Wireless-G Router WGR614v9 Reference Manual

Customizing Your Network Settings

4-13

v1.1, May 2008

Setting Up a Repeater Unit

Use a wired Ethernet connection to set up the repeater unit to avoid conflicts with the wireless

connection to the base station.

To configure a Wireless-G Router as a repeater unit:

1.

If you are using the same model of wireless router for both the base station and repeaters, you

must change the LAN IP address for each repeater to a different IP address in the same subnet

(see

“Using the LAN IP Setup Options” on page 4-1

).

2.

Check the Wireless Settings screen, and verify that the wireless settings match the base unit

exactly. The wireless security option must be set to

WEP

or

None

.

3.

In the Wireless Repeating Function screen, select the

Enable Wireless Repeater Mode

radio

button.

This IP address must be in the same subnet as the base station but different from the LAN IP of

the base station.

4.

Fill in the

Base Station MAC Address

field.

5.

Click

Apply

to save your changes.

6.

Verify connectivity across the LANs.

A computer on any wireless or wired LAN segment of the wireless router should be able to

connect to the Internet or share files and printers with any other wireless or wired computer or

server connected to the other AP.

Note:

If you are using the WGR614v9 base station with a non-NETGEAR wireless router

as the repeater, you might need to change additional configuration settings. In

particular, you should disable the DHCP server function on the wireless

repeater AP.

Note:

Failing to change the LAN IP address will cause an IP address conflict in the

network because the factory default LAN IP is the same for both units.

Wireless-G Router WGR614v9 Reference Manual

4-14

Customizing Your Network Settings

v1.1, May 2008

5-1

v1.1, May 2008

Chapter 5

Fine-Tuning Your Network

This chapter describes how to modify the configuration of the Wireless-G Router Model

WGR614v9 to allow specific applications to access the Internet or to be accessed from the

Internet, and how to make adjustments to enhance your network’s performance.

This chapter includes the following sections:

•

“Allowing Inbound Connections to Your Network

”

•

“Configuring Port Forwarding to Local Servers” on page 5-6

•

“Configuring Port Triggering” on page 5-9

•

“Using Universal Plug and Play” on page 5-12

•

“Optimizing Wireless Performance” on page 5-13

•

“Using WMM for Wireless Multimedia Applications” on page 5-14

•

“Changing the MTU Size” on page 5-15

•

“Overview of Home and Small Office Networking Technologies” on page 5-16

Allowing Inbound Connections to Your Network

By default, the Wireless-G Router blocks any inbound traffic from the Internet to your computers

except for replies to your outbound traffic. However, you might need to create exceptions to this

rule for the following purposes:

•

To allow remote computers on the Internet to access a server on your local network.

•

To allow certain applications and games to work correctly when their replies are not

recognized by your router.

Your router provides two features for creating these exceptions: port forwarding and port

triggering. This section explains how a normal outbound connection works, followed by two

examples explaining how port forwarding and port triggering operate and how they differ.

Wireless-G Router WGR614v9 Reference Manual

5-2

Fine-Tuning Your Network

v1.1, May 2008

How Your Computer Accesses a Remote Computer through Your

Router

When a computer on your network needs to access a computer on the Internet, your computer

sends your router a message containing source and destination address and process information.

Before forwarding your message to the remote computer, your router must modify the source

information and must create and track the communication session so that replies can be routed

back to your computer.

Here is an example of normal outbound traffic and the resulting inbound responses:

1.

You open Internet Explorer, beginning a browser session on your computer. Invisible to you,

your operating system assigns a service number (port number) to every communication

process running on your computer. In this example, let’s say Windows assigns port number

5678 to this browser session.

2.

You ask your browser to get a Web page from the Web server at www.example.com

.

Your

computer composes a Web page request message with the following address and

port information:

•

The source address is your computer’s IP address.

•

The source port number is 5678, the browser session.

•

The destination address is the IP address of www.example.com, which your computer

finds by asking a DNS server.

•

The destination port number is 80, the standard port number for a Web server process.

Your computer then sends this request message to your router.

3.

Your router creates an entry in its internal session table describing this communication session

between your computer and the Web server at www.example.com. Before sending the Web

page request message to www.example.com, your router stores the original information and

then modifies the source information in the request message, performing Network Address

Translation (NAT):

•

The source address is replaced with your router’s public IP address.

This is necessary because your computer uses a private IP address that is not globally

unique and cannot be used on the Internet.

•

The source port number is changed to a number chosen by the router, such as 33333. This

is necessary because two computers could independently be using the same session

number.

Your router then sends this request message through the Internet to the Web server at

www.example.com.

Wireless-G Router WGR614v9 Reference Manual

Fine-Tuning Your Network

5-3

v1.1, May 2008

4.

The Web server at www.example.com composes a return message with the requested Web

page data. The return message contains the following address and port information:

•

The source address is the IP address of www.example.com.

•

The source port number is 80, the standard port number for a Web server process.

•

The destination address is the public IP address of your router.

•

The destination port number is 33333.

The Web server then sends this reply message to your router.

5.

Upon receiving the incoming message, your router checks its session table to determine

whether there is an active session for port number 33333. Finding an active session, the router

then modifies the message, restoring the original address information replaced by NAT. The

message now contains the following address and port information:

•

The source address is the IP address of www.example.com.

•

The source port number is 80, the standard port number for a Web server process.

•

The destination address is your computer’s IP address.

•

The destination port number is 5678, the browser session that made the initial request.

Your router then sends this reply message to your computer, which displays the Web page

from www.example.com.

6.

When you finish your browser session, your router eventually senses a period of inactivity in

the communications. Your router then removes the session information from its session table,

and incoming traffic is no longer accepted on port number 33333.

How Port Triggering Changes the Communication Process

In the preceding example, requests are sent to a remote computer by your router from a particular

service port number, and replies from the remote computer to your router are directed to that port

number. If the remote server sends a reply back to a different port number, your router will not

recognize it and will discard it. However, some application servers (such as FTP and IRC servers)

send replies back to multiple port numbers. Using the port triggering function of your router, you

can tell the router to open additional incoming ports when a particular outgoing port originates

a session.

An example is Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Your computer connects to an IRC server at destination

port 6667. The IRC server not only responds to your originating source port, but also sends an

“identify” message to your computer on port 113. Using port triggering, you can tell the router,