Solved Server - my own Wireless network

[derChronostat]

Internet Connection Sharing via WiFi Router

Edit: I changed the title to a more appropriate one

Hi,
I hope i can properly explain my plan. Unfortunately my network skills are abyssmal. I have a pc with all my files and this pc receives its internet connection throigh a small usb wifi dongle. The accesspoint i connect to belongs to the owner of the house i live in. I would like to use this pc as file server and internet connection for my laptop and other wireless devices. So instead of connecting the laptop to the aformentioned AP i connect to my pc via my own AP and get both internet connectivity and access to my files. Is that possible?
Its a p8z68-v pro gen3 mobo with gigabit ethernet and i have tplink wireless n router which i intended to use as "my AP". Is it possible to bring both the internet which comes from the usb dongle and my files to the tplink router which then broadcasts it to my laptop? Otherwise i would not know how to connect my laptop to both the AP of the house owner and to my fileserver.
Help is really welcome

Chris

 

[Digital Life]

If you follow this tutorial while your wifi is connected to the net follow this totorial
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/76617-internet-connection-sharing-enable.html

But substitute the way the tut says pick your Wifi connection and share that with your lan card.

I do this with my wifi and connect my computers and another wifi router with a 8 port network switch. The only part where you will have to do some digging is finding out how to turn your router into a access point. The only reason I use a network switch ( sometimes called a dumb router ) is because all my lan cards are gigabit and my wifi router is 100 megabits also the other benefit of a network switch is there is no configuration needed just plug everything in and it works. If you get your laptop connected with no problems we can tackle your access point later

Just to clarify connect your laptop to the PC with a lan cable no need to get special cable Gigabit lans should auto sense what type of cable it is

 

[PeaB4YouGo]

Understand that the above advice may just get you kicked out of your place. It may cause your ISP to shut down your landlord. Finally, it may be illegal.

Just sayin'...

 

[derChronostat]

Understand that the above advice may just get you kicked out of your place. It may cause your ISP to shut down your landlord. Finally, it may be illegal.

Just sayin'...

Why could that happen?

 

[derChronostat]

But substitute the way the tut says pick your Wifi connection and share that with your lan card.

I followed your advice and I found the setting "Sharing". Unfortunately I have the problem that either the wireless connection OR the connection to the router works, but not both. No clue yet whats going on...

 

[PeaB4YouGo]

Understand that the above advice may just get you kicked out of your place. It may cause your ISP to shut down your landlord. Finally, it may be illegal.

Just sayin'...

Why could that happen?

Okay, let's say you're an ISP. Do you want the guy paying for simple home service to share with the entire apartment bldg, (trailer park, duplex, etc...) making it impossible to sell your service to the rest of the premises? No, you would want to sell to everyone in the bldg.

I only mention the first part in case you haven't let your landlord know that you're taking his service.

 

[derChronostat]

Dont worry. This is an official thing. The owner has to offer this service to all apartments because in this type of apratment there is no other way to distribute an internet connection and OF COURSE the ISP supplies this type of packages.

 

[derChronostat]

Hi,
i kept on trying, read some tuts and thats the current status:
I connected the wifi router (port LAN1) to the lanport on my pc. And the USB wifi dongle is connected to the internet. As soon as the wifi router is connected to the pc I cannot access the internet anymore although wifi connection is still there. But I can access the router through its standard ip (192.168.1.1).
As soon as I enable ICS on my wifi dongle while the wifi router is still connected I can access the internet, the lan port on my pc automatically obtains a fixed ip as it should but I cannot access my router anymore. No ping no nothing but I still can see it in the window showing the available wireless connections. So I connected to the wifi router and let windows setup the connection with the key and everything. That worked but is useless since the new connection is another wifi connection with an SSID resulting in my usb dongle connecting to the wifi router via wifi. BUT I can access the router which is still not much of a help.
I know its a mess, I am a total noob to networks; maybe someone can make a sense out of this.

Edit: so if I get it right my PC-lan port is not able or willing to communicate with the wifi router lan port. Is windows blocking anything?

Edit 2: just in case it is of importance - the wireless internet connection is a separate network (homenetwork) and the LAN is a separate one (non identified network - public network)

 

[Digital Life]

Try changing your router ip

router=  192.168.137.2
subnet= 255.255.255.0
gateway= 192.168.137.1
 
dns= 8.8.8.8
         8.8.4.4

If I were you I would stop playing with the router for the moment and just hook your laptop straight to the lan port on the computer and get that working, If you have to change the settings on the laptop change them to static and give the laptop an ip of

192.168.137.100
subnet= 255.255.255.0
gateway= 192.168.137.1
 
dns= 8.8.8.8
         8.8.4.4

Once you know that it working properly we can figure out what router you have and then go from there

 

[derChronostat]

Thanks for your reply.
Ok, just for understanding because there are tuts that state that the ethernet cable (from the pc to the router) has to be hooked up to the wan port and some that say hook it up to the lan port of the router. But the settings you wrote are the ones for the WAN and I also thought that the ethernet port of the pc "acts as if it is an ISP Modem" making it more logic to me to connect to the WAN.
I did the changes to the router ip and when I share my internet I cannot access the router again but I can ping the new WAN-ip. I will try several things. I have to wait for my laptop to try the things out but I thought I need a crossover cable for direct connection of two computers (which i dont have)...

 

[derChronostat]

Actually I could have tested that before
It works. As I understood I connected the wan port to the pc ethernet, had all the settings as you wrote (except the primary DNS - there I took the ip showing up in the usb wifi dongle settings I got from the ipconfig request) and tested wifi over the router with my phone. It works perfectly. Thanks a lot for your help and advice - lesson learned - the routers wan and the pc ethernet port have to be in the same address range.
Now I just have to figure out how to share my drives...

Edit:
the LAN connection (to my own router) has to be in the homenetwork to be able to access shared drives on the pc over the router, right?
The problem is that the lan connection auto-set itself to public network and i cannot change that.
I have a proper user account with password in Windows (as far as i know thats necessary to be able to access data over the network)

 

[Digital Life]

Your best bet is to leave it as a private network since more people are using the internet connection than you, As for connecting it to the WAN port I have never had any luck that way I have always used the lan ports on the router but hey if it works keep it that way and never touch it again, As for setting up your home network there are lots of tutorials on this site just use the custom Google search at the top right of this page, if you find one written by Brink I would start there

Oh and yes you can share folders over a private network you may have to set a password up for it but once you connect it will remember your password

I did a quick search of the site and hopefully this will help with shared folders
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/44464-homegroup-change-file-folder-sharing-settings.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/24232-sharing-permissions.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/185429-password-protected-sharing-turn-off-windows-7-a.html

 

[derChronostat]

Ok, found a tut and solved the problem how to access my files - its in german so the link wont make too much sense.
in gpedit.msc I changed the settings for unknown networks to workplace. That was it.
I used ES file explorer for Android on my phone to test file access and streaming. Everything fine. It just worries me that I can see and access the following folders:
Admin$
C$
D
D$
IPC$
Users
whereas only D and Users is set to allow sharing. The Computer Management Console (Shared Folders) which shows the same list of drives/folders as the android app, says about the $-signed drives that sharing is set only for administrative purposes. Ok but I still can access them, so can everybody else who can manage to access my network

I am writing this so maybe somebody has some knowledge to share AND for the sake of completeness if somebody else is facing same/similar problems...

but it would be good to be able to change the title to a clearer one

 

[derChronostat]

Your best bet is to leave it as a private network since more people are using the internet connection than you, As for connecting it to the WAN port I have never had any luck that way I have always used the lan ports on the router but hey if it works keep it that way and never touch it again, As for setting up your home network there are lots of tutorials on this site just use the custom Google search at the top right of this page, if you find one written by Brink I would start there

Oh and yes you can share folders over a private network you may have to set a password up for it but once you connect it will remember your password

I did a quick search of the site and hopefully this will help with shared folders
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/44464-homegroup-change-file-folder-sharing-settings.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/24232-sharing-permissions.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/185429-password-protected-sharing-turn-off-windows-7-a.html

oh, it seems we had an overlap. I just posted my massage and saw that you replied as well. I will have a look at the links since now things are working too good

 

[Digital Life]

I would leave it set to private network also I read that you are using Android to test your connection if you want to find out more about your connection from android I would suggest going to the play store and search for fing its a great program to tell you some of the hidden stuff and who else or what else is connected to your wifi, with fing I would check the wifi that you are getting the internet from and if you see all your neighbours computers I would start to look into getting a good firewall to block them from getting into yours. I would also install softperfect network scanner on your pc for more info on your connection

 

[derChronostat]

I think I am pretty secure. Router FW up to date, Transmission power is low (20 meters radius connection, roughly), I have the router firewall and the windows firewall plus I solved the issue with the accessible drives by setting up a standard user account with a good password in windows and accessing my files over that account instead of my admin account. Drives are still visible but not accessible anymore.
Regarding fing - I installed it and scanned while logged to my own router/AP. Just found the router IP and my phone IP. When I accessed directly to the AP of my landlord I see 13 connections whereas 9 are not my own devices.
Without becoming hyperparanoid - is it necessary to improve my security regarding my own AP?

 

[Digital Life]

Regarding fing - I installed it and scanned while logged to my own router/AP. Just found the router IP and my phone IP. When I accessed directly to the AP of my landlord I see 13 connections whereas 9 are not my own devices.
Without becoming hyperparanoid - is it necessary to improve my security regarding my own AP?

Another good reason to keep everything setup as private network I would also go into your PC's Wifi card properties and disable file sharing, you will still be able to share folders on the Lan card. You never know when someone in your building might hear about Kali Linux or Backtrack and get interested in pen testing. The only solution for your landlord would be to spend money he either does not have or unwilling to part with and just terminate the connection. I would research some firewalls and pick the best one for you, the one that comes with windows is not adequate and the firewall that is in your router will not protect your PC. If you like to play around with routers you might want to look into a router that can run dd-wrt and use that to connect to the building wifi

Next time you use fing while on the Landlords connection press on your ip and scan for open ports and try to find ways to close as many as you can

 

[derChronostat]

Next time you use fing while on the Landlords connection press on your ip and scan for open ports and try to find ways to close as many as you can

I checked my pcs IP (afaiu the ip my usb dongle receives from my landlords AP) and see 4 ports open. No clue if I can close some of them. I have to figure that out and figure out how to do it.
My own router/AP has 3 ports open. 80 ok, i might sacrifice upnp and btx.

 

[derChronostat]

If you like to play around with routers you might want to look into a router that can run dd-wrt and use that to connect to the building wifi

can

Yoir suggestion brought me to the question whether my tp-link router could be used as "repeater" (i hope i use the term correctly). I mean to receive internet over wifi (from the landlord) and transmitt it to my wireless devices plus having my pc with my data connected to the router lan port so that the wireless devices can also access my data. All that with a single AP/router. The router can be found in my specs.

 

[Digital Life]

Not sure about that You could post your router info to see if someone here knows or go to the dd wrt web site and check if your router meets the requirements