Problem daisy chaining Netgear DGND3700v1 as AP

[speuk]

I just cannot get ny old Netgear DGND3700v1 to work as an AP daisy chained to my DG633 router. I have sucessfully done this many times on D-Link, and other routers but for some reason despite using the instructions below which work everytime with my old D-Link router and old Sky router, the Netgear DGDN3700v1 just cannot see the internet. Only the orange light flashes on the lan port. I have tried all 4 ports and also updated the firmware to the latest version. It is connected to Huawei DG633 which has a LAN address of 192.168.1.1 with DCHP starting at 192.168.1.4 so the Netgear has be given a lan address of 192.168.1.2 DCHP NAT and Firewall all disabled, tried setting DNS to 192.168.1.1 which works fine on my D-link router set as an AP and also tried using public DNS addresses. Basic settings changed to "Does not reuire a login" etc.

Any thoughts appreciated?

1. Set up your primary router (the one that is connected to your ADSL) in the desired manner (I am going to assume throughout that it's IP address on your network is 192.168.0.1 and that you have manually chosen appropriate channels (here's how to do this on Mac OS X), check that everything is working and backup the config to your local machine in case you end up with problems.
2. Disable the wireless network(s) on the primary router.  (This is not strictly necessary, especially if you're nervous about changing an already-working config, but it will assist you in testing your new set-up, especially if you opt to use the same SSID(s) on multiple access points).
3. Switch on the secondary router.
4. Reset the secondary router to factory settings using the pin-hole button on the back (hold the pin in the hole and release it once the power indicator stops blinking red).
5. Switch off the wireless networking on your local machine.
6. Establish an ethernet connection from your local machine to one of the LAN ports on the secondary router using a static IP (I suggest 192.168.0.x where x > 2 and is unused elsewhere on the network)
7. Open a browswer and connect to the configuration page on the router at http://192.168.0.1/
8. After choosing to configure the device manually, got to "Advanced" settings and select "LAN Setup"
9. Set a static IP address of 192.168.0.2 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 before clicking "Apply"
10. Browse again to the secondary router's config page, this time using the URL http://192/168.0.2/
11. Go to "Internet Setup" (this is called "Basic Settings if you have a v1 model).  For "Does your Internet connection require a login?" choose "No".  Manually enter the addresses of your DNS servers (I use Open DNS at 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220).  Disable NAT and Firewall.  Choose "Use This MAC Address" retaining the pre-set address.  Click "Apply"
12. Go to "Wireless" settings.  You can choose the same SSID(s) as on your primary router (this will save you having to enter new details into your existing wireless devices, but you might lose some visibility as to which router you are actually connecting to).  Choose channel(s) differing from those chosen by your primary router, set the speed to 300 Mbps (which will enforce WPA2-PSK encryption, and enter your passphrase(s).
13. Remove the ethernet connection between your local machine and the secondary router and revert to your usual network settings.
14. Connect a pre-tested Cat5e cable between LAN ports on your two routers.  (Some people have suggested that you can only daisy-chain into port 4, but I have not encountered any restriction with this).  Do not use the WAN ports.
15. Switch on the wireless networking on your local machine – you should now be able to connect to hosts on your LAN and on the Internet
16. Re-enable the wireless networking on your primary router

[TheEther]

The instructions you followed are missing an important step, which is to disable the DHCP server on the DGND3700.  You mentioned you already did that, but I just wanted to point it out.

Other than that, your setup seems like it should work.  Are your devices getting IP addresses from Huawei?  Can you ping the Huawei's address (i.e. 192.168.1.1)?

[speuk]

Good spot on missing instruction to disable DCHP, they are not my instructions but I had diabled DCHP anyway. Yes can ping 192.168.1.1 fine 4 packets sent and 4 received. It's really odd as I never have a problem using old routers as an AP before. Thanks for your interest.

[TheEther]

Good.  That proves that network connectivity is working.  Are your devices also learning the correct default gateway (192.168.1.1) and DNS server address(es)?  These are key requirements for Internet access.

[speuk]

No I don't think they are. Looking at the routing table the Destination is 192.168.1.0 Mask is 255.255.255.0 and Gatway is 0.0.0.0. I have added a static routing address as above but with gateway as 192.168.1.1 but still no joy.

[TheEther]

Are your devices using DHCP or are they configured with static IP addresses?  If the latter, then you need to manually configure the default gateway and DNS server addresses.

[speuk]

Using DCHP. Whilst I can ping the router at 192.168.1.1 a DNS lookup fails. In the AP I have tried both setting DNS address as 191.168.1.1 which works ok with my D-Link AP and 8.8.8.8 etc. It seems that the Netgear is not finding it's way through the router to the internet.