Stuck installing the OBI in an office network

[Veronica]

Hello and good day. This is my situation:

I need to install an OBI 110 in my sister's office, now in her office she has only got 1 network point which is connected directly to her pc.
What i did was i purchased a cheap router without antenna and set it up without success.

The network they have is 192.168.10.x so i tried configuring the router's ip to 192.168.10.x, tried many different ranges and different things playing around with the router with no go.

So i would like to know is what would you recommend me in this situation. I know that would be ideal to make her have another network point to connect to the obi but i prefer to avoid that as is her office not her business lol. Anyways would an Ethernet hub do the job or perhaps a switch, hopefully not too expensive and that will work without too much tinkering.

Thanks in advance!

- V

[Rick]

First, you may be violating her company's policies by doing this.

If not, the router needs to have DHCP turned off making it an access point.

The OBi may not work if their firewall prevents it.

[Veronica]

The obi works fine is i connect the Ethernet cable directly. I did try every single convination in that router, the thing is that every time i changed it to 192.168.10.x it would automatically change itself to 192.168.24.x don't know why but was always 24 instead of 10.

It is fine with the policies they don't have an it  department right there, they have to call them if there is any problem with the system so it rather take care of that

[Shale]

I did try every single convination in that router, the thing is that every time i changed it to 192.168.10.x it would automatically change itself to 192.168.24.x don't know why but was always 24 instead of 10.

That seems implausible that you tried very combination in the router.

Go  back and follow Rick's post.

[Veronica]

Ill try that tomorrow again then. So the router defaults ip is 192.168.0.1 i need it to be in the 192.168.10.x network what you tell me to do is to just turn off dhcp but the routers ip will remain 192.168.0.1 isn't it?

[Shale]

Don't tell the OBi what IP to use unless you get coordinated by the system admininstrators. Instead go with the default of having DHCP ask the router what IP to use. If you turned off DHCP in the OBi, turn that back on.

Don't have your add-on router provide the answer to the DHCP request; turn that off in the router. Instead let the company's router pass out the IP address.

If you were ordering a part, instead of ordering a router, a simple unmanaged switch would be the box of choice.  However the router will probably work after you get the OBi doing the DHCP request but your add-on router not responding on its own.

[LeoKing]

Yep, try what Rick suggested that is to disable the DHCP server on the router to run it as an AP. A 10/100 switch or a Gigabit switch would be a better choice than a router for her office setup.

Edit: Newegg.com has some good switches at great prices.

[Veronica]

Thank you all i think ill try with a switch as i have done everything possible with the cheap old no antenna router i got plus i dont know how to do this:

Don't have your add-on router provide the answer to the DHCP request; turn that off in the router.

and if the router i got has it.

Will i have to do something to the switch or by just plug it in all the cables should work. Sometimes pressing the reset button trick makes everything work out of the box lol i learned that one twice.

- V

[LeoKing]

I used to travel with 1 of my OBi110's, a cordless phone to connect to the OBi110 and a switch to plug into the Internet port in my hotel room. I plugged both the OBi110 and my laptop to the switch and the switch to the Internet port on the wall and I didn't need to worry about IP's and such.

[Rick]

Thank you all i think ill try with a switch as i have done everything possible with the cheap old no antenna router i got plus i dont know how to do this:

Don't have your add-on router provide the answer to the DHCP request; turn that off in the router.

and if the router i got has it.

Will i have to do something to the switch or by just plug it in all the cables should work. Sometimes pressing the reset button trick makes everything work out of the box lol i learned that one twice.

- V

You don't need to buy anything.  Download the router's manual and read how to disable DHCP.

[LeoKing]

Thank you all i think ill try with a switch as i have done everything possible with the cheap old no antenna router i got plus i dont know how to do this:

Don't have your add-on router provide the answer to the DHCP request; turn that off in the router.

and if the router i got has it.

Will i have to do something to the switch or by just plug it in all the cables should work. Sometimes pressing the reset button trick makes everything work out of the box lol i learned that one twice.

- V

You should be able to turn off the DHCP server on the router and the LAN ports on the router will act like the ports on a dumb (unmanaged) switch. If you tell the make & model of your router, people can tell you how to disable the DHCP server.

[Veronica]

That's what i wanted to hear LeoKing thanks a bunch. ill report back when i install the obi with the switch.

- V

[LeoKing]

Yes, please tell the make/model of the router.

[Veronica]

I know how to disable it. Ill try only that when i get back to my sis office if it doesn't work right away then i'll use the switch anyways it's always good to have one for testing.  

The thing is that i think i was changing the routers ip address and disabling dhcp at the same time but im not sure if i tried only diabling dhcp.

[LeoKing]

That's the reason I said a switch was a better choice than a router for such a setup. A 10/100 switch with 8 ports is often on sale for less than $10 on Newegg and a Gigabit 8 port switch is usually on sale around $20. 5-port switches are much cheaper.