# Cascading Routers - Disabling NAT?



## musketeer925 (Jan 9, 2012)

Recently I've added a second router to my network. Right now, my entire setup looks like this:









(All connections shown here are wired, didn't include any wireless devices.)

The main router is a Netgear WNDR4000, Wireless N, has address 192.168.1.1.

Router #2 is a Belkin F5D7230-4, Wireless G, has address 192.168.1.3.

Router #3 is a Linksys BEFSX41, has address 192.168.1.2.

I added these routers the other day via this tutorial:

Connecting Additional Routers | Tech Support Forum

What I'm primarily concerned with -- or where the issue was, I suppose -- is Router #2 and PC1. So far all my other computers seem to be working fine. PC1 runs Windows 7 Home 64-bit.

I got it all hooked up and was able to access the internet, but occasionally internet would drop on PC1 and remain fine on the others, which I logically assumed was due to the setup in Router #2. 

Doing some research, I found this tutorial:

Multi Router Network - Configure - Windows 7 Help Forums

It mentioned Disabling the NAT firewall on the secondary router, so I disabled NAT (is disabling NAT different from disabling the NAT firewall?) that on router #2 and so far it seems to have fixed the problem (though the problem was pretty random before, so I'm not sure). 

The problem I have with this, though, is after I disabled NAT, the router's setup page informed me to reconnect via the "default" setting 192.168.2.254 (suspiciously when doing a hard reset of the router the default is actually 192.168.2.1, but okay), which doesn't work, and neither does 192.168.1.3, what I had it set to, and 192.168.2.1, which is what the router would reset to with the hard reset button.

So the internet works on PC1, but I can't access the Router #2's setup page. I attempted to ping Router #2 from PC1 (PC1 is 192.168.1.11):










But from PC2, I just get "Request timed out." for both addresses. PC2 runs Win XP 32-bit.

So my question is, I suppose, is A) am I doing something wrong by disabling NAT and B) if I should disable NAT, is there a way to access my router's settings?

Other Details:
ISP: Time Warner Cable
Broadband type: cable
PC1's anti-Virus: Microsoft Security Essentials
Attached an ipconfig /all for PC1.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Is there a objective you are trying to reach with the above configruration?

3 routers for 5 pcs at home doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If you want us to review a complex setup you need to include the ip plan for all the pcs and routers.


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## musketeer925 (Jan 9, 2012)

My diagram doesn't really reflect the physical organization of what's going on here -- Router #2 is on the 2nd floor to primarily extend the wireless, but I only had one ethernet cable ran to up there, so the PC1 that's up there has to be wired to it, while all the other PCs and the main router are downstairs, and I didn't have enough ports on the main router, thus Router #3. 

I don't really want my setup reviewed in particular, I just included it in case it'd be relevant in answering my question. 

And in case I didn't clarify well (I probably didn't), my real question is whether disabling NAT on the Belkin was the right thing to do, and if it's normal that disabling NAT would make it impossible to access that router's web-based setup page.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

You would use wifi routers to extend wifi by turning them into wifi switchs by only connecting them by their lan port to the first router, assigning them a static ip in the first routers subnet and disabling their dhcp server.

I believe that answers your question about nat and how to access the router for management.


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## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

You shouldn't have to specifically disable NAT if your routers have a bridge mode. All you'd need to do is disable DHCP.

You would connect the WAN port of each additional router to one of the LAN ports on the primary router. Set the WAN connection up as a bridge. Turn off DHCP on both secondary routers. Bridging the WAN port makes it appear to everything attached to your secondary routers as if they are attached to the primary router. The secondary routers will pass DHCP requests across their WAN ports transparently, with no need for NAT.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Number of routers when put into bridge mode can not be accessed/managed since they become just a passthru device from my experience.


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## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

That is true. Bridge mode on some turns off all routing above layer 2.


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