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TNGW1500SE's avatar
TNGW1500SE
Explorer
Aug 05, 2019

3 routers / 1 switch. I have questions

I have 3 routers.

#1 router: Hooked to the cable modem, IP 192.168.1.1. Has some devices hooked to it like my google phone & My Verizon extender, Amazon Firestick. Just my devices that I don't care if they are behind a VPN or those that can't be (like the firestick). I call this my "Dot 1" router.

#2 router: This is my VPN router. Hooks to router one LAN port with Cat 7 cable. Router IP is set to 192.168.2.1 ("dot 2"). All my VPN devices get a IP from this router like 192.168.2."whatever". I call this my "dot 2" router.

Then a 8 port non-POE network switch plugs into router 2 and all the wired PC's plug into it so everything gets a "dot 2" VPN address.

Router #3: Just hooks to the switch and is an access point in my garage. It has a IP of 192.168.2.2 so I can find it on the network. All devices are on it (including WiFi) are on the VPN network.

It all worked great until the power went off yesterday. Then some of my PC's that are plugged into the switch got a IP of 192.168.1.whatever. That's my non-VPN router address. Could the network switch assign that address? I don't understand how it happened. The WIFi cards in those PC's are disabled so those machines didn't hook to the WiFi on the "dot 1" router. No roueter broadcasts the same SSID. How could I end up getting those "Dot 1" IP's assigned when those machines are all pluged into a "dot 2" network? There's no router set in bridge mode. Any ideas?

PS: Adding a 4th soon so I have WiFi down at my gate for a wireless IP camera. It will hook to the Garage access point router and be a wired connection 100 feet away from the garage. Then it can WiFi the rest of the way to the gate. I hope! It's a long way. To far for a Ethernet cable.

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