Getting Internet to Work in Basement with Linksys Router

[Tschan011]

So i have been going through forums and different posts and suggestions for days and i can't seem to find a simple, yet thorough, description of what i need to do. Here is my issue. I just finished my basement and am trying to get an internet signal to my entertainment devices around the basement TV and also to the basement TV. I have a Fios Gateway router in my family room upstairs on the opposite end of the house and the wireless signal is poor to non-existant where the TV and other devices are in the basement. I purchased an Actiontec MoCA ECB6000. I hooked this up in the basement under the TV by plugging in the coax cable directly to the coax jack on the wall and the other end to the ECB6000. The ethernet cord, when plugged into the TV, shows that there is a "Wired" internet connection. So this is all good and working, but i want to be able to connect more devices to the internet either through additional wired/ethernet connections or another wireless connection in addition to the Fios Gateway wireless. This is where my problem is, as i want to utilize my Linksys WRT160N wireless router. At the very least, i want to be able to use the 4 LAN ports on the Linksys router to be able to connect the other devices in the basement to the internet with a wired connection, but ideally i would also like the wireless to work on the router. So far i have not been able to get either of these to work. When i plug the ethernet cord from the ECB6000 into the ethernet port on the Linksys router and then connect a LAN cord from the Linksys router to my laptop, the internet does not work. The wireless from the Linksys router also does not work. Can anyone help me with this and give me step by step instructions for what to do. Again, the ECB6000 has working internet, as when it is plugged into my TV, the TV has active wired connection in the basement.

Thank you! 

[CRobGauth]

Simplest way is to plug ethernet from ECB to wan port of Linksys.

Then plug devices in to Lan ports of Linksys.

You might start by trying it with Linksys connected directly to Router upstairs first.

[Tschan011]

Thanks, but as stated , i already tried plugging the ethernet cord from the ECB into the Linksys and that did not work. The internet was not detected from the Lan ports on the Linksys out to other devices. 

[CRobGauth]

Did you try connecting Linksys to LAN port of router locally?

When you connected Linksys to ecb did you get link light on both router and ecb?

[viafax999]

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@Tschan01 wrote:

Thanks, but as stated , i already tried plugging the ethernet cord from the ECB into the Linksys and that did not work. The internet was not detected from the Lan ports on the Linksys out to other devices. 

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Did you connect the ethernet cable from the ECB to the WAN port of the Linksys?

Before doing that you should configure the Linksys router to be a different subnet to the Verizon router.  Typically the VZ router will be subnet 192.168.1 so choose something like 192.168.2.

Once you have the router connected via the wan port connect a pc to one of the linksys LAN ports and access the admin page to make sure you got a dhcp address for the wan port on the 192.168.1 network.

If that doesn't work I'd try using a different ethernet cable.

[lasagna · Accepted solution]

As you likely want your devices in the basement on the same LAN as the rest of the house, you need to conifugre the Linksys to operate as a basic switch/repeater instead of a router.   Doing so it fairly easy ...

First, with no other connections to the linksys, attach via an ethernet cable your laptop to a LAN port on the Linksys.  Assuming your home network is on 192.168.1.x (if you aren't sure, connect a device to your working network and lookup the IP address assigned -- ipconfig /all on a windows command window).   

On the Linksys box, find the device IP address and change it so that it's on the same network as your home devices but using an otherwise unsed address.  For example, change it to be 192.168.1.254.   Save the config.  This may cause you to get disconnected from the router when you save, if so, disconnect the laptop from the ethernet and reconnect.

Now, login to the router again if necessary and find the setting for DHCP server.  DISABLE this DHCP server on the Linksys and save the configuration.

Neext find the WiFI setup on the Linksys and change it so that it uses the SAME SSID as your main house network and SAME password and SAME encryption method.    All must match exactly -- check your working router if necessary.  Save the config.

Disconnect the laptop

Connect LAN port 1 on your Linksys to your ActionTEC bridge.

You should now be able to use LAN ports 2-4 to connect other devices to the Linksys as well as see the WiFi network.

You can not use the WAN port on the Linksys in this setup -- leave it disconnected. 

[Tschan011]

This worked perfectly lasagna. Thank you very much. Its great as now i can connect 3 different devices in the basement with a wired connection from the Linksys router, but it has also created an extension of my wireless network to the basement. Awesome.

[rmauma]

What I woudl do is the following: 

On the Fios gateway---> I would configure dhcp to have all ip's from 192.168.1.50 to 192.168.1.254 ( asuming you have that subnet).  That will leave me with 50 static ip addresses.  

On the linksys router. ----> if your linksys has wifi then configure wifi with the same parameters as it is configured in the verizon gateway, smas SSID and security settings and passwords then on internet settings configure the router as a bridge, then on when it says obtain IP automatically just chek where it say you will provide your manual ip and you can set you router to 192.168.1.2, your netmask to 255.255.255.0 (the reason is so you always remember that ip if you need to configure your router again).and your gateway you put the ip address of your verizon gateway 192.168.1.1. then you connect the ethernet from the moca to any port of the router and then  the remaining devices you want to the other ports and they will be getting automatic ips from the verizon gateway. if you need more ports consider a switch also connected to your router. Hope this helps