Build a LAN with a WNDR3400v2

Thanks Elaine,

It's true, the bridge comes through a "modem' not the router and I can "tether" to my desktop through the S4.

The router is my "access point" through which my other devices can "share" with each other (but not the internet) after WPS.

That"s how I currently understand how it works. I'm looking for a LAN only but to be able to tether to my desktop when needed through the S4. Therein is my internet only "when I need it". My desktop is the only devce that has no internet access (no service at my apartment). The three others have wifi and are portable. 

Do you see issues with my plans for a LAN using the router as an access point?

Thanks William10a,

I am downloading updates for my Polaroid M10 on wifi @ Walmart right now. Any of my portable devices I can do that. My desktop...

NOT so easy, no internet at my apartment. As for a hotspot at home, I can use the S4 "sparingly" as I'm limited to 6Gs on a family plan.

The plan is my sister's. Adding devices to it is not up to me so the S4 has to do for now. The S4 has a data usage counter and as it's an 

AT&T dedicated smartphone, the counter is very accurate. (I do use the S4 for work too, email and Google maps. More bang for my AT&T buck)

I purchased a "heavy duty" power inverter for when I need my security service provider to update and clean my desktop. It will look weird sitting at a public wifi with a desktop updating but it's the only way I can afford to get around the large cost of in home internet.

I don't have the knowledge to access the internet on my own wihout paying someone as a "gatekeeper"! I wish we ALL could!

The project I am investigating is how to set up a LAN at home using my router as the "access point" to be able to "share" my files between my devices at home. I use wifi direct to print from my S4 but that only connects two devices for a short moment.

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FredReed wrote:
That sounds like a great idea. The wifi signals here are on the opposite side of my apartment building and, I'm in a basement apartment. (It couldn't be more wifi or OTA tv signal isolated!!!) How is the range of the setup you're describing?

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The walls and floor stop most of the wifi it will have to be a mix of wired and wifi

Have you look into wifi repeaters or lan over power ?

Wifi may have a better chance cheaper then the Orbi system as you can place them where needed.

Lan over power needs to be on the same breaker panel and apartment buildings may have panels on each floor

A lan cable would work if the wifi repaers supported a backhaul network the max run would be 100meters or about 330 feet for lan cable.

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FredReed wrote:
AH,
It seems we have our thoughts crossed.
What I have is a small apartment. No need to repeat or extend the range of my router. The devices I have will be no more than 25' away.
What I don't have is Internet at my apartment.
The closest public wifi is close to a mile away.
A cardioid or beam antenna outside my building isn't allowed by the owner/management even if it did work at that distance. At this point, I'll work on connecting a LAN here to my devices and set the sharing for just here. Once that's up a working, I can investigate Internet service afterwards.
Thanks for.piqueing mind my mind. I used to talk "skip" on CB years ago so skip wifi sounds interesting.

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 A wifi repeater with a backhaul lan port would allow the repeater to convert the wifi signal into a lan based signal that the router could understand.

As for the wifi depending on if you a unbroken sight of line to the public wifi and the gain of antenna you end up with a computer using a wifi usb adaptor could feed the Internet to the computer and it  via a lan port could feed the Internet signal out to your router via a lan cable if every works just right. The range and speed is hard to tell this crazy answer to free wifi it has many traps and pit falls but the repeater linked via a lan cable to your router should make devices into one lan one repeater should do the job. If you get this set up going please let me know. Please leave private networks alone and go by the ground rules of the public network.

We are trying to reinvent the wheel netgear has a travel extender router here is the link http://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/PR2000.aspx#tab-techspecs this may be the answer a simple plug in devices with a internet lan port and just a lan port 10/100 mb.

You would have public lan connecting to the internet of your phone acting as hotspot device allowing you keep track of your data usage for now, Later on you could make work with a wired lan or wired internet service.

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FredReed wrote:
I'll worry about Internet later. 

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I'll start here, just to warn you that you likely won't be able to get internet working with this router and your hot spot.

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FredReed wrote:
As it stands now, the devices are connected by wifi with no internet. Setting the sharing on each device is confusing as there are 2 Windows
(W7 starter, W10), and two Androids (KitKat 4.4.2,
Marshmallow 6) to set the sharing settings on.
Confusing because each one has a differant looking layout on screen. I'll worry about Internet later. Sharing settings are the important ones right now.

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The devices won't get internet, but they should still each be getting a 192.168.1.x local IP address when they connect to the router.

Before you graduate to sharing, you should first confirm that you have basic connectivity.

Starting with the windows systems - make sure the wifi connection is classified as "private' on the W10 system, and "home" on the W7.  

Try opening a browser in one of the PCs, and entering http://192.168.1.1  Then log into the router's web page, and look for the attached device list. That should give you all four IP addresses (one for each connected device), and you should be able to ping all four from both PCs.

Run CMD on both the Win7 and Win10 machines to try this ping test for each IP address.  You enter

ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

where the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is a placeholder for one of IP addresses..

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FredReed wrote:



What I am confused about is, the "ping" test and "router login", aren't those two functions requiring the use of the internet?

Neither requires the use of the internet.

What you have set up right now is a private network that is isolated from the internet (which is a "network of networks" btw).  But you can still log into the router from your browser, and you should still be able to use ping to check connectivity on your private network.  Everything on the that network will be given an address (called an IP address) from the router.  That allows the router to forward the data to the right destination.  Netgear routers generally use 192.168.1.x addresses ("X" being a number between 1 and 254).  The router itself has a private IP address, and that should be 192.168.1.1.

Home networks are all private (as are most company networks), but usually they are not isolated from the internet. The router manages the private/public connections - similar to the way a human telephone operator would manage phone calls coming into a company (back in the phone extension days).  As far as the router is concerned, your outside internet line is simply broken.  It still will manage local connections (just like a company phone system would allow in-company phone calls even if the public phone lines are down).

So you can think of your devices on your private network as having a local extension that can't be directly dialed from outside, and which can't reach the outside unless the phone lines are up.  That's not 100% technically accurate, but using that framework will be helpful in understanding the basic concept.

Moving on to your S4 - it is also connected to your mobile data network.  So it will actually have two IP addresses - a public address from the mobile provider, and a private one from your router.   That is similar to a phone with two phone numbers.  Both work independently, and (in this case) there's no connection between the two "phone" lines. 

If you open the web browser on either PC, and enter http://192.168.1.1 into the address bar, it should reach the router's web ui.  It will likely want you to go though the setup wizard (but that likely will get stuck because it will detect no internet).  If there's a way to exit the setup wizard (setting up manually) you should take it.  You'll then see all the router management screens, including seeing the list of the devices attached to your private network.

CMD.EXE is built into windows.  You can simply type CMD in the windows search bar (both for win7 and win10) and it will find it.  When you click on it, it will open a black window on the screen.  It is a command line interface, so you'll need to click on the window, and then type commands (like ping).  Windows will execute those commands and you'll see a response also in the CMD window. For instance, 

The C:\>  is the CMD prompt.  That means that CMD is looking at the root of the "C" drive.  Yours should say something like C:/users/username>  The _ after the prompt is the an indicator that CMD is waiting for you to type something (on the prompt line).

I typed ping 10.0.0.1 at the prompt and then pressed enter. CMD ran the ping command which generated the response you see in the window.   Note my router is set up to use 10.0.0.x addresses (another range of private network addresses). 10.0.0.1 happens to be my own router.