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My apartment block of 14 apartments share one fiber-optic internect connection. However, I've been having trouble setting up my wifi. I have two routers. 1) A D-link. This works out of the box, but sometimes gets quite slow, 2) An ASUS WL-500g, a better/faster router, but it had real trouble connecting.

I finally got the ASUS to send out internet locally by forcing it to use 192.168.0.* for the LAN addresses (the WAN of my apartment block uses 192.168.1.*. However, after a while, the internet disappears and I can't connect to the internet at all (typing "ping google.com" in the mac terminal just leaves it hanging and no browsers do anything - it is as if the DNS is not working or something).

I am wondering if there is a second router handing out IP addresses in the apartment block? When I plug the ehternet cable directly in my mac via thunderbolt and type "ping 255.255.255.255", I can see that the other computers are 192.168.1.1 (the router handing out IP addresses to the apartment block, I presume), 192.168.1.3 (don't know, but when I go to 192.168.1.3 in a web browser, it is asking me for a user and password, so I assume it is a router), 192.168.1.75 (nothing happens on http 192.168.1.75) 192.168.1.77 (nothing happens on http 192.168.1.77) 192.168.1.85 (me)

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Yes, but this is not an issue for you.

Your router creates a new private network. The only thing you need to be careful for is if the range of your router is the same as the range outside. You mention you already have it set as 192.168.0.x where the building uses 192.168.1.x, so this should not be an issue for you. The DHCP broadcast will not reach your private network.

Another thing you need to be careful with, is the fact that a router creates a private network. Given that you mention you are using 2 routers, if someone connects to one router, they are unlikely to be able to connect to the network in the other unless ports are open. It is possible to setup the 2nd router using a fake WAN ip range, and connect the routers by connecting one of their LAN ports and not through the WAN port. The wifi will still work and the entire router part of the 2nd router is ommitted. Also, make sure you disable DHCP on the 2nd router, and give it a static ip in the same range as the 1st router but outside of the DHCP scope of the first router. (you basically turn the router into an access point with multiple LAN connectors.

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  • The OP says he's changed the DHCP range of his router to be 192.168.0.* and his apartment block dishes out 192.168.1.* ... I'm curious as to how changing it to 192.168.10.* would fix this? I wonder what DNS servers the OP's router WAN connection is using...
    – Kinnectus
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 10:42
  • @BigChris oh, I completely missed that. you're right. I'll edit my answer.
    – LPChip
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 11:33
  • Thanks so much for your answer! I only have one router attached, the other was an old one I wanted to get rid of (too slow). I may have narrowed the problem down in the meantime; the DNS doesn't work locally. When I tell my mac directly to use DNS 8.8.8.8, everything works perfectly. when I told my router to use that DNS, it works for about 30min and then stopped working. It has been working for 24h, but it's annoying to have to manually set the DNS on every single device. Any clues?
    – Superpronker
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 11:09
  • The router behind your router might not have a DNS server. If that's the case, it will not pass through DNS requests. Using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 on your router as DNS server is not a bad idea if things are not working otherwise.
    – LPChip
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 11:17

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