Networking – Setting up wireless router without Internet connection

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I've recently purchased a Netgear wireless router and would like to set it up at home to connect my computers via wireless with each other. When I access the wireless router the first time to configure it, it tries to establish an internet connection with the modem first before it allows me to interact with it. I don't have an active internet connection at the moment.

Is there any way that I can still set up my wireless home network?

Additional info:

I did connect to the router via 192.168.1.1 as the manual suggested and via wire. The setup then proceeds to looking for an active internet connection and won't let me do anything else until a connection is found (except for abort. Thank you, Netgear.) I'm on a Windows (7/XP) environment. The router is a Netgear WGR614GR Wireless Cabel/DSL Router.

Best Answer

Most consumer routers1 will function as a DHCP server + switch by default even without an internet connection.

  • Connect a wired ethernet cable from your computer to the router
  • Connect it to the LAN, the ports numbered 1,2,3,4. The WAN port is usually demarcated by color or location.
  • You may want to check if your network card is set to DHCP, Start -> Run -> ncpa.cpl -> right click NIC -> Properties -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> Properties
  • Browse to the router's default page, sometimes http://192.168.1.100, http://192.168.1.1
  • Log in, list of some router default passwords

What is your router model? I assumed a Windows environment; indicate if otherwise.

(1) Cisco's tend to come w/ interfaces down. It would be rare to consider them "consumer" but they're moving in that direction (Valet), so I can't speak for those.

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