Let's say you just brought home your shiny new laptop, and learned that it has wireless internet access. You want to connect it to your wireless router at home, but aren't able to. In order to get up and surfing with your new toy, you'll need to set up your router to act as a "wireless access point," through which your laptop or other wireless devices can bridge to the internet.

To Configure Your Router as an Access Point

Important: Do not connect the wireless router/access point to your network yet, as it may have the same IP address as the router that's now connected to the Internet.

1. If the wireless router/access point is in the default state with t he Configuration Assistant running, disable it by doing the following:
   • Select Start > Run, and type http://www.routerlogin.com/CA_HiddenPage.htm
   • Then, select Disable Configuration Assistant.
2. If there's a cable on the wireless router/access point WAN port, it needs to be disconnected (permanently).
3. Configure the wireless router/access point with a wired PC, as shown in the figure.
4. Change the IP address of the wireless router/access point.
5. Disable the DHCP server of the wireless router/access point. Only one DHCP server should be used on the network.
6. Connect a LAN port on the wireless router/access point to a LAN port on the router, as shown
7. Configure SSID on wireless router/access point and wireless PCs so that they are the same.

Extra Considerations

1. Be careful not to use duplicate IPs within your network.
2. The DHCP server used by the router that is not the wireless router/access point should not have the IP address of the wireless router/access point in its DHCP range of IP pool (to avoid accidentally giving out a duplicate IP address).
3. If the router that is not wireless router/access point is also wireless, you can:
   • Separate the two devices to the edge of their wireless ranges OR
   • Use different SSIDs.

If the router with Internet access is also wireless, you should configure different wireless channels on each device. Use the non-overlapping wireless channels 1,6, and 11 to avoid wireless interference.

To Configure the Router with Internet Access

Connect to one of the wireless router/access point's LAN Ethernet ports, turn off its DHCP server, and give the wireless router a static IP on your LAN:

1. Connect a PC directly to a LAN port on the wireless router with an Ethernet cable.
2. Power on the wireless router/access point.
3. Reboot the PC.
4. Log in to the wireless router though a browser. (Usually 192.168.1.1, with User Name = admin and Password = password, unless you changed them from the defaults).
5. Go to the LAN IP menu and disable the wireless access point’s DHCP server by unchecking Use router as DHCP server.
6. Select LAN IP, and change the IP to 192.168.1.99.
7. Click Apply to save the settings. You will lose the connection to the wireless router/access point , since its IP changed.
8. Log in to the wireless router/access point with the URL: http://192.168.1.99
9. Connect one of the wireless router's Local (LAN) ports to your existing network.

You're All Set!

• You can now log in to the wireless router/access point at its new address of http://192.168.1.99 and configure wireless features such as WEP and Access Control List
• UPnP, DMZ, Port Forwarding, and Port Triggering are not used on the wireless router/access point, and it doesn't matter how they are configured.

1. Configure the LAN IP address to be within the same subnet as your PCs.
   • Take care not to use an IP address already being used.
   • Limit the number of addresses in the DHCP range and assign an IP address outside of the range to the router you want to use as the Access Point.
2. Disable DHCP on the wireless router/access point.
3. Connect one of the LAN ports on the wireless router/access point to a LAN port on the Router.
4. Configure the SSID and any security settings on the wireless PCs to match the wireless router/access point's SSID and security settings.

a. SSIDs must be the same on all wireless devices. (These are case-sensitive: netGEAR is not the same as NETGEAR.)
b. Tip: Make sure the wireless PCs can connect before configuring WEP, WPA-PSK, or other wireless encryption.

Potential Issues

1. DHCP configuration may not work reliably because the wireless router/access point may not correctly relay DHCP information from the router. Workaround: Use static IPs on the wireless PCs.
2. If your computers use static IPs, make sure the gateway is the IP address of the router connected to the Internet, ie: 192.168.1.1
3. The router’s DHCP server’s IP range may overlap the statically assigned IP address of the wireless router/access point. Workaround: Limit the DHCP range, and set the static IPs outside of the DHCP range.

If you need more information or assistance with your NETGEAR router, take a look at our Setup and Troubleshooting resources on MyOpenRouter.com!