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is this possible?

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I am fairly inexeperienced with networking so I don’t yet know much about how it all works. I have successfully set up my home network and it was working well. My modem gave up so QWEST sent a new one. It is Actiontec with wireless built in. My problem is that it has only one ethernet port. I need to have additional ports for the printer and wired computer. I have a Netgear wireless router that I used before I got the new modem. Is it possible to use this router as a hub? If so, how do I go about setting it up?

Topic

Yes, if I undertand….

In reply to is this possible?

If you set up your system as follows:
cable/dsl>>>modem>>>router

Your computers and other network devices would connect to the router. The braodband port on the router would connect to the modem which connects you to the outside world. This is how I am set up at home.

Good luck and have fun!

Deatails would help

In reply to is this possible?

First of all this should in Q & A. That said, A lot of this would
depend on this Actiontec modem. Is it just a modem or my
guess is it has router abilities. If so then there are 2 options. The
easiest would be to connect the netgear WAN port to the
Actiontec LAN port. it has downsides though. This would
actually create a screened sub-network between the two as
follows:

PublicInternet>>Actiontec>>ActiontecSubnet>>Netgear>>Net
GearSubnet

The ActiontecSubnet is where the wireless conections would
come in and the problem is that the NetGearSubnet would be
double firewalled. that is fine untill you need to open ports for
something. So you could change the router out of gateway mode
to router mode.

The second option is to uplink a netgear LAN port to the
Actiontec LAN Port. That would bypass the routing in the
netgear.

razz2

Re: is this possible?

In reply to is this possible?

Connect the WAN (internet) side of your Netgear router to the ehternet port on the Actiontec. You may need to change the Netgear’s ip address — it is probably 192.168.0.1. If that conflicts with your Actiontec, make the Netgear something like 192.168.1.1. Your router documentation should describe how to do this.

Good luck.

Craig Herberg

You could try this also….

In reply to is this possible?

Instead of going with two routers (and probably having multiple problems), why not go as already stated DSL/cable > Actiontec. Use the wireless capability of the modem.

It will cost a little more, but why not put a wireless PCI card in your PC and a USB wireless connector on your printer/PC? These devices have come way down in price and you won’t have all the cables and another router to worry about.

If you’re interested, post back and I’ll help you out.

Wireless is cool, but…

In reply to You could try this also….

Going wireless might not be the best solution for one as inexperienced as this. Yes, it solves some of the routing challenges, but if the wireless portion is not set up and secured correctly, it may create more problems than it solves. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

LAN side ports are a Switch

In reply to is this possible?

The LAN side ports of your Netgear Wireless router are really a switch. Do not use the WAN port.

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