In over my head?????

Ok I know just enough to be dangerous, with that said I'll move on to my problem.

I am try'in to figure out how to get my seperate LAN's to see each other and not hav'in any Luck yet.

Lan01
Router "Linksys befsx41" connected to Internet on WAN port and 3 pcs on lan ports, with a "Linksys wap11" wifi ap on other lan port. The router is DHCP'ing address to all these machines fine, and all is working wonderfully inside LAN01

LAN02
Router "Network everywhere nro41" conected to internet on WAN port by "Linksys wet11" with 2 pc's, a printer, and a NAS "Linksys nslu2". Router is DHCP'ing addresses to everyone inside this Lan also, and everything is working fine inside LAN02 also, LAN02 also HAS internet connectivity, via LAN01 and that is working wonderfully.

My big delima is how to get all resources on both LAN's available to each other. I have tried subnetting both lans, with no luck, I now have them all on same subnet and just DHCP'ing in seperate non overlapping areas so all ip's should be able to see and hear each other on the same broadcast ip.

I have also opened up the "Block WAN requests" setting on router in LAN02 so that it should be seeing broadcasts from LAN01.

I have both routers setup for RIP2, so they should be talking.

I DO NOT have a DNS setup on either LAN, is this part/all of my problem.

Or am I going to have to setup STATIC routes in both routers to make it happen. Tried it once but didn't have any luck with it that way, and I thought thought that was what Dynamic Routing via RIP2 was supposed to handle.

Or am I going to have to VPN from one to the other, seems like overkill since LAN02 is actually already a member of LAN01, at least while I'm parked in the driveway. Maybe someday when I can get this setup working in driveway, I might try VPN'ing via the internet when I am away from home with LAN02.

I have in the past just powered down router on LAN02 and inserted a HUB to make all the connections and then everything worked fine on 1 LAN, I would much rather not have to tear it all down though.

What am I missing?????

Static routes should be your answer. Basically, just set up a static route on each router and they should be talking. I have a similar set up and that is what it took to get them talking. Also, in order to ensure you don't run into problems, make sure each network are different networks. Just use 192.168.1.0 for one and 192.168.2.0 for the other. Otherwise, you are bound to find some odd behaviour. I will work but it is not how it is supposed to work.

Or another simple solution since you only have like 6 PCs would be to configure your HOSTS file (located in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc).

If you were to do this once on all 6 PCs (assuming you use static IPs) then you should be able to ping and see everything just fine (without a working DNS server).

Just a thought!

That would solve the name resolution problem. However, the only way for the two networks to communicate are by adding static routes. Once you can route between networks, then work on the DNS or HOSTS issue. Like GreatOne said though, DNS is overkill for such a small network. Usine the Hosts file is probably the easiest way to set up name resolution.

Ok static routes it is, I will have to go back and renumber Lan01, to get the two back on seperate subnets, since right this minute they are all on one subnet.

When I finish it will look like this

Lan01 172.16.240.0 mask 255.255.255.0 Broadcast172.16.240.255
Router 172.16.240.1
Lan numbered 172.16.240.2 thru 172.16.240.9 reserved for possible static assingment
172.16.240.11 thru 172.16.240.19 used for DHCP for pc's



Lan02 172.16.250.0 mask 255.255.255.0 Broadcast 172.16.250.255
Router 172.16.250.1
Lan 172.16.250.2 thru 172.16.250.9 for static use with printer and NAS
172.16.250.21 thru 172.16.250.29 DHCP for pc's

Now when I setup static route in Router 01
network = 172.16.250.0 default gateway will be 172.16.250.1

and in router 02
network = 172.16.240.0 default gateway 172.16.240.1

OR

Does the route in Router 01 need to reflect the WAN ip on router 02 which would probably need to be staticly assigned 172.16.240.2, since that interface/port on router 02 is currently getting a DHCP address on LAN 01

Ok I'm off to start renumbering. Cross your fingers

I would set up the second router with a static address instead of pulling it from DHCP.

You static routes would look like this:

Router 1
172.16.250.0
255.255.255.0
172.16.240.2 (or whatever address you assign the WAN port on Router 2)

Router 2
172.16.240.0
255.255.255.0
172.16.240.1

That should get you machines talking.