Wireless Confusion

I started using a Linksys befw11s4 v4 wireless router w/ 4 port switch in my home. I already have a Westell DSL modem/router doing DHCP and port forwarding for a few apps. I plugged from the befw11s4 switch to my switch. I connected wirelessly with a laptop and was on the internet with no problems. Few hours later, page cannot be displayed. From the wireless laptop I can ping the befw11s4 and the wireless signal is strong, but I cant ping my Westell router or get to the internet. I tried plugging from my switch to the befw11s4 wan port. No go. DHCP is off in the befw11s4. I tried putting in DNS numbers on the DHCP page in the befw11s4. I can't find any setting that tells it where to look for the gateway/internet.

I guess the larger question is how do I use a wireless router as a simple access point?

It should work the way you're doing it. I have almost the same setup, except that my dsl modem is not a router and I have the WRT54G. From a command prompt, type ipconfig /all. It should tell you if dhcp is enabled and what your dhcp server is. If it is enabled, it is likely that the westell is still acting as dhcp server, which would prevent the linksys from doing it. Try disabling dhcp in the westell. Plug the westell into the wan port of the linksys.

Bring up the configuration for the linksys. Unless you've changed the address, it will be 192.168.1.1. On the first screen you can configure the type of internet connection, login information, etc. There is also a dhcp tab to enable the linksys as dhcp server. The user guide is here: ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pdf/befw11s4ug.pdf

We set up a lot of this type of configuration with DSL routers and we use only linksys routers. I always leave DHCP enabled on the DSL router and leave DHCP enabled on the linksys router. The DSL router assigns the linksys router an IP and the linksys router takes care of IP's for network. If the linksys router is the only thing attached to the DSL router then the IP will not change if rebooted because it will still get the first IP address available off the DSL router. This way you can set up the linksys router's IP (on the DSL router) as DMZ if desired and don't have to make port adjustments on both routers for remote access or vpn, just have to make changes on one router. OR you can not use DMZ, open up the necessary ports on both routers and have a sort of "double layer firewall" via NAT from both routers.