Router setup - without broadband connection?

Here's the scenario: I do not have any broadband internet access. My
girlfriend and I access the internet via dial-up through our own
computer's modems (FYI, mine has Windows XP SP2, hers has Windows
2000). We'd like to have high-speed in the future, but right now we
can't afford it. I bought a Dlink Wireless G Router (WBR-1310), hoping
to network both our computers together for file sharing and such.

Here's the problem: the included software with the Dlink router insists
on there being a broadband modem hooked up in order to configure the
router. There's no way around it. Plus, every FAQ I've read on Dlink's
site (and other sites too) does not cover any scenarios like mine, in
which there is no cable/DSL modem. All I'm looking to do at this point
is network our computers, that's it.

Can anybody help me out please?

jwaterfield@gmail.com wrote:
> Here's the scenario: I do not have any broadband internet access. My
> girlfriend and I access the internet via dial-up through our own
> computer's modems (FYI, mine has Windows XP SP2, hers has Windows
> 2000). We'd like to have high-speed in the future, but right now we
> can't afford it. I bought a Dlink Wireless G Router (WBR-1310), hoping
> to network both our computers together for file sharing and such.
>
> Here's the problem: the included software with the Dlink router insists
> on there being a broadband modem hooked up in order to configure the
> router. There's no way around it. Plus, every FAQ I've read on Dlink's
> site (and other sites too) does not cover any scenarios like mine, in
> which there is no cable/DSL modem. All I'm looking to do at this point
> is network our computers, that's it.
>
> Can anybody help me out please?

Look in the PDM manual to find the default IP address and username and
password. You'll get to a set up screen which will allow you to manually
set up the device.

jwaterfield@gmail.com wrote:
> Can anybody help me out please?


Sorry, the user manual in PDF format.

jwaterfield@gmail.com wrote:
> Here's the scenario: I do not have any broadband internet access. My
> girlfriend and I access the internet via dial-up through our own
> computer's modems (FYI, mine has Windows XP SP2, hers has Windows
> 2000). We'd like to have high-speed in the future, but right now we
> can't afford it. I bought a Dlink Wireless G Router (WBR-1310), hoping
> to network both our computers together for file sharing and such.

You could connect the two PCs together in an ad-hoc network without using a
router. You could even share a single dialup connection with the other PC
via ad-hoc.

<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_02april08.mspx>
This refers to one PC having a high speed connection, but that doesn't
matter. You could share a dialup connection.

Now that you have a router, you could ignore the ad-hoc stpes, but use that
page as a guide for sharing a dialup connection.

> Here's the problem: the included software with the Dlink router insists
> on there being a broadband modem hooked up in order to configure the
> router. There's no way around it. Plus, every FAQ I've read on Dlink's
> site (and other sites too) does not cover any scenarios like mine, in
> which there is no cable/DSL modem. All I'm looking to do at this point
> is network our computers, that's it.

Did you try not doing any setup? Each PC should be able to connect via
WiFi, and then file sharing would be strictly a Windows task.

Generally, the "included software" isn't needed.

For a default DLink, open a web browser to http://192.168.0.1 the user name
is admin, the password is blank.
You should set your internet connection to a Static IP address, 192.168.1.1
would be good. That would be different from the default for the local side, and
setting the address prevents the router from looking for an address from
the internet side, which it will never find. The setup does require
something to be selected for internet.

I have run routers with no connection on the "Internet" side.

> Can anybody help me out please?

You could then continue with tasks like changing the password, setting
WiFi access security to WPA2 if your PCs support it, maybe changing the
channel, setting the SSID to something that indicates that this is a
private network, and some other optional items.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

jwaterfield@gmail.com wrote:
> Here's the scenario: I do not have any broadband internet access. My
> girlfriend and I access the internet via dial-up through our own
> computer's modems (FYI, mine has Windows XP SP2, hers has Windows
> 2000). We'd like to have high-speed in the future, but right now we
> can't afford it. I bought a Dlink Wireless G Router (WBR-1310), hoping
> to network both our computers together for file sharing and such.
>
> Here's the problem: the included software with the Dlink router insists
> on there being a broadband modem hooked up in order to configure the
> router. There's no way around it. Plus, every FAQ I've read on Dlink's
> site (and other sites too) does not cover any scenarios like mine, in
> which there is no cable/DSL modem. All I'm looking to do at this point
> is network our computers, that's it.
>
> Can anybody help me out please?
>

The wireless part of the router is doing you no good, so why even be
bothered with it at this time.

If both machines have wire NICS (Network Interface Cards), then just get
some network cable using the RJ45 jack type and plug the machines into
the LAN ports of the router. You don't have to configure the router that
much.

But at this point, you can do a little configuration of the router like
changing the User-Id and password and setting some kind of WAP code on
the wireless side so someone cannot easily join your network on the
wireless side and attack the machines connected by wire, because the
machine are sharing resources.

The sharing of resources with the machine is a piece of cake, because
the sharing of resources is based on the configuration of the Windows
O/S and sharing resources between machines, no matter if it's wire to
wire, wireless to wireless or wire to wireless using the router.

Any personal FW's you're going to need to configure them to open up the
Windows Networking ports or you just disable the PFW, until you figure
out how to open the ports on the PFW for sharing of resources.

You might want to consider hardening the O/S to attack a little bit,
since that can be attacked on the wireless side with the machine being
connected wired or wirelessly.

http://labmice.techtarget.com/articl...ingwin2000.htm
http://labmice.techtarget.com/articl...ychecklist.htm

Also some wireless security, you'll want to look at.
http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/wire...aa112203_2.htm

Sharing of resources between the two O/S(s).
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/

The Windows Networking ports that you'll open to the on the PFW and not
the router. The PFW may have an auto setting to open those ports.

http://www.petri.co.il/what's_port_445_in_w2k_xp_2003.htm

You really don't need the router's cd to do anything, you just go to the
router's admin screen using browser, using the router's Device IP to
access it.

Great, thanks for all the feedback! I'm trying to connect to the router
through my browser and configure it that way, like a few of you
suggested. It hasn't worked yet, but I'll play with the
internet/firewall settings more tomorrow and see what happens. I'll let
y'all know how it goes.

Thanks again!!!

jwaterfield wrote:
> Great, thanks for all the feedback! I'm trying to connect to the router
> through my browser and configure it that way, like a few of you
> suggested. It hasn't worked yet, but I'll play with the
> internet/firewall settings more tomorrow and see what happens. I'll let
> y'all know how it goes.
>
> Thanks again!!!
>

If you're trying to do this with a wireless connection, then you may
have some problems with just making a wireless connection. You should be
using a wire connection on a LAN port to configure the router for
wireless connections with wireless machines.

You should always have a machine that can connect to the wire/wireless
Access Point router that uses a wire connection to the router, as you
can have problems on the wireless side that you may need to trouble
shoot. If you got a problem on the wireless that's preventing a
connection for a wireless machine, then you have to go with a wire
connection.

A FW works in two ways, you can manually open inbound ports on the FW to
allow unsolicited inbound traffic through the FW to the machine.

The case of opening those Windows network ports on the PFW. Traffic from
a machine on the LAN (Local Area Network) can reach another computer on
the LAN that can share resources, with both FW(s) with their respective
ports for networking manually opened or auto opened, a setting on the
PFW configuration, which must be enabled.

The other way a FW works is if any program on the machine behind the FW
sends outbound traffic to a remote machine on the LAN and that other
machine is not blocking the inbound traffic to it, the port is open on
the FW on the remote computer. The machine and its FW that sent the
outbound traffic to the remote machine, its FW will open the inbound
ports automatically for the machine that sent the outbound traffic and
allow the inbound traffic back.

That's called a solicitation for traffic and the FW on the machine will
allow all inbound traffic back to the FW, if a solicitation has been
made by sending out bound traffic. All unsolicited inbound traffic is
blocked.

Allowing unsolicited inbound traffic, which is the case of opening those
ports for the Windows networking between the machines manually, must
done to allow unsolicited through the FW on the ports, because each
machine is not initiating the solicitation for that traffic by sending
outbound traffic and the FW would block that unsolicited inbound traffic
coming to it.

In your case of the machine behind the PFW on the LAN, the FW is not
blocking any traffic either way inbound or outbound, since the browser
on the machine has made the solicitation and the router is sending back
inbound to it.

So the PFW I don't think is the issue, but you can drop it, if you like.
The problem with the PFW will come-up when trying to make the machines
contact each other on the networking if the FW(s) are not configured
properly.

BTW, the router works in the same way as the PFW. Solicited traffic from
a machine that has sent outbound to a remote IP a Wide Area Network-IP
or WAN IP, the router will open the inbound port to allow the traffic to
reach the machine. Any unsolicited inbound traffic coming to the router
is blocked.

Sometimes you may have to open a port on the router to allow unsolicited
inbound traffic to reach a machine. It's called port forwarding.

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/expla...arding-dmz.asp

Of course, you would need to open the same ports on the PFW in order for
the unsolicited inbound traffic coming through the router to reach the
computer.

Keep the machine out of the DMZ.

It sounds like you are new to routers.
I would suggest calling dlink support and have them walk you through
the process.
They are very nice people. I used them when I first bought my dlink
router.

EJM
jwaterfield@gmail.com wrote:
> Here's the scenario: I do not have any broadband internet access. My
> girlfriend and I access the internet via dial-up through our own
> computer's modems (FYI, mine has Windows XP SP2, hers has Windows
> 2000). We'd like to have high-speed in the future, but right now we
> can't afford it. I bought a Dlink Wireless G Router (WBR-1310), hoping
> to network both our computers together for file sharing and such.
>
> Here's the problem: the included software with the Dlink router insists
> on there being a broadband modem hooked up in order to configure the
> router. There's no way around it. Plus, every FAQ I've read on Dlink's
> site (and other sites too) does not cover any scenarios like mine, in
> which there is no cable/DSL modem. All I'm looking to do at this point
> is network our computers, that's it.
>
> Can anybody help me out please?

Finally!! I got my own computer on the network. It took a lot of
fiddling around, but I somehow stumbled upon it. My girlfriend's
computer is still not working, but that's due to a network card driver
issue....a completely unrelated issue.

I've been trying to set a static IP address on the router. When I try
to do this, it asks for a subnet mask, and will not save the address
without one. What exactly is this subnet mask and why does the router
need one? I tried a default number (255.255.255.0), but it wouldn't
accept it.

jwaterfield wrote:
> Finally!! I got my own computer on the network. It took a lot of
> fiddling around, but I somehow stumbled upon it. My girlfriend's
> computer is still not working, but that's due to a network card driver
> issue....a completely unrelated issue.
>
> I've been trying to set a static IP address on the router. When I try
> to do this, it asks for a subnet mask, and will not save the address
> without one. What exactly is this subnet mask and why does the router
> need one? I tried a default number (255.255.255.0), but it wouldn't
> accept it.
>

You friend is Google.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search


What is DHCP and why you should be using it on the router? You enable
DHCP on the router and set your computer to *Obtain an IP Automatically*
and don't use a static IP, for now. A static IP is not going to save you
from being attacked on the wireless side, as they can attack you anyway
using a DHCP or static IP on the router to access your network.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

If the router has a syslog feature, then enable it and use Wallwatcher.
You should not fly around in the Internet, when you're able to do it,
blind to the traffic coming to and leaving the network.

http://www.sonic.net/wallwatcher/

And if you're talking about using a static IP in the router's setup to
the ISP, then the router is not connected to an Broad Band or DSL
network, which you should be using *Obtain an IP from* the ISP's DHCP
server.