Troubleshoot.MultipleRouters

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Using more than one router with Shareaza

Description

We have noticed that an increasing number of users seem to be in a situation where they are using two routers chained after each other. This is a situation that makes configuring the routers for Shareaza quite a challenge, as you have to set up two devices, make sure they don't conflict with each other's DHCP settings, etc.

Chaining two routers after each other is not a recommended situation, for a few reasons. The biggest reason being that setting up a network like that isn't something the average user can do without encountering serious problems.

However, there are some reasons why you might want to do this:

• Your modem uses NAT (which means it's essentially a combination of modem/router) and only has one or two ports, which isn't the sufficient amount for your network.
• You ran out of ports on your first router, and bought another one (with or without wireless internet).

Solutions

Avoid buying a second router in the first place

Instead, look into buying a hub,switch or access point. (All three have the same functionality, as far as this guide is concerned). Or, replace your old router with a new one with more ports. This might not be such a good idea financially, though:

• in the case of access points, they're usually just as or more expensive than wireless routers
• You might consider buying a router so you can easily replace your old one if it dies

So, the next solution might be attractive:

Use your router as a hub

This is possible, at least with some models (Linksys WRT54G family, Netgear WGR614v2, ...), to use them as a hub, instead of as a router. This involves some trickery with the settings (turning off DHCP), and sticking the cable that normally goes into WAN into the regular PC ports (so you lose one port you could use for something else then, unfortunately). A picture says more than a thousand words, so here is an example configuration with a NetGear WGR614v2 (full explanation here).

This is the recommended solution! (if your router supports it).

Double NAT

If none of the above works for you, you have to set up port forwarding twice (or if you're sadistic and decide to chain 3 routers, three times, etc). It is doable, but you have to know what you're doing. Let's consider the following situation:

• Your external (public) Ip address is 83.15.x.53
• You run Shareaza on its default port, 6346
• We're assuming both routers use the 192.168.x.x range (some use 10.x.x.x, others even 172.16-30.x.x)

First, you configure your first router with port forwarding to some address (use 192.168.0.2 for now, you can change it later). If you already know what address the other router has, use that instead. Make sure it's static, and that the network mask is 255.255.255.0.

Secondly, you configure your second router, by going to its page. You make sure the addresses it hands out are in a different subnet than the one it's currently using (IE, use 192.168.1.2), and configure port forwarding for that router too. So forward port 6346 TCP & UDP to 192.168.1.2, if that's the address of your PC running Shareaza. Use the connection test to make sure everything is OK.

To summarize, let's show the path a packet will follow from the internet to Shareaza (in this example): Internet -> 83.15.x.53 -> 192.168.0.1 -> 192.168.0.2 -> 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2

WARNING: Some users have reported problems with Shareaza while using double NATs. It is highly recommended that you use only one NAT device on your network (most will support around 200 or more computers on the network, i.e. can give IP addresses to that many computers) and have any subsequent routers in the chain running in hub mode (if they support hub mode).