Hooking up a router to a router?

[Surf314]

I have an extra wireless router and shitty wifi coverage upstairs, I've heard Hek say that trying to set it up as a repeater would make things bad. But what if I hooked the extra router up to the first and set it up as a new network on a different channel?

The other potentially bad part of this is that I can only get one cable upstairs so I would then have to hook my desktop up to the second router, hooked to the first, hooked to the cable modem. Would this deteriorate my PC's performance significantly?

Also is there another way of doing this better than the two options I have listed?

[CaffeinePowered]

I do this to get my DS online, you plug normal port to normal port on the routers, on the second one, make sure you force it to a different IP.

Like Linksys defaults to 192.168.100, make sure the second router is 192.168.101 otherwise they will conflict with each other.

[Surf314]

I do this to get my DS online, you plug normal port to normal port on the routers, on the second one, make sure you force it to a different IP.

Like Linksys defaults to 192.168.100, make sure the second router is 192.168.101 otherwise they will conflict with each other.

Will it cause much lag if my computer had to connect through 2 routers to my cable modem?

[Kirby]

[quote author=Caffeine link=topic=5505.msg199082#msg199082 date=1299855241]
I do this to get my DS online, you plug normal port to normal port on the routers, on the second one, make sure you force it to a different IP.

Like Linksys defaults to 192.168.100, make sure the second router is 192.168.101 otherwise they will conflict with each other.

Will it cause much lag if my computer had to connect through 2 routers to my cable modem?
[/quote]


For anything besides trying to play FPS' online, no it won't. µs isn't a highly perceivable time increment. My WAP here at work is hooked behind a large Cisco switch, then 2 linksys switches and a router, still pull full speed

[HeK]

Generally, you do not want to cascade nat 'routers' (Wan port of router 2 to lan port of router 1).

Good to do (besides hardwiring, wifi is teh poo) is to:

1) Power on router 2, but leave it disconnected. Connect to it with a PC and open the configuration page. Find the page for DHCP configuration, turn off the DHCP server.

2) Set the router (now acting as an access point) wifi to run on a different channel and a different SSID then your first router. Make sure you secure. Change the Lan IP address for the router as Caffeine noted.

3) Connect the two routers together, Lan-port to Lan-port (router 2 will have a disconnected wan port). If you do not get a link light, you will have to use a cross-over cable. These are available at bestbuy.

Now, you have to set up both access points on your laptops if they move around the house and hopefully the OS is smart enough to know when to switch.

Better yet, if both your routers support WDS (see user manual) then you can configure both routers to the same SSID and channel and you will have seamless roaming between the two. (see user manual for configuration details.)

[Surf314]

Generally, you do not want to cascade nat 'routers' (Wan port of router 2 to lan port of router 1).

Good to do (besides hardwiring, wifi is teh poo) is to:

1) Power on router 2, but leave it disconnected. Connect to it with a PC and open the configuration page. Find the page for DHCP configuration, turn off the DHCP server.

2) Set the router (now acting as an access point) wifi to run on a different channel and a different SSID then your first router. Make sure you secure. Change the Lan IP address for the router as Caffeine noted.

3) Connect the two routers together, Lan-port to Lan-port (router 2 will have a disconnected wan port). If you do not get a link light, you will have to use a cross-over cable. These are available at bestbuy.

Now, you have to set up both access points on your laptops if they move around the house and hopefully the OS is smart enough to know when to switch.

Better yet, if both your routers support WDS (see user manual) then you can configure both routers to the same SSID and channel and you will have seamless roaming between the two. (see user manual for configuration details.)

Thanks a lot!

[Surf314]

I kept trying to set up a WDS and then I'd dick something up (mostly when trying to put wireless security back on). So I gave up and just set it up as a wireless network and a different channel. Also I was reading up on WDS and it halves your speed. I don't know, it was working several times and then I'd try and change something and my second router would go unresponsive. At one point I had to do a hard reset just to connect to it again.

[Surf314]

Also thanks a lot Hek, I did it as you said except I also changed the gateway and local DNS to my first routers IP (192.168.1.1) per instructions from the dd-wrt help for setting up a WDS. I left it like that when I gave up, I hope that is fine?

[HeK]

Also thanks a lot Hek, I did it as you said except I also changed the gateway and local DNS to my first routers IP (192.168.1.1) per instructions from the dd-wrt help for setting up a WDS. I left it like that when I gave up, I hope that is fine?

That is fine, it also allows the router to reach the internet. It won't effect your setup.