Need netowrk help, badly

[Preston7]

I have been trying to get my apex connected for months now with no avail. I know less than nothing about networks, which doesn't help the situation either!

Here is what I have:

Apex in the basement.
Cable modem in the basement.
Netgear FS105 in the basement.
Computer upstairs.
Wireless router upstairs.

I have the FS105 connected to my cable modem. The wireless router is wired to the fs105. The apex is wired to the fs105. My desktop is wired to the router and my laptop connects wirelessly to the router. So, the fs105 "feeds" the router and the apex.

My desktop and laptop can "see" each other and have access to the internet. Neither can access or see the apex.

Since the router is upstairs and the apex in the basement, I don't have a good way to connect them directly to each other. I thought using the fs105 would work, and I can't understand why it has not worked.

What do I need to do??

Thanks!

 

[vertwake]

If you have no networking experience, you need to eliminate some of the complexity and go from there.

Couple of things you can do:
1. Does your laptop have a physical network card? Could you take it to your FS105, plug it in directly and see if you can connect directly to the Apex, or even ping it by IP?
2. Did you change the IP info on your Apex? You should be able to access that from the controller in the menu system. Pull that up and see what it says. Then try to ping that IP once you have both the Apex & your laptop plugged into the FS105.

3. I'm guessing you're using the FS105 because you can't get a wireless signal down there? If you CAN get a wireless signal down there, consider just picking up a Cisco/Linksys bridge. WET610N. Just follow the instructions and when you're done, your Apex is on your local network.

 

[RussM]

The problem is that the way you have things connected, the Apex is "outside" the firewall in your router.

Remove the FS105. Connect the cable modem directly to the Internet or WAN port of the router.

If you can run a cable between the Apex and the router that's the best. Or you can use a wireless gaming adapter to connect the Apex to the router using WiFi.

 

[Preston7]

Well, I can't really connect the apex directly to the router because of their respective locations. Wireless would be iffy since we're dealing with some concrete walls, but it's a possibility.

I took the laptop to the FS105 and connected it directly. I thought the fs105 would have created another network and allowed the laptop and apex to communicate, but that wasn't the case.

I'm going to try moving the router in the basement and see if I can get things to work that way.

THanks for the help thusfar!

 

[RussM]

I took the laptop to the FS105 and connected it directly. I thought the fs105 would have created another network and allowed the laptop and apex to communicate, but that wasn't the case.

The FS105 is a simple network switch... it does not hand out IP addresses like a SOHO router will by default. In order to enable the notebook to communicate with the Apex directly through the switch, you have to manually assign an IP address to the notebook's wired network interface and also to the Apex. DHCP in the Apex must also be turned off. I'm not suggesting you do this... just explaining why it didn't work for you.

If you can put the router downstairs, based on what you've described, that will be the best long-term solution.

I'm sending you a PM too.