Networking – Configuring network route between two routers on home network

routerwireless-networking

I have a home network – the main router connected to the internet (and has wifi) is a Netopia box. Connected to it is a Linksys router. Everything currently works – I can connect via the wireless network and get to the internet. Machines connected to the Linksys can connect with each other and connect to the internet. Both routers are configured to serve addresses via DHCP (Netopia 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.99), Linksys (192.168.0.1 -> 192.168.0.100).

Here's how they are connected:

Internet <->  Netopia w/wifi (192.168.1.254) <-> Linksys (192.168.0.1)

I decided I really need to allow wireless connections to also communicate with machines behind the Linksys router. Currently the Linksys is configured to obtain an IP address via DHCP.

I thought this would be straightforward.

I configured the Linksys to have a static IP address:

  • IP: 192.168.1.100
  • Mask: 255.255.255.0
  • GW: 192.168.1.254

Then I configured a static route on the Netopia:

  • Network: 192.168.0.0
  • Mask: 255.255.255.0
  • GW: 192.168.1.100

So it should now look like this:

Internet <->  Netopia w/wifi (192.168.1.254) <-> (192.168.1.100) Linksys (192.168.0.1)

I reset both routers. I cannot ping the Netopia (192.168.1.254) from inside the Linksys network, and if I attempt to ping 192.168.0.1 from a wifi connection I get a "Destination host not available" error.

Obviously I'm missing something, but I'm not sure where.

Any ideas on what I'm missing?

Best Answer

Getting a tiny bit confused reading your question, but the one thing that stands out to me is the Netopia's address.

If it has a IP of 192.168.0.0 on subnet 255.255.255.0, it will not be able to resolve a gateway of 192.168.1.100 as it is on a different network. The gateway has to be an address of 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.1.255

To be absolutely honest, it seems to be that you have over-engineered the situation, It would be a lot simpler and straight forward If you put the Netopia box on the same subnet/network and just allow all devices to acquire DHCP addresses from the Linksys box.

If you have now reset one or more and having trouble connecting, unplug everything from one machine and the troubled router then plug it in to a machine via ethernet and if it was reset, you should have no problem getting a DHCP address then applying any settings you want.

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