Windows 7: cannot access router logon screen

This involves a home wireless G network that includes 3 PCs, 2 running XP and one running Windows 7. There are 2 routers connected to each other by cable to extend the range. The problem router is a SMCWBR14-G. The wlan was set up years ago and runs fine and connects all PCs fine to the internet via Cox cable.

My problem is that I cannot access the SMC router's logon screen. When I try to reach 192.168.2.1 with either IE8 or Firefox 3.1.2 on any of my PCs, I get "waiting for response" until finally the connection resets. This happens whether I use a direct cable connection or try wireless and both with the PCs using XP or Windows 7. Ping also times out.

Yet the router works and connects to the internet just fine on all these PCs!

I finally found an old laptop I had not used for years, a Dell Inspiron 8100 running Windows XP and it connects and opens the logon screen even wirelessly just fine. But I need to be able to access the logon screen from another more recent PC.

I've played around with various settings, disabled my firewalls, A/v, etc., all to no effect. I suspect the problem may be that my current PCs use ips of 192.168.1.xx (because of my main router) while the Dell is a 192.168.2.xx and the router is 192.168.2.1

I really do not want to mess around and change with the ips on my current PCs and possibly mess up my current wlan and internet access. Is there a way around this access problem? Can a PC have 2 different ip numbers?

Maybe I am on the wrong track.

Thank you.

Can you ping 192.168.2.1 (SMC router) from a Command Prompt?

Some good info here: Router setup - Two Routers on same network

Basically you assign a fixed IP address to the 2nd router different from but in the range of the first router. Then disable DHCP. Now you should be able to connect to the router using the assigned IP address.

I cannot ping 192.168.2.1 (SMC router). It times out.

Maybe the problem is that the first router (and my modern PCs) are all in the 192.168.1.xx range while the SMC router is 192.168.2.1.

The docs that came with the SMC router said its base is 192.168.2.1 which is why I left it that way. Can one assign a router a different ip than what it comes with (or has built into it?)? Thus making the SMC ip a .1.xx ip?

Thank you for replying.

Just some information that I thought would be helpful in why you might be having this problem
A router's main function is to separate networks
It complicates things when you have two router's, and two different networks, when you don't really need it.

What do you need to extend in your network, wireless or wired connections? (The reason I ask is that there are better devices, to help extend your network besides routers if interested let me know)

To answer your question No, In theory you can but you need to have two NIC cards, such as an wireless and wired connection would work (I say theory because I personally have never tried but I don't see why it would not work?)

But back to the problem, Are you able to ping the router on the 192.168.1.x network?
If so my guess is that a routing protocol needs to be used on both of the of the routers in order to get the login screen of the other router. (Since they are on different networks they need to know about each other)

If you can't find your manual I looked it up and this is what I found for the router you specified
SMC Networks - SUPPORT EN_USA

Now I don't know if your router has this function, but look for something like routing protocol, or RIP version 1 or RIP version 2 or even Dynamic Routing...

You may have to just plug a PC to that router and nothing else to access it, to see if you can find the above settings.

Hope the above information helps,
Ryan

Thank you.

Yes the problem seems to be that I must accidentally have 2 networks set up. That is the way I set it up years ago when I did not know any better. (I still get confused with wlan set ups)

My original purpose was to extend the range of the wireless home network which runs on the router using 192.168.1.1. Special router extension antennas did not help much in extending the range and tho I was aware that you could purchase an access point device for that purpose, I had an old unused SMC router laying around and therefore decided to use it instead. That was long ago and I am working from memory.

Like I said it works fine extending my home wireless network. It is only when I decided to add another PC to the system that i noticed that I could not access the SMC's router's login screen except with that old Dell Inspiron which may have been what I originally used to set it up. I guess I could leave things that way until the Dell dies on me.

FWIW, The basic router that is connected to the Cox cable modem is 192.168.1.1. The "extension" SMC router is connected to that main router by cable and placed in the other end of the house. I can connect to either the network set up by the main router or that of the SMC router and you are correct, they each have a different name and I now realize they are therefore 2 different networks. What is peculiar and what confused me is that even when I am wirelessly connected to the SMC router's network I still cannot connect to then SMC router's logon screen - both wirelessly or by cable, except with the old Dell laptop.

Anyway, because wlan setups always give me grief and do not work for me as their docs say they should, it might be wisest to just leave things as they are until something breaks. If I try to fix things I may no longer have what is now working!

That is totally up to you,
I am glad that you were aware that you could purchase a wireless access point, as that would help boost your wireless signal..

The reason your old dell computer connects to the SMC router is because that computer is in the router's network.. 192.168.2.x and all other computers are not. Therefor when the computer from 192.168.1.x is trying to connect to The 192.168.2.x network the router on the 192.168.1.x does not know that address and drops the information, and if you connected the other computers on the 192.168.2.x network but did not change there IP address you still would not be able to get in because the computer is on a different network, and when the router from 192.168.2.x looks at the information sent from the computer on the 192.168.1.x network it drops the information as the IP address is not address to that router.

Hope that clears some confusion..
Ryan

Hiya pal

One thing you might want to check is that your wireless devices are not both set to dish out DHCP and also that they are in the same range. I had a situation about a month ago where a bloke I know had 2 routers.(he was using the 1 as a wireless extender). He set the main Netgear Router to 192.168.0.1 for his internet access, but he left the Dlink router at its default settings which was 192.168.1.1 and also set to dish out DHCP. So he ended up with 2 laptops on the 1.1 (which couldn't connect) and 1 laptop and 1 pc on the 0.1 that could connect ... took a while to figure it out but we got it sorted in the end

Thank you all for helping clarify things.