Wireless without a router?

January 16, 2007 6:53 AM

Hooking up wi-fi with DSL.

My father-in-law would like to have wireless internet in their house. The thing is, I'm used to just hooking up routers to a cable modem and letting it fly. However, it sounds like his DSL modem also functions as a router. Would it be acceptable to either hook up another router to that one to use for wireless service, or also, what is a straightforward way to get wireless without a wireless router? (He's running Win XP on his computers).

posted by dial-tone to computers & internet (8 comments total)

You should still be able to use a wireless router with their DSL modem. It likely will use something like PPPoE authentication, which will just require 1 extra step in the setup (input their username/password in the router config). I've set this up very easily with BellSouth DSL and one of the Linksys WRT-54G* models.
posted by jbiz at 7:13 AM on January 16, 2007

The only difference is that you're probably going to have to "tell" the router his DSL ISP username and password. Go to the IP address for the router (192.168.1.1, often) input the default admin password (easily google-able) and while you're in there, why not set a password for it and make it a bit more secure.
posted by k8t at 7:25 AM on January 16, 2007

What is his router make/model? Might be worth providing his ISP too. You may be able to get a wireless modem/router out of them that would save you the trouble. FWIW my Linksys provided by AT&T (nee SBC) works a treat.
posted by NailsTheCat at 7:36 AM on January 16, 2007

Almost any router with wireless functions you purchase will have an option run exclusively as an Access Point. While it seems like a waste money-wise it's much harder to find a pure access point anymore and the prices have dropped such that the difference is tiny if not completely backwards.
posted by phearlez at 8:23 AM on January 16, 2007

Generally, you dont want to plug a router into a router in a home networking environment. You want one device to act as a router which will do dns, dhcp, etc. If he has a wired router you need to invest in a wireless access point that is not also a router or can be configured as such. There are non-routing access points here and here. Some wireless routers have an 'access point' mode. Consult the manufactuer to see which do this.

If the only wireless device you have is a router just disable DHCP on it, set it to auto-config (or give it a static IP), and plug it into the router through one of switch ports (not the WAN port). This way it will pretty much act as a non-routing access point. This generally works.

Good luck!
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:29 AM on January 16, 2007

Search for a way to put his DSL router into "bridging mode". That will disable its router functions so you can use the WiFi router.
posted by dcjd at 9:40 AM on January 16, 2007

If the DSL modem he has is a Speedstream (now Siemens) 5100, you can set it to do PPP on the modem itself and pass the public IP to your router, and it will work just like a cable modem. That particular model can also be set to bridge or to be a router.

Some other models have that option, but I'm not familiar with them.

It doesn't really matter much if you hook the wireless router to the DSL router and let it get an IP address from the DSL router and run the whole network off the new router, unless you have to do port forwarding, in which case the forwarding would have to be configured on both. It's hackish, yes, but it works fine. ;)

Since it was the default I left my SBCAT&T router that way for a while with my Linksys. I only switched it to give the other router the public IP so I could do port forwarding, which the 5100 doesn't support.
posted by wierdo at 10:18 AM on January 16, 2007

If your wifi router and DSL modem don't seem to like each other, beware of conflicts where both want to be at 192.168.1.1. Change the wifi router's IP address to a different subnet (192.168.2.1) and life will be better.
posted by mvd at 7:31 PM on January 16, 2007