How to connect two different network segments using a switch and a router?

Question

We have a existing network setup where we have two D-Link switches,connected to each other. IPs are manually assigned in the range of 192.168.0.x on PCs directly and unassigned ones get IP from the switch. We recently added a WiFi router which gets IP address as 192.168.0.2. It has RIP 2M enabled. It allots IP addresses in the range of 192.168.1.x. Problem here is that I can access PCs on 192.168.0.x without any issue but I can't access PCs on 192.168.1.x from those with IPs in the range of 192.168.0.x. Should I enable the static routes or something on the router?

Regards Swapnil

Solution

You have your wifi router connected via the WAN port to the switches. This configuration puts all wifi (and other traffic plugged into the wifi device's LAN ports) to be behind the IP address translation and on a separate subnet.

You want to plug the wifi device into the switches via one of the LAN ports. The WAN port will not be used in this configuration. You also might want to disable the DHCP server since it might conflict with the existing DHCP server on the 192.168.0 network. This way all devices will share the same subnet.

This Reference has some implementation details; it's for 2 wireless routers, but the idea is the same.

Comments

[swap]

I'm using WAN port because I need internet services which I think won't be possible if I use LAN port or am I missing something? Forgot to mention,my switch is connected to the internet and WiFi router gets the same from the switch.

[Digital Chris]

What do you mean internet services? Like what? I am assuming your 192.168.0 hard-wired network had internet access before this?

[swap]

Yes PCs on 192.168.0.x have Internet through the switch which is connected to the modem. So switch treats router as one of the PCs on the net. But, I can access the router with its IP viz. 192.168.0.2 but not the PCs under it.

[Digital Chris]

Right. My answer applies then. Plug it into a LAN port so they're all on the same network segment.

[swap]

I tried it and it worked but the complete solution. Now all PCs are on the same network but, internet isn't accessible for some reason. My question is would router get internet via LAN port?

[Digital Chris]

Not accessible at all? or wirelessly? Did you follow the directions and disable dhcp on the wifi? Default gateway should probably be 192.168.0.1

[swap]

Got it working. It now gets internet via LAN. Manually configured devices on WiFi. Thanks for your help. :)