Using Cisco/Linksys WRT54GS2 as repeater

Hi all,

I have a Cisco/Linksys WRT54GS2 router that I've managed to flash with the DD-WRT firmware and allow me to set it up as a wireless repeater bridge. I have a pretty crappy wireless card in my desktop upstairs, so my goal is to use the Linksys router as a wireless access point for upstairs so I can connect my desktop through a normal Ethernet cable to the router and be able to get online. My primary router is a D-Link DIR-615.

So far it's been pretty successful. I managed to get the linksys router setup and talking to my D-Link router, so I can get internet connectivity with my desktop.

The only problem is that port forwarding seems to have gone out the window as soon as I set up this secondary router as a WAP. I'm running IIS services on my desktop, and previously I was able to open the ports to HTTP and FTP services no problem. However, now the ports aren't forwarding now that my desktop is behind the WAP. It won't even forward to computers that are directly connected to the primary router. My only solution is to put my desktop in the DMZ, which I'm a little hesitant about.

Is there any solution to get the ports forwarded from the primary router to behind a WAP? The desktop behind the WAP is getting a dynamic IP from the primary router, so I'm not sure if it's a NAT problem with the WAP or not.

 

I would like to believe that just setting up the same port forwarding rules on the WAP should do the trick. And the IP for the computer being dynamic would only make things more difficult and more prone to issues. I would use static for a seamless connection.

 

I have it setup as a DHCP server, but the "known" computers in my network (all the permanent ones) are reserved static IPs. That way when we have guests they can get on without configuring them a static IP.

I think I've figured out the problem with the linksys and D-Link routers not being able to see each other, it turns out they were not on the same subnet. (It took a few hard reboots to realize this). However, now I'm having a problem where port forwarding is not work, At All.

Pretty much, my network looks like the following:

INTERNET -- D-LINK ROUTER -- LINKSYS ROUTER -- MY DESKTOP PC

and there are various laptops connected wirelessly to the D-Link router. The purpose of the linksys router is to provide a hard-wired connection for my desktop PC that does not have a wireless card. I'm trying to run an HTTP and FTP server over my network, so I'm trying to open ports 80 and 21, and additionally trying to forward port 3389 for Remote Desktop Connection (RDC).

When I forward to a laptop connected directly to the D-Link router, port forwarding for that port fails. When I forward to my desktop PC behind both routers, port forwarding fails. The only way to access the ports from the WAN is to put the computer in the DMZ, and it doesn't matter where the computer is on the network (it can be directly connected to the D-Link or it can be behind the Linksys; it makes no difference it will still work). However, when in the DMZ the computer will not respond to all ports, for example my desktop in the DMZ will respond to port 80 but will not respond to port 21, however I'm not sure if this is a security thing or if something is actually wrong.

Am I doing something wrong or is there some reason why port forwarding is not working?

 

Is this still the case? Because if it is then the issue is not necessarily with the Linksys WAP you set up but the D-Link itself. You tried power cycling your ISPs Modem?

What might you have changed while you were trying to connect the two Routers together? Go over the various Tab settings in the Router (starting with the D-Link), especially the Port Forward section to make sure all looks correct. And was anything changed on the computers recently? Firewall/Anti Virus program possibly blocking the port forwarding connection?

 

Yeah, I've removed the Linksys WAP from the network a couple of times and the D-Link will still not allow any of the ports to be forwarded. I installed a syslog on my computer last night and configured the D-Link to send the syslogs to me. Everytime I try to access a port, I get a bunch of ICMP and TCP packet block warnings from the syslog.

And as far as I know, nothing on the D-Link has changed. I've tried disabling SPI and Endpoint filtering on the router and windows firewall on the computers, but those didn't make a difference. I may just hard reboot the D-Link tonight when I get home and see if that makes a difference.