Linksys EA6900 manual How to expose a device to the Internet, To extend your network

Linksys EA-Series

To extend your network

This topic covers cases three and four above.

NOTE

This is a complex process, so this procedure assumes that you have some networking knowledge.

To extend your network or add wireless capabilities:

1.If you want to extend your network, you may also follow the instructions above. One example of this might be to provide a separate wireless network for your children to keep their wireless network traffic separate from your wireless network. You might also want to isolate one network from another network so that network shares aren’t visible across networks. In this case, use an Ethernet cable to connect the Internet port of the downstream router to one of the LAN ports of the upstream router. Make sure that the local network subnets on the two routers are different.

- OR -

You can extend your network by turning the downstream router into an access point. (See “How to use a router as an access point” on page 37). When you use a router as an access point, computers connected to the access point are on the same IP subnet as all other devices connected to the router. File, printer, and media sharing is much easier if all devices are on the same subnet.

Setting Up: Advanced

How to expose a device to the Internet

Why would I expose a device to the Internet? If you are operating a web server, a mail server, or a web camera, you may want to expose that device to the Internet so anybody can access it. Your router includes a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) feature that forwards all inbound ports presented on the WAN interface, except those that are specifically forwarded, to an individual IP address or MAC address. This feature is normally not used, because it presents significant security risks to the device that you designate for the DMZ. The DMZ device is not protected by the built-in firewalls, Internet filters, or router web filters, and is open to attacks from hackers.

A much safer way of “exposing” devices to the Internet would be to use port forwarding. See “How to set up port forwarding” on page 43.

To set up a device in the DMZ:

1.Configure your device with a static IP address. See your device’s documentation for help with setting a static IP address or use DHCP reservation (see “How to set up the DHCP server on your router” on page 30).

2.Log into Linksys Smart Wi-Fi. (See “How to connect to Linksys Smart Wi- Fi” on page 7.

3.Under Router Settings, click Security, then click the DMZ tab.