Unable to connect to slave router, IP address refused to connect

Question

I am having some difficulties trying to log in to my slave D-Link router (DIR-605L). An Ethernet cable is plugged in my laptop to an Ethernet port, as well as another cable connecting the router from another Ethernet port to the master router, leaving the Internet port open (on the slave).

I have tried entering both http://dlinkrouter.local/ and http://dlinkrouter/; I have also tried entering the IP address 192.168.0.1 into a web browser and logging in from there, it didn't work apparently.

I went to the command prompt and entered in

$ ipconfig /all

to find all the relevant IP addresses, they are as follows:

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 20-89-84-20-51-87
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2a01:e35:2ebe:f2c0:b410:7db7:dac8:38d6(Preferred) 
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2a01:e35:2ebe:f2c0:8c44:41f7:5f8d:1565(Preferred) 
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::b410:7db7:dac8:38d6%19(Preferred) 
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.32(Preferred) 
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, 18 August, 2017 15:05:07
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, 19 August, 2017 3:05:07
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::f6ca:e5ff:fe4d:eb3%19
                                       192.168.1.254
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 52464004
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1C-95-5B-F1-20-89-84-20-51-87
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

192.168.1.32 refuses to connect (according to my web browser) and 192.168.1.254 connects me to the master router.

The reason I need to log in to my router is because I want to update the firmware.

Solution

Base on your output, I see that your PC's gateway IP is 192.168.1.254 (the master router). This suggests that your PC is getting its IP from your master router. Your D-link router most likely will not get an IP from the master router because it is not making DHCP request on LAN port.

Internet --- Master Router --+-- (LAN) Slave Router | +-- PC

You can't access slave router because your PC will send traffic to 192.168.0.1 via the master router (the default gateway) which will attempt to send the packet out to the Internet.

If you just want to update the firmware, you can first download the firmware to your PC and then update the d-link router w/o internet. Unplug the D-link router from the master router, your PC should get an IP from your D-link router and you can proceed with firmware upgrade.

Internet --- Master Router +-- (LAN) Slave Router | +-- PC

Alternatively, you can also move the ethernet from master router to your D-link router from LAN port to internet (WAN) port. This will cause the d-link router to request an IP from master router and also assign an IP to your PC (hopefully it is not in the same 192.168.1.0/24 subnet). And then your PC can access internet and login to the D-link router at the same time.

Internet --- Master Router --- (WAN/Internet) Slave Router (LAN) --- PC

Comments

[I say Reinstate Monica]

What happens if you disconnect the two routers from each other, then connect your laptop directly to the "slave" router and try to connect to it then?

[Admin]

I only get my local IP address: 127.0.0.1/8. I apologise if I get my terminology wrong because I'm an absolute dunce when it comes to networking, hence I'm following harrymc's answer because it's the most straightfoward.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

That's OK. Do you know What IP address the slave router should be using...the one you'd use to connect to and manage it?

[Admin]

It should be 192.168.0.1 or be able to connect using the address http://dlinkrouter.local/, according to multiple guides on how to update a DLink router.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

Then with you laptop only connected to the slave router, manually set the laptop's IP to 192.168.0.15 and then try to connect to the slave router. If it doesn't work, then it's not using the address you expect it should be.

[Admin]

Yeah, it's not working. How would I find the correct address though?

[I say Reinstate Monica]

Are you ok with resetting it? That be option #1. If that's not an option, you need an IP address scanner. I use Angry IP scanner.

[Admin]

When I disconnected the slave router from the master, connecting the computer to slave doesn't give me 192.168.0.x, only 127.0.01/8. Adding a static IP address doesn't work either, when I rebooted it didn't change at all.

[harrymc]

The D-Link seems simply not to be working. Try to factory reset it as described here.