Sorry guys, hard to get a concise point about when you're as frustrated and as stoned as I was.
@Mendawen a cheap nic card at like 2 in the morning? When a cheap NIC from walmart (the only place I'd be able to find said peripheral at the time of posting) was what got me into this mess in the first place (original nic is only like 6 months old)
And Moklianne, allow me to clarify. My intention was to use a second wireless router to catch the signal from my primary router (that I didn't have physical access to at the time) and hardwire my PC to the second router-- no physical connection to the original internet router.
All I could find online were instructions on setting up bridges and access points. It took a lot of digging, as well as asking (this is like one of 3 forums I went to) but someone at Tom's Hardware was able to clue me in: What I was attempting to do was called a Client bridge.
Most residential routers don't have this function by default (though I saw mention of flashing the firmware with a hacked copy-- seems like a lot of risk though.) I however got lucky.
Just in case anyone in future forum searches is looking for information of the sort, ill post the steps I took
The first step necessary for me was to change the IP of the secondary Router. In order to do this. I had to disconnect from my wireless network and hardwire the second router to my PC.
Simply by accessing your routers control panel and changing the last part of the Router's IP from .1 to .2 is sufficient and in fact ideal, as it will help avoid conflicts, being that .2xx is out of the range of the .1xx IP established by the primary router.
(Sidenote: typically typing 192.168.1.1 into your browsers web address should direct you to the router control panel, which will bring up a login screen-- your routers manual should list a default user/pass or you may also consult manufacturer websites.)
After establishing separate identities in the network, access the routers wireless settings, or any sort of setup page and look for the option to use the wireless service listed as Client Bridge. If your router does not appear to support client bridge then as far as I know you are out of luck if your intentions are identical to mine.
That being said the same steps can be used to simply boost your wireless signal if that is your intention. Simply by finding the option to enable "AP" or Acess Point instead of Client Bridge.
After selecting the service type, ensure that the Secondary router's Subnet mask matches the primaries. Typically this should be 255.255.255.0
After ensuring subnet masks are identical, find the secondary routers DHCP settings. Disable this entirely.
The last step as I recall was making sure the SSID and the Encyrption type/passphrases are identical.
To be honest I'm beginning to question why I ever went wireless. I was able to get good speeds for downloading via steam, but there were always such constant hiccups.. the smallest fractions of a seconds delay, or moments where the signal would be lost completely. This kind of behavior completely ruined my ability to play any sort of competitive game.. and even though this second router is only wireless g, im still getting better, more consistent download speeds than I ever have.
also: big kudos to Sprinkles of Red 99 for helping me through the initial hiccups
|