This is the strangest thing I have ever seen...really. I can't access my router options for like the longest time now..for months, and I have been putting it off for later to deal with this, and now it's time, because i gotta secure my wireless net.

I got this belkin wireless/wired router and as you know all routers have their IP address where you can fiddle with the options.

For this one, I can't find it.

I tried Ipconfig in the command prompt and trying the default gateway address IP number will give me a blank page in the browser.

Then I tried several IP addresses, which are usually the default addresses for the routers (192.168.1.0 and similar) , the manual says it's the 192.168.2.1 but that gives me a blank page also. I looked at my connection center in vista and it also gives the same (duh) as the ipconfig command does it's a strange number I'll tell you (77.88.50.1), and it doesn't work either.

Anyone knows what the hell is going on?

Not sure what the problem is, but have you tried connecting to the router using a cat5 cable instead of the wireless connector?

try the following
local area connection
properties
internet protocol

should give you the ip address

pull up command prompt type cmd
then type ping -r 1 and then any website
it should display youre router ip
Route: ###.###.#####

are you connected directly with the router or do you have more then one computer accessing the internet? Do you use a cable phone company that uses and pass through device i.e. Vonage?

If you use Vonage or the like try these steps:

1. disconnect your router from everything.
2. connect your PC to the router (port 1)
3. use the ip address of the router to access it (believe you stated it in your post)
4. access the router security settings for your wireless connectivity and enable.
5. Save and reboot router settings within the router GUI (user interface)
6. replace your router in your network and start with a fresh power on cycle beginning with the modem then phone pass through device (if you use one) then router then your pc's.

If you dont have a cable phone company pass through device all steps are similar just exclude the pass through device.

Good Luck

I too, suggest a cable connection to the router, to rule out the wireless flakiness.

Try a network scanner, such as look@lan. However, if you get the address from ipconfig, then get a blank on it, looks like either you got hacked and someone replaced the index page, or you just need to reset your router.

Check that you're really getting to a default gateway. Look at your hosts file. Check the firewall, actually take it down while you are figuring things out.

Then again, Vista has a horrible networking track record.

I have dealt with Belkin before, and not only it is flaky, it is also not convenient when you need to set up some port ranges to be forwarded.

On a side note, when you crack a wireless connection encryption, the first thing to do is to change the admin password and (sometimes) the router IP address, may-be even a homepage. That is the beauty of everyone going wireless!

thanks guys, it seems like it was something with the router.

Here is my network setup

Internet (cable modem)---- Belkin(1)router ----Belkin (2) ----- Hub
-------------------------------------------|-------------------|------------------|
--------------------------------PC(1)wired----------PC(2)wired---------PC3(only placeholder, nothing connected)


(the lines only there between the pcs-because the forum post would display it wrong)
The reason for all the routers and the hub is, because the connection runs from the basement (location of the cable modem) to 2nd floor.

I had to switch places of the 2 routers , which solved the problem. I hardly use the wireless feature on it, I live with my brother he got a laptop, but even he prefers to just plug in the wire. The hub in the end, is just to have internet on the attic floor, not used often, i just did the wiring for convenience of having internet access for visitors...since there are 2 rooms upstairs.

Belkin (1) is an older router, i barely found anything for it online, while the (2) is brand new and has more security features, so I would say it better serves as the first router on the line directly connected to the cable modem. That's why I switched it to be (1) instead of the middle.

The wireless feature is only used, if friends come around and bring their laptops, but it's WPA secured/password protected.

OK glad it all worked out. But I am curious (if you have your CAT 5 cables running through the walls) why 2 routers? If anything you should only need one router and 1 to 2 HUB(s) Especially if the router is newer it should be able to handle up to 16 connections (at the same time with the assistance of a HUB) but it sounds like you not running anything close to that, but more over your just using those extra 'connections' for convienence and wireless for friends.

What I would do is dump the 2nd router, your network only needs 1. If you worried about losing wireless capabilities in your home then get a Booster/Wireless Amplifier. Install that in the weaker signal areas of your home i.e. one on each floor and/or the opposite side of the house that the wireless router is on.

Honestly I would trash the Belkin products anyway and just stick to Linksys.

But anyway I am getting long winded here lol I was just curious as to why you were using 2 routers in tandem on the same network.

I think (and hope) he is using a second one as a switch. If you did not do it correctly, you will have an IP ranges mismatch. In this situation, all the addresses that you'd suspect to be a default router addresses, will be actually assigned to some computers by DHCP, or lie in a different subnet.

In case that you did not:

To use a second router as a switch (wireless switch, access point), you need to disable all routing functions on it, before connecting it to the first router.

Such as: DHCP, filtering, ports, NAT... Depending on the router different things will be available. Some call it "router" mode, as opposed to "gateway" when it's actually a router.

Except for wireless security.

Here is an article that explains step by step the settings to run a router as a switch:


It seems that a lot of people are having the same problem; they are trying to use two routers in the same LAN. This makes port forwarding very difficult if not impossible and it is not something you want to do. When you have two router's running back to back, your network consists of two differnet Ip address subnets (for example one might be 10.0.0.1 and another might be 192.168.0.1). The point of this guide is to have only one subnet. The easiest solution to this problem is running the second router as a switch/hub/wireless access point. When you do this, your network will only have one subnet and it will be the subnet of your first router. So if your first router has an address of 10.0.0.1, then your whole LAN will be running with 10.0.0.x addresses which are 10.0.0.1 -- 10.0.0.254. It is not too hard to do this and it will help solve some of your port forwarding problems.

**NOTE: If your second router is a Belkin router, then there is a much easier way to accomplish this without using my guide. More information can be found here.

Ok so let’s get started,

Before you do anything be sure that all of your computers are set to "obtain their Ip addresses automatically" (not Static). If you have never set a static Ip address or don't know what a static Ip address is then you are fine.

1. Connect a computer directly to one of the second router’s LAN ports (which is the one you want to change to a hub/switch/wireless access point).

2. Restart the computer that is connected to the second router.

3. Login to the second router from the computer you just restarted.

4. Go to the section where you would change the router’s internal Ip address. Most times it is called: “LAN”. You want to change it to something on the first router's subnet which is not being used by any other device. So for example, if the first router’s Ip address is 192.168.0.1 and the DHCP address pool is 192.168.0.2 -- 192.168.0.50, then you could change the second router’s internal Ip address to 192.168.0.235 (hence outside the DHCP address range and not being used by any other device).

Added August 30, 2006:

The main reason for step #4 is so that you can still access your Wireless router’s configuration settings. So you might ask, why do I need to access the wireless router’s configuration settings if I am going to be doing all of the port forwarding in my first router? Well, the reason is because you might want to change some of the wireless settings that have nothing to do with port forwarding. For example, you might want to change the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) key or you might want to turn off the SID broadcasting. You might also want to change the channel of your wireless network. For whatever reason you might want to access some of the wireless settings even though you are no longer using the routing functions of the device. This is the main reason why step #4 is there.

Now let’s look more closely at what Step #4 actually accomplishes. Before we do that, let’s take a look at what would happen if you just skipped step #4. Ok, so let’s say you ignored Step #4 and now you want to access your wireless router’s configuration page. For this example, we have a DSL modem that is also a router and we also have a second wireless router on our network. The private address of the DSL modem/router is 192.168.1.1 with DHCP address range of 192.168.1.2 – 192.168.1.100. The private address of the wireless router is 192.168.0.1. Ok, so you followed my guide, but left out Step #4. You try to access the Wireless router’s configuration page by opening a web browser and typing 192.168.0.1, but you get a page not found error and now you are wondering how come the configuration page has not shown up. Well the reason is because now your whole LAN is on the 192.168.1.x subnet (the subnet of your DSL modem/router) and the wireless router is on the 192.168.0.x subnet, so any computer on the 192.168.1.x subnet (which is every computer on your network) can’t communication with the router because it is on the 192.168.0.x subnet. So what you have to do it put the second router on the 192.168.1.x subnet. This is what step #4 is all about.

Now that you know the second router has to be on the first router’s subnet there is only one last thing you need to worry about, and that is the DHCP address range. Since another step in this guide is to turn off the DHCP server in the second router, now the first router will be the only one assigning ip addresses to computers on the network. So keeping with the previous example we have the first router’s ip address as 192.168.1.1 and the DHCP range as 192.168.1.2 – 192.168.1.100. So let’s say your LAN has 3 computers on it and they all are being assign ip addresses dynamically by the DHCP server. Most times the DHCP server will assign addresses start with the first in the range, which in our example happens to be 192.168.1.2. So for your three computers they will be:

PC#1: 192.168.1.2
PC#2: 192.168.1.3
PC#3: 192.168.1.4

So let’s get back to choosing an appropriate address for your second router. We already know that it has to be on the same subnet as the first router, but it also should be outside the DHCP address range because we don’t want two addresses on the LAN to have the same IP address, this would cause all sorts of problems. So in our example what if you made the second router’s ip address 192.168.1.3? Well you are in for all sorts of trouble because PC#2 already has that address. So you might be saying to yourself, but can’t I just choose 192.168.1.5 because no computer has that address, right Mark? Wrong, no computer has that address RIGHT NOW, but in two weeks maybe you reboot your computer and the DHCP server decides to assign PC#2 the address 192.168.1.5, now you are in trouble because once again you have two devices on your network with the same IP address. And leads us to why you want to assign the second router an ip address which is outside the DCHP range. In our example the range is 192.168.1.2 – to 192.168.1.100, so any address over 192.168.1.100 would be acceptable. One other thing, Class C subnets only go up to 254 for all practical purposes so in our example you could choose any address from 192.168.1.101 – 192.168.1.254 for you second router.

There is yet one other situation that you need to be aware of, what if the DHCP address range fills the entire subnet. For example, what if the DHCP address range of our example was 192.168.1.2 – 192.168.1.254, then what? Well you then have to change the DHCP address range so that you have some free spots to put your static ip addresses. So if the range was indeed the entire subnet, then I would change it to 192.168.1.2 – 192.168.1.200 or something similar. Then I would have approximately 50 spots left for my static ip devices. I know this was a lot to read, but it is important to understand some of the concepts behind step #4 because it seems to be the hardest step for most people. If you still don’t understand what address to assign your second router, then shoot me a PM or open up a topic and ask first.

P.S. - More information about some of the network topics I talked about can be found here.

5. Now that you are still logged into the router you need to change one more thing. Look for a section called “DHCP”. It might also be under the “LAN” section. It just depends on your router. What you need to do is "disable" the DHCP server or choose "No DHCP".

6. Click Apply or Save to save the changes you just made and you can log out of the router.

7. Shutdown all your computers and routers.



Then plug an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports on the first router to one of the LAN ports on the second router. It should look like this:



Notice the difference is you DON’T plug into the "WAN" port or "internet port" on the second router, instead you are plugging into a LAN port.

8. Turn on the devices in this order:

1. First router

2. Second router

3. Any computers

9. Now all port forwarding will be done in the first router’s configuration page.

10. That’s it, you're all done.

P.S. -- This guide probably looks much more complicated than the process really is because when writing the guide I have to cover all situations. In reality, it is not very hard to convert your router to a Switch/Hub/WAP. Good Luck.



After you converted a router into a Switch/Hub/WAP, that is perfectly normal to see in the second router 0.0.0.0 as the WAN IP address.





Myself, I'd like to emphasize this line from a text above: you DON’T plug into the "WAN" port or "internet port" on the second router, instead you are plugging into a LAN port.

Good luck.

I agree to sticking with linksys, but it costs 20 bucks more, really the price kept me buying the belkin.

And on the other hand, the reason i use 2 routers, is because I had 1 and a hub, and i just bought a second router so i didn't want to give more cash out for a switch or an amplifier, instead i use the old router upstairs as a switch/amplifier/wireless access point.



Thanks nogames39, but the problem is something with the router itself.
I only connected one PC to it (no internet connection to this) and tried to see if i can get an IP address issued by the router .
Instead of getting an IP address, what i got was a message that "Limited Network connectivity" so i do the 'ipconfig' test and the "Default Gateway" comes up empty. I think the router is dying or something is malfunctioning, I don't know, but if Internet connected to it it will forward the connection to the PCs connected to it, acting like a switch or an access point. I tried reseting, restarting , the whole nine yards, but the thing refuses to be router (and yes it is a router, lol) .

That's why I moved my new router to be the main router with the firewall and the connection, since this one was doing this funny thing already.

I have to mention, that my previous internet provider was DSL and their modem was also a router (/wireless/wired/firewall) in one, so i never really cared about having this crap router not working right.

Are you sure you have dhcp turned on the router? Are getting a routable ip address or is a local address?