I recently ran into an interesting situation when setting up a network for a client of mine. I share this problem and its solution in the hope that someone else facing the same scenario can be of use to you. My client’s network originated from a Comcast router that provided four LAN lines serving two rooms in their office / warehouse. In the main office, I set up a computer that would act as a network server. The computer was connected to the office printer and fax machine. We put the files that should be accessible to the rest of the employees (including those working in the other room) on this computer and I tried to connect everyone to the network.
The office you were installing uses Vonage for its phone lines. We had two Vonage devices daisy-chained from one of the Comcast cable outlets in the room. The Vonage router next in line for the Comcast LAN connection was a Motorola VT2442. Connected to the Motorola VT2442 was a D-Link VWR wireless router. Since most of the computers used in the office are laptops, I had no trouble setting up a network that would allow access from any computer directly connected to either of the two Vonage routers. The problem came into play when we realized that we needed to connect a desk in the adjoining room to our network. By logging into the two Vonage routers, I set them up on the same subnet (192.168.15.x). However, the isolated desk in the next room was receiving an address from the Comcast router that was on a 10.1.10.x subnet.
After searching online for a solution and finding nothing that worked, I called Vonage Technical Support. Congratulations to those guys. This is what we found out.
Probably because I’m not an expert network guru, I didn’t know that you can turn a router into a switch. That’s what had to happen in this situation. Fortunately, the Vonage technical support guy walked me through the following process.
I disconnected the Comcast LAN connection from the WAN port on the Vonage Motorola device and connected it to one of the LAN ports on the same device. Then I took another Ethernet cable and connected it to another LAN port on the Motorola device. I connected the other end to the WAN port of that device. Apparently setting a router in that configuration makes it a switch.
I followed the same pattern on the Vonage D-Link VWR device, connecting one of the remaining LAN ports on the Motorola device to one of the free LAN ports on the D-Link device. After configuring these devices as described, I was able to set up a network based on the subnet perpetuated by the Comcast router (10.1.10.x) and every computer in the office (including the renegade desk in the other room) was able to connect to the devices. resources they needed on our network server.
The moral of this story: If you find that your subnets are not detected, make some changes from your existing routers.