How-To Geek

My ISP provides me with static IP address.

The router directly connected to my cable modem is a Tenda wireless-N Router (with a 4-port switch model #: w307r ).

Connected to the Tenda are three workstations and a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL router (with a 8-port switch Model#: BEFSR81).

There are five workstations connected to the Linksys as well as a NETWORK printer.

The workstations connected to the linksys are unable to "see" those connected to the Tenda and vise versa.

My Intent is to print from the Network Printer at any of the workstations, but I am unable to find the printer while using its driver installation wizard.
If I establish the printer's port manually to complete the driver setup I am still unable to print.

I believe there must be a conflict between these router's. Maybe it is the Linksys firewall?

I ought to have the Linksys operating solely as a switch, but I do not know how to do that.

I Don't have the Linksys Setup Wizard though I may be able to find it online if necessary.

How do I solve this quandary? Any help would be much appreciated.

What you want to do is go into the firmware window of the second router and turn off DHCP then all computers on the system will get their Local Area IPs from the first, main router. Thus now they will all be in the same Local Area Network.

If you made changes to the router configuration you must restart all computers.

On each computer start a command window and type in ipconfig.
Make sure the first three numbers of the IPv4 Address are the same on both and the last number is different.
The Subnet Mask should be 255.255.255.0
The default Gateway should be the same on both computers.

What Firewall are you using on each computer. Some firewalls, Zone Alarm, in particular need to have the network registered as a safe zone.

I had a similar problem and got it partially solved it converting the downstream router into a switch. I changed the IP address range and then assigned an IP address to the computer that was outside that range. I also disabled the DHCP function. But because it was no longer a router it did not route wi-fi.
The downstream router was more newer and more sophisticated so i switched its position in the chain, make it Router #1, connected to the cable-modem. What i discovered was that the new order had fixed the conflict. My guess is that having the more sophisticated router in the more sensitive spot allowed it to handle the conflict. (In this case sh*t flowed upstream, and was filtered out by the more sophisticated electronics in the newer router.)