRT can do it but they aren't ideal as you'd likely need a USB WiFi adapter for the client part) that connects in WiFi Client AP mode, so avoids NAT altogether, and re-broadcasts the WiFi on a different channel to avoid halving the WiFi speed.

2 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

If I understand your post, you are using two different SSIDs?

Why?

Thanks a lot for the information. Very helpful. I'm currently on university wifi and send its wifi to my router so that I can have some smart home/ networking functionality in my apartment, hence the separate SSIDs. Seem's like I'm out of luck getting the desktop on the same network as the rest of the devices with no access to the client side of things.  

Really appreciate you guys! 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Oh you absolutely can, you'd just need a router that can act as a WiFi Client to connect to the University network then put your desktop on the routers LAN.

[kappy332]

5 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Oh you absolutely can, you'd just need a router that can act as a WiFi Client to connect to the University network then put your desktop on the routers LAN.

Hmm... I did have ddwrt on the router last year... but I remember having issues. The university wifi is WPA 2 enterprise w/ EAP (PEAP) login. Does ddwrt play nice w/ this type of authentication? Maybe I'll give it another shot if i was just setting it up wrong. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I'm not sure, but its worth a try.

 

The biggest caveat if you do get it working is that ideally you want a USB WiFi adapter to connect to the University WiFi so that you get full speed out of the WiFi the router will broadcast, by avoiding broadcasting on the same channel.  Finding DD-WRT compatible adapters can be tricky.

 

The reason is I wouldn't want to share the same adapter for client and AP as it would double your WiFi traffic and I doubt the University would love you for that.

[kappy332]

2 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I'm not sure, but its worth a try.

 

The biggest caveat if you do get it working is that ideally you want a USB WiFi adapter to connect to the University WiFi so that you get full speed out of the WiFi the router will broadcast, by avoiding broadcasting on the same channel.  Finding DD-WRT compatible adapters can be tricky.

 

The reason is I wouldn't want to share the same adapter for client and AP as it would double your WiFi traffic and I doubt the University would love you for that.

Ok, food for thought. I'll keep it in the back of my mind and will maybe tackle it sometime. You've been so helpful!

[Alex Atkin UK]

I've done it a long time ago so apart from the potential WPA2 Enterprise pitfall its certainly doable.