Home Network with 2 Networks sharing one printer, Is this possible?

[KevInAK]

Hello and thank you for reading my post...

I have a home network with two different routers that I use one router for exclusively for my kids (to manage activity) and the other router for everything else.

How do I get the PhotoSmart c309 printer to be recognized on my kids router/network? 

I am guessing I need to do some port forwarding.  If that is all that is needing then I would love to get ALL the ports that the printer would possibly would use.

Any help would be more then grateful! 

Kind Regards,

Kevin 

[PrintDoc]

Do you have two different ISP feeds into your house or is one router attached to your ISP and the other in Bridge Mode?

Please explain exactly how your system is set up and we will be better able to help you. 

[KevInAK]

Sure thing and thank you for the help!

 Both networks use the same 192.168.x.x IP addresses.  Here is a break down of the two networks below:

Main Unrestricted Network is (this is the routers that connects to the ISP

-192.168.1.0

-255.255.255.0  (subnet mask)

Secondary IP Address Network is

-192.168.2.0

-255.255.255.0 (subnet mask)

-This Routers outgoing IP address connections to the main routers set of 4 switched ports with the IP address of 192.168.1.2

I hope this works but I am going to try some ASCII art work for laying out this network below:

       ||

       ||   Incoming ISP service to router 192.168.1.0

       ||
       V   ( back of router )

 ========================           Network = 192.168.1.0 / 255.255.255.0           

 ||    Int            1    2     3     4     ||                    Int = Public IP address / Incoming Internet from ISP

 ========================         1, 2, 3, 4, = Switch Physical Ethernet Port Numbers

                      ||                                       << PRINTER IS ON THIS NETWORK >>

                      ||                                                

                      ||  (from port 1 to next routers Internet port)

                      ||

                      V   ( back of router )

               ========================           Network = 192.168.2.0 / 255.255.255.0

               ||    Int            1    2     3     4     ||           << This network NEEDS access to the printer on the above network >>

               ========================

Well I hope that helps. 

Thank you again for the help! 

[PrintDoc]

OK, that helps a lot, thanks.

Is the secondary router set to "Bridge Mode"?  If not it should be so that the DHCP server on the Main network issues all of the IP addresses for both networks.  I think your wiring looks OK. 

What make/model of routers are these?

[KevInAK]

The Main router is a Linksys WRT610n Router with the latest Firmware

The Secondary Router is a Linksys WRT54GS router that is running the DD-WRT.org firmware v24-SP1 mega.

 Currenty this is in Gateway mode... other selections are:

BPG

RIP2 Router

OSPF Router

OLSR Router

Router

[Wi-Fi-Guy]

First off -- nice ASCII art.  Beats trying to embed JPEGs in this forum.

Here's my suggestion.  Turn off the DHCP server on the WRT54GS and give it a static IP address (so you can access it later).  Then move the LAN cable from the WRT54GS Internet port t it's LAN port:

       ||

       ||   Incoming ISP service to router 192.168.1.0

       ||
       V   ( back of router )

 =======================           Network = 192.168.1.0 / 255.255.255.0           

 ||    Int            1    2     3     4     ||             Int = Public IP address / Incoming Internet from ISP

 =======================            1, 2, 3, 4, = Switch Physical Ethernet Port Numbers

                      ||                                           << PRINTER IS ON THIS NETWORK >>

                      ||                                                

                      ||  (from port 1 to next router's port 1)

                      || 

                      ======||

                                    V (  back of router )

               =======================         This router's IP address is static: 192.168.1.x

               ||    Int            1    2     3     4   ||          -> DHCP server turned off

               =======================           -> Assign x so that it is not in the DHCP range of the upstream router

I used to double NAT wireless-routers like your original setup.  The problem though was that the downstream wireless-router's firewall prevented upstream devices from accessing downstream devices.  Now you might want to do this if you want isolation between two wireless-networks (say because you need a mixed WEP and WPA-PSK security model).  If you don't need it, it's much simpler to just make the downstream wireless-router a wireless-bridge and have the upstream wireless-router manage the IP addresses. 

Message Edited by Wi-Fi-Guy on 08-29-2009 09:39 AM

[KevInAK]

Wow!  Some good ideas in your post that I never thought of.  I just might do that. I think the only thing I am not sure about is if I can use the secondary router (WRT54GS) to still block IO traffic with the firewall application.  I use this to turn off and on internet with settings.  I guess I could do this with the primary router (WRT600N). 

Thank you so much for the information.  I am not sure if there are other options but it is great the ideas you have given me.  Thx AGAIN!  

Kind Regards,

Kevin