routing or addressing problem?

I'm sorry, I know this will be long, since I have a lot of detail to add to the question, but I think (hope) it will be useful information for others to know the answer. I am a network administrator in training, so I hope you will bear with me if this doesn't make sense or I should know the answer. I have found your site more helpful than anything else I've seen - your easy style and readability have clarified a few things that have been confusing me.
Background: A PTP network for a small business with three locations. In addition to the host computers at each location, Location #1 has a LAN router that has connections to a DSL internet router, and a WAN router connected by nailed 56K to a WAN router at Location #2. Location #2 has the WAN router, a hub, and a fiber connection to Location #3 - location #2 and 3 are seen as one network. Location #3 only has the fiber connection and a hub for the LAN.
The guy that set it all up used the 192.168.111 net address for all the equipment in all locations, and it has a subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and therein may be my problem, I think. I can ping all computers and routers from all locations, but from Locations 2 & 3 I cannot access the internet, just the router.
Question: do you think that changing the IP addressing would fix this problem? When I check the route that things are taking from Locations 2 & 3, it checks out fine clear to the internet router. So I am not sure ......

[ 19 April 2003: Message edited by: elsie ]

Elsie,

If i have correctly understood, you have 3 LAN's connected between each other and they all use the 192.168.111.0 network address with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.

This type of a setup is bound to produce routing problems and is something you need to fix before trying to troubleshoot anything else.

It seems like the person who tried to set this up, thought it would be a good idea to make LAN 1,2 and 3 look like one big LAN together, something quite silly if you consider that in most cases, unnecessary traffic like broadcasts and other garbage will be sent to the rest of the lans.

A more professional and logical approach would be to give each LAN it's own network address e.g 192.168.1.0, 192.168.2.0 and 192.168.3.0 with the 24 bit subnetmask, and by having the routers correctly configured, you are bound not to have any routing problems.

Now, if you asked me personally why networks 2 and 3 can't access the Internet, I would tell you to firstly setup the network correctly and then watch most of your problems magicaly disappear [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Cheers,

Thanks for your help, Chris. I am glad to hear that I was going the right direction. I actually was able to get everything reconfigured and working before I saw your post. I am very pleased, to say the least! this should also clear up a host of smaller problems we've been having with the net, I'm willing to bet. Anyway, thanks for the advice and the great, helpful website.