I have a new VoIP service, and because of that, I use a Linksys Broadband RT31P2 router, included with the service. The computer which is connected to this router works perfectly fine, and so does the phone. Everything works fine, but I now want that router (Linksys) to provide wireless access to a laptop.

The problem is that the laptop is not picking up a signal from the router, and the router configuration page has no option to "send" a signal for wireless connection. I am starting to think that the Linksys Broadband RT31P2 router is not meant for wireless access, or it would have this option, and make a mention of wireless access.

Here's the product page for the router: http://www.linksys.com/products/product.as...rid=652&scid=29

I also have a Netgear WGR614v4 router, and wondering if there's something I should do with this router. I thought of connecting the Netgear router to Linksys using an Ethernet cable. Therefore, the Linksys router would be the main router, and I'd use the Netgear router as some sort of a secondary router that would give a wireless signal to the laptop. I also tried it the other way around, having the Linksys router connect to the Netgear router.

Its a bit confusing. I don't know where to go from here. If I make Netgear the main router, the computer will work, and eventhough the laptop receives the signal, it will not connect to the Internet. If I use Linksys as the main router, the computer will work, but the laptop picks up no signal from the Netgear router.

Any ideas?

The Linksys unit you linked does not provide wireless access. I have no idea if the other wireless router can be attached to the existing one, but you should have no problems in plugging a wireless access unit into one of the router ports, similar to this one.

Hi, your Netgear router should do everything for you that you need done, or you can connect the Netgear to the Linksys and have the laptop on the wireless - you'll have trouble "sharing" stuff in this double-router arrangement unless you have both/all computers on the same router working on the same sub-net (standard setup would give you this).

To connect and set up your Netgear router, you should follow the instructions given in it's manual & if you don't have one, you can get one HERE. Here are some other things you'd need to do:
1. Reset the router (reset button on the router) following instructions in the manual.
2. Connect only the wired computer to the router first and follow the instructions in the manual - read chapter 2. Page 30 tells you how to get to the router setup utility through the first commputer connected.
3. Set up the router to be able to connect to your ISP - normally DHCP enabled.
4. Connect the Cable/DSL modem to the router WAN port and either cycle the power to the router (off/on) or use the RELEASE/RENEW selections to have the router request to have the router request an IP address from the ISP (again, assuming DHCP connection). Once you get an IP, you're connected to the internet.
5. Now using the router setup utiliity, make sure the wireless setup is done (again, read the appropriate section in your manual) and then make the corresponding/matching setup on the laptop - you should be able to get a manual for the wireless setup utility from the wireless card manufacturer and this will explain how to access the utility and what settings you can make. Don't try anything fancy to start with, just make the connection & then you can try other things such as encryption.

If you want to connect the Netgear to the Linksys, take the same approach, but make sure the Linksys DHCP feature for the LAN side is on and now you can follow the above instructions to add the Netgear to the Linksys. In this situation, plug an ethernet cable into a LAN port on the Linksys router and the other end into the WAN port on the Netgear - the Netgear will be looking at the Linksys as the "ISP" and will get an IP from it after you've gone through the above setup.

Alfons, your post makes sense, but there's a lot of info missing. I am not having problems getting to the configuration page, and setting the thing up. I am having a problem with getting the laptop to pick up the signal from the Netgear router, because there's a lot of things I could have done wrong.

There are so many options and things to configur that it becomes nearly impossible to know what I am doing wrong.

Before I got the phone, all I had to do was deal with one router. Therefore, setup is a little different, and harder.

On the following page, there's some information about DNS and a few other things. I am afraid I may have done something wrong.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...6lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Its set on "Use Static IP Address" eventhough my ISP doesn't use a static IP address. I set the option on "Use Static IP Address" because "Get Dynamically from ISP" doesn't sound right because the Netgear router is connected to the Linksys.

Where it says "Domain Name DNS Address" (below it), I entered the DNS information from the Linksys router. Again, I don't know if I should be doing this. If you have a Linksys router, you know there's a page with the setup information. It looks something like this:

http://help.expedient.com/broadband...nksys-setup.gif

I used the DNS information from there, and put it into the page I showed you earlier.

On the following page, I entered the information for the United States, but I am not sure if I should set the channel on 11. Ignore what the picture says, because its just an example:

http://www.farina1.com/DG834G/adsl-...6lr%3D%26sa%3DG