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I am visiting a place where there is a Cables connection to the internet via a cable modem. They used to have a standard home wireless router, so I could connect my laptop wirelessly around the apartment. Unfortunately, the router is now broken, and their single PC is connected with a network cable directly to the cable modem.

A friend lent us a Siemens SL2-141 DSL modem/router. It has 4 Ethernet ports and one phone line port (RJ-11). [ note that a standard wireless router has a WAN Ethernet port as well for connection to the LAN or modem ]

So, I tried connecting the cable modem to one of the 4 ports and my PC to a second one, thinking it may function as a hub or switch so my PC "sees" the modem (and internet) via the SL2-141. This did not work.

Additionally, I tried configuring the wireless connection of the router and connect wirelessly (the cable modem still connected to the router), but this did not work too.

Is there a way to configure the SL2-141 as a wireless access point to a LAN?

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  • Does the directly connected PC have WiFi?
    – rtf
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 14:06
  • @r.tanner.f - it is an old DELL laptop w/o integrated WiFi, but there may be a USB to wireless adapter here - Can I turn this slow XP machine into an AP?
    – ysap
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 16:50

4 Answers 4

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I'd been puzzling over how you could get it to work, when I remembered Connectify. If you can get your hands on a wireless USB it should work perfectly for your situation instead of having to deal with that router.

I'm not sure there's a good way to connect the router like that, there's too many variables between the Siemens device and the cable modem. You might be able to connect the cable modem to a LAN port in the router, shut off DHCP in the router, give the router a static IP that's on the same subnet as the modem but not taking the modem's IP, and see if it will route packets appropriately between your computer and the cable modem. If you don't even get DHCP from the cable modem, that's a bad sign. You could try setting a static IP address for your computer and manually assigning the cable modem as the gateway, but it might just ignore your PC if it doesn't go through DHCP first (I know mine does.) The router might get confused too if it's looking for WAN, so setting to bridged mode might help. It all really depends on how the cable modem and router operate, and I'm not sure how much of this is standards based. Might end up being a lot of trial and error...

Connectify though is really easy, but you'll need XP with SP3, and you'll want to run in Ad-hoc mode anyway.

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  • Thanks! I actually found an open WiFi network, probably from one of the neighbors 8-), so I am connected. However, just for curiosity I am now installing the Connectify on the old laptop to see if it really works.
    – ysap
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 19:22
  • ... Yes, it does work very nicely!
    – ysap
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 20:43
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Configuring the SIEMENS router while it is connected to the cable modem is not the culprit. It can be done and the configuration setting is (relatively) easy. However your main problem was the physical cable connection. The router and the modem need to be connected using a 'crossed' ethernet cable, not a 'regular' cable which you have been probably using.

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  • I am doubtful as I used the cables that came with the router and modem. Or, are you suggesting that I should have used the other type of cable?
    – ysap
    Commented Sep 26, 2012 at 19:03
  • Why do they need to be crossover cables? Chances are that he needs to disable DHCP and NAT on the Siemens and configure the AP with proper security. I'm not completely sure this device is capable of it, but it should be able to do it.
    – MaQleod
    Commented Oct 3, 2012 at 0:48
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In case anyone lands here wanting to setup their old Siemens SL2-141 ADSL Rouer as as Wireless AP along with another Router as Gateway follow these steps.

go to https://_routerip/main.html

set gateway to your router

set gateway to your main router gateway

Disable DHCP Server from routerip/main.html Disable DHCP Server from routerip/main.html

save/reboot enter image description here

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To use Nokia Siemens SL2-141 ADSL Rouer as as Wifi Range Extender / Repeater / Wireless Bridge

Check this article:

https://helpa2yz.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-to-use-nokia-siemens-mode-as-wi-fi.html

https://archive.is/wip/R6BNo

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    Welcome to SU. Thank for the information and the steps in the other answer. As this is an extremely old thread, I no longer have the means to validate your solution. Upvoting anyway, as it may help someone.
    – ysap
    Commented Apr 12, 2021 at 19:30

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