Hello friends:
Here is my desired configuration, followed by my questions:
Motorola SBG6580 (the gateway to my ISP) 192.168.0.1
Port-1: E4200 WAN Port (Router with Tomato Firmware)……………….. WAN IP: 192.168.0.2; LAN IP: 192.168.0.020; LAN Client IP Range: 192.168.0.[021-100]; SSID: foo
Port-2: ASUS RT-AC66U Wan Port (Router with Merlin Firmware)……. WAN IP: 192.168.0.3; LAN IP: 192.168.0.120; LAN Client IP Range: 192.168.0.[121-200]; SSID: bar
Port-3: SmartTV…………………………………………………………………… IP: 192.168.0.4
Port-4: OOMA VoIP Device…………………………………………………….. IP: 192.168.0.5
Notes:
(1) I made up the LAN IP client ranges for clarity, but the point is that, yes, I want to have everything everywhere to be on the same single 192.168.0.xxx network.
(2) I don't want/need either of my 2nd level routers (i.e. E4200 and ASUS RT-AC66U) to NAT. The SBG6580 performs NAT functions to my ISP.
(3) The E4200 will provide DHCP services for it's range of IP addresses and SSID; while the ASUS RT-AC66U will provide DHCP services for it's range of IP addresses and SSID.
(4) All default router entries are specified as 192.168.0.1 (as you would expect).
So here is the problem and question:
When I re-configure the E4200 Tomato to act as a ROUTER (no longer a GATEWAY), the WAN port doesn't seem to work. Using a back-to-back cable, I
connect a laptop with an IP address on the same subnet (say, 192.168.0.59) to the WAN port (IP 192.168.0.2). After doing so, I attempt to browse to the
Tomato WEB UI but nothing comes back. I have both remote and local access enabled and I tried both ports 80 and 8080.
Here are the questions (you can answer them inline if you like =:)):
(1) Why could this be happening… Is the WAN port disabled when Tomato is placed in ROUTER mode? Does anyone know definitively?
One wouldn't think so because, after reconfiguration, the WEB UI happily tells you: "Here is your new WAN IP; and here is your LAN IP".
(2) If the answer to (1) is definitively "Yes, it is disabled and an IP on that WAN port doesn't really exist, even though the
Tomato UI says one exists", then I take it that the only way to manage the E4200 in this mode is either connecting through
one of the LAN ports or via a WIFI connection (which, of course you would have to allow). Is this second (follow up) point correct?
Closing note:
I hesitate to mention this point because I don't want the replies to "wander" too much… =:) (thanks), but here it goes…
In reality, I have no issue NATTing within the second leve routers. But doing so would require that the SBG6580 allow the
installation of Static Routes (so devices behind those would-be NATTED routers can reach one another). Sadly, the
SBG6580 does not allow Static Routes. So the above configuration works for me.
Thank you in advance. =:)