AC3 and WGA54G game adapter problems

[Garrett]

Recently bought an ACIII and a Linksys WGA54G Game Adapter, and started setting it up last night and ran into some problems. I was able to configure (through the setup disc) the GA hardwired to my Linksys router, and the wireless light on the GA came on (so I imagine, it must be working correctly if that light is on). When configuring the GA, I used the default IP address 192.168.1.250, Infrastructure Mode, SSID of my wireless router (which is Garrett), and the WEP password. When unplugging my wireless router, the Wireless light on the GA turns off and vice versa when the wireless router is powered on– so it must be connecting wirelessly correctly, right?

Now, I have my GA connected to the AC3 – orange and green Ethernet lights are on on the AC3 and the Power, Ethernet, and Wireless lights are on on the GA; everything looks good. However, I cannot access my AC3. When trying its IP address, 192.168.1.50, it says “Page Cannot Be Displayed.”

Do I need to set up any kind of Port Forwarding on the wireless router? If so, what do I need to do? Another interesting note, I should be able to access the GA directly when it is hard-wired to the router, but I can’t. I put in its IP address, 192.168.1.250 and it comes up with “Page Cannot Be Displayed.” Very odd. It seems I can only configure the GA through the setup disc that came in the box.

I’ve done a search and analyzed any threads related to my problem, but still am coming up empty. Hoping Kenargo chimes in.

[rsw686]

Can you access the web interface for the linksys game adapter? If not that needs to be resolved first.

On the AC3 did you configure the IP subnet and default gateway?

[Garrett]

I cannot access the GA UI either hardwired or wirelessly. I'm not at home right now, but I believe the AC3s IP subnet and gateway were arleady configured from the factory.

Tonight I'm going to work on resolving the issue of getting the GAs UI to come up...

[kenargo]

Take a search for LinkSys in the forum; there is a page on setting up the GA. Port forwarding is only needed to access the AC3 from outside the home; within the home the 192.168.1.50 address should work (that would not be the address outside the house).

Something that often gets people are the switches and IP address of the router. The 'g' GA address is only for hardwire access to the GA (for setup). The switches should be left default (infrastructure).

There is a difference between the 'n' and 'g' GA(s); the 'g', which you have does not give access to the web configuration for the router except when hard wired; the 'n' does which is something to keep in mind. It sounds like it is connecting to 'something' since you report the wireless light is on but it may not be connecting to 'your' network. if the search for (linksys) thread doesn't get you connected let me know and I'll get my 'g' GA out and take a look at the menus.

[Garrett]

Rsw686, kenargo, thanks for your help.

Alright, I updated the firmware on my wireless router - it is a Netgear router (WGR614) as opposed to a Linksys as I originally thought in my original post.

I am finally able to connect to the GA when it is hardwired to the router. Do I need to set the GA's IP to DHCP or to something else like it's factory default IP address?- I wouldn't think it would matter as long as it has the SSID of my network (though I think it *would* matter if I wanted to connect to the AC3 through the internet (correct me if I'm wrong), which I'm not interesting in doing at this point.)

Here is what I got...
-GA is wired to the AC3 with the ethernet cable
-AC3 green and amber ethernet lights are on
-GA power, ethernet, and wirless lights are on.
-From my laptop, I enter in the AC3s IP (192.168.1.50) in IE and get page cannot be displayed, same results with Firefox.

:(

[rsw686]

The game adapter is just a wireless to ethernet bridge. When operating correctly it should be transparent.

You can leave the default GA IP address. You should be able to disconnect the ethernet cable from it and access it's web interface wirelessly. If you can't do that then double check your wireless settings.

Once you have that working you should be able to connect to the AC3. If not then make sure the IP address information is set correctly on the AC3. The subnet should be 255.255.255.0 and the default gateway should be the address of your Netgear router, which is probably 192.168.1.1. If either of those is wrong you won't be able to communicate with the AC3.

[Garrett]

Thanks, rsw686.

On the AC3, I set the Default Gateway to that of my router (192.168.0.1). I also set the DNS Server and Alt DNS Server to the same address. I left the Subnet at the default 255.255.255.0.

I power-cycled everything (AC3, router, GA). Still nothing. :(
I have to be missing something, will have more time to work on it tomorrow evening. I believe the GA to be configured correctly and connected wirelessly to the router; when I view the GUI of my router I can go into "Attached Devices" and see it listed there as "LINKSYS WGA54G".

[kenargo]

You mentioned that the router is 192.168.0.1; is that correct????

If that is then you need to change the AC3 to 192.168.0.50 (note the 3rd octet being 0). With a mask of 255.255.255.0 the 3rd octet is ignored and the AC3 would not be reachable. With a mask of 255.255.255.0 you want all devices to have the same 1st 3 octets, changing the last. Double check your PC (using IPconfig); I suspect it also has a 0 in the 3rd octet.

[Garrett]

Ken, the router is indeed 192.168.0.1. On your advice, I changed the third octet of the IP address of the AC3 to 0 (to make it 192.168.0.50). And what do you know, it freakin' works!!!

Alright, now I am extremely embarrassed. I have been a computer tech the past seven years and am a year away from my BS in Management Information Systems degree. Though I don't work very much with networking (my main job is to maintain and install computer equipment, and repackage software for our organization's needs); I should have nailed this install without any issues.

After reading your reason for the third octet needing to be 0 on the AC3, I still am not understanding why. A senior tech at the office has his CCNA, I'll ask him tomorrow.

Kenargo, rsw686, thanks for your help. Next I'm going to tackle accessing the AC3 from the internet...

[kenargo]

I'll take a try at explaining it...

Everything connected using TCP/IP has a 4 octet address (0-255). The address is the physical address + a subnet mask which together tells the computers how much of the address to worry about. Bits in the subnet that are 0 tell the computer to decode the bit and bits that are 1 are ignored.

Example:

subnet of 255.255.255.0 and an address of 192.168.1.50 tells the computer to look only at the 50 (ignoring the other parts of the address). This is the problem; since the address has a 1 in the 3rd octet the computer is expecting the address to be 192.168.0.x so when it gets traffic from 192.168.1.x it throws it away. You could have solved the problem in 2 ways; you could have changed the subnet mask or just changed the AC3 address.

For example; the subnet mask of 255.255.254.0 would have allowed the AC to keep the old address (192.168.1.50) and allowed the computer to decode the packets and work.

Make sense?

Now take into account this is somewhat simplified but it is close enough (unless I mistyped something)...

[Garrett]

Kenargo, thanks for taking the time for the quick lesson. Your post just gave me a flashback to 5 years ago when I was taking a networking class at a local community college. I got an A in that class, honest! Great explanation, makes perfect sense - you should teach!

[rsw686]

This explains why you couldn't access the GA from the beginning as well. Glad to hear you got it working!

To access the AC3 from the outside you will need to setup a port forward in your router. Chances are your ISP blocks port 80, so if it doesn't work on 80, use 81, 8080, etc.