DLink DI-524 - Can't access the Internet Wirelessly

I have a DLink DI-524 wireless router that I am trying to use as an access point between my existing LAN/Internet and the wireless clients. I want to keep them on the same IP segment. I have upgraded the firmware to 4.03 on the DLink.

As background of what I have tried, I have successfully configured a secure wireless network and was able to wirelessly connect to the LAN from both WinXP and Win2K computers thru the router. The computer is obtaining the proper IP and DNS information from the DHCP server. However, I can not seem to access the Internet. I then tried resetting the DLink config to factory defaults under the impression that I had set a filter/block that was preventing it but hence, no luck. Both times, if I connect any of my wireless pcs to the router with a Cat5 cable, then the Internet works.

As discussed on the Internet, I have performed the following steps that should have allowed this: 1) plug existing network into any LAN port, 2) set static LAN IP to unique address for my IP segment, and 3) disable DHCP. Nothing is plugged into the WAN port since I want to keep everything on the same segment.

It ultimately seems as though their is a built-in firewall that prevents communication between my wired LAN and the wireless nodes.

Since the tech support at DLink has proven to me rather ineffective, I am seeking help elsewhere. Any suggestions would be HUGELY appreciated! Thanks

I have my wireless router at home set up in the same way (i.e. as just an access point, not a gateway) and it works fine. I believe there is a security setting that has the effect of "segregate wireless connections from everything else", but I can't remember what it is called (I will check when I get home). (Although I believe this is designed to keep the wireless connections separated from the LAN, not the Internet/gateway).

You could try running "ipconfig /all" at the command line, and inspecting the output. This may prove very useful if you do it when the computer is both connected to the wireless access point, and plugged in to the switch with an ethernet cable. Other than the IP and MAC addresses, the address info for both the wired and wireless connection should look the same (default gateway, DNS servers, etc...).

Thanks Mirrorshades. I look forward to any info you can supply regarding segregating the networks. I have scoured all the settings in the router but I'm sure I could be overlooking some ambiguously named setting.

Indeed, I have utilized ipconfig /all and with the exception of the IP address, everything is the same between the NIC and Wireless NIC. Considering that, and the fact that I can access resources like shared folders on my LAN, proves to me that the connection is correct. Just no communication between the ether and wireless.

Thx!

Hm... I could have sworn there was a setting there for it, but I can't find it anywhere. I may be thinking of another wireless device; if I run across it, I'll let you know. Whatever it was, though, it was more or less clearly labeled and described (something like, "This setting will keep wireless devices from accessing your LAN"). Doesn't quite sound like the problem you're having, though.

Next thing I would probably try is to ping an internet host (www.techsoup.org) to see if you're getting DNS resolution; if that works, you could then try a traceroute and see if you can spot the point where it breaks down. If all else fails, you could try specifying an IP address on your LAN subnet instead of using DHCP -- be sure to use a valid IP and have the subnet mask and gateway set to the correct IP addresses. For DNS, I would suggest you just use your ISP's DNS servers (sometimes the router will act as a DNS caching server, which may be mucking things up).

I like puzzles like this, when they're happening to someone else. :cwm11;

Thanks for checking mirrorshades.

As far as pinging, that gets difficult because of the other firewalls in the line between the internet/LAN are configured to drop ping results. However, if I use 'tracert techsoup.org', it does show that DNS is translating into the respective IP address. This is true if I am connected w/ a Cat5 or just wireless.

I have also tried specifying a static IP for the wireless NIC but that also does not change anything.

Maybe I'll just have to buy a regular AP, which stinks since it has been too long for me to return this router.

I have never had any luck with any DLINK wireless router, not even when using a DLINK PCI network card to connect to it. The only time it ever worked (and I've gone through three different models) was when I used a DLINK USB netcard. I would suggest purchasing a Linksys router instead since they are under a hundred bucks anyway.

Thanks for the comments dbudny. It seems as though I am on the opposite side of the fence since I have had increasingly bad luck over 2 years with various Linksys products and now refuse to use any of their products.

As a final follow-up since it appears as though I have fixed my problem, I will mention my solution. As my last effort, I reverted the firmware from 4.03 back to the factory version of 4.00. Apparently, the security "improvements" that were incorporated into the update also prevent a pc from wirelessly accessing the internet when the lan is connected on the same subnet.

Thanks for all the help!

In the future, you may want to use either a Wireless Access Point (if there's an existing router) or just use the wireless router as the main router.

Enhanced security features actually work well, but if you don't have both fully updated Windows and most recent wireless NIC drivers, you will not be able to work. I have run into this problem numerous times. Usually its the updated NIC driver that does the trick, but sometimes its Windows as well (for example, Windows XP without service pack 2).

Sometimes you just can't get an updated NIC driver that supports the updated security protocols.

And lastly, I have had nothing but bad luck with DLink wireless. DLink doesn't seem to implement standards as well as other companies - it takes them numerous firmware updates to get it right. I've had good luck with Netgear and Linksys in that class of wireless device.

I ran into the same problem when I upgraded DI-524 Hardware Version D1 from firmware 4.00 to firmware 4.03

Wired connections work fine but I could not access or ping ip of a wired device from a wireless connection. Oddly I was able to wirelessly log into the router and use the ping function in the tool, misc menu option to sucessfully ping the wired device. After using the ping fuction from the router menu the wired device could also be pinged directly from WIN XP until the router was rebooted. I also figured out I needed to downgraded the firmware from 4.03 to 4.00 to resolve the problem. Too bad DLink doesn't provide better release notes with their so call upgrades. The DLink support page was also useless for resolving or explaining this issue.