Bridging Routers advice please

TommyTrouble · 27 Apr 2017 at 09:44

Hi all

Because of poor Wi-Fi access on the first floor of my house and because I want to get some additional Lan points partly for IP cameras I have added an additional router to my network, but I'm not really that techy so I don't know if it's doing what I want it to do, also I don't understand the limitations... This is what I've done from instructions online:

My primary router is a VM SuperHub (3 I think), I attached a second hand VM SH2 and attached it Lan to Lan to my primary. I then turned off the firewall and DHCP, changed the IP ending 254, then changed SSID and password on both routers so they were the same, after a few attempts it worked.

Now I have some additional wired connections upstairs which seems to work fine although I've not done a speed test yet because I've only attached a Pi2 to it so far which feeds an old LCD TV

Cheep upgrade so far!

So my questions are:

Does what I've done sound reasonable, is it right that I turn off the firewall?

How will my phone access the Wi-Fi as I move around the house, will it take signal from both routers or just the first one it connects too? If the signal from one becomes weak will it go to the other? I know this one if probably difficult to answer, but generally speaking how do phones interface with Wi-Fi in an environment like this? It doesn't seem to have any more bars than it used to....

Finally, I've attached a Hikvision IR Camera to the secondary hub via a PoE plug, the intention is to use my Synology NAS to manage the surveillance, however, so far I haven't been able to locate it on the network, or at least via my PC, I've tried the Surveillance station and the software supplied, is the problem likely to be emanating from the Secondary Router do you think?

It probably sounds like I know what I'm doing, servers, bridging routers, Pi's etc, but it's only from guides and advice from people like you that I've made it work so far, a lot of the terminology I really don't understand.

Your advice is much appreciated

the-evaluator · 27 Apr 2017 at 10:30

What you've done is reasonable and would work but the better option would be to use a switch in place of the SH2. If you can make do with a single wireless acces spoint then things will be less likely to go awry. If you need more access points then I'd suggest looking at the Ubiquiti range.

Turning off the firewall on the SH2 won't make any difference because the firewall only applies to traffic coming into, or leaving the WAN interface on the SH2. All your traffic will be LAN only as far as the SH2 is concerned.

Chances are your phone will connect to the strongest wireless signal and then stay connected to it unless it completely disappears. It probably won't switch between the access points depending on which is stronger so if you start next to the SH3 then move aroudn the house to the SH2 you'll most likely still be connected to the SH3. With the Ubiquiti access points I have at home I can see my phone roam between the access points depending which signal is stronger.

As far as the camera is concerned, it should work using the setup you currently have. Check what IP address is has.

TommyTrouble · 27 Apr 2017 at 10:43

Thanks for that, I was concerned the roaming would act as you say, if that's the case it's probably better to give different SSID names, that way I can choose to connect to the stronger signal, say if I want to stream on a laptop or phone near the secondary router...

I will persist a little more with the camera, I may have to connect it directly to the machine initially, I tried the IP from my pc but it didn't find anything at all, there aren't any lights on it so it's hard to know if the PoE is doing its job or not

Thanks for the advice re switches, I'm currently planning an extension and access is only going to get worse so a bit further down the line I'll look into a proper solution, this was a £10 fix utilising an Ethernet cable I'd rooted upstairs years ago

the-evaluator · 27 Apr 2017 at 10:46

I'd really suggest using just 1 access point if you possibly can. Having different SSIDs will help to some extent but having to manually change what network your phone is connecting to will be a pain in the bum.

I've never used an SH3 but have a look in the web config and see if it has assigned an IP address to the camera. What IP do you think the camera has? What IP does your PC have?

TommyTrouble · 27 Apr 2017 at 10:53

The IP for the camera is 192.168.1.64 IDK about my PC (at work right now), I did look at the router I plugged it into to see if it was there, although it wasn't listed with a recognisable name, I figured it'd be one of the recent connections, I tried the IP it looked like it'd assigned to it, that didn't work either.

I know it has to be registered and accessed by some 'SADP' tool before use, I wonder if I need to connect it directly first, bit outside my expertise this

the-evaluator · 27 Apr 2017 at 11:06

It shouldn't matter where in the LAN the camera is plugged into as long the IP addressing is consistent. So you say the camera is 192.168.1.64, in theory as long as the PC is 192.168.1.something then it should work.

See if you can ping the camera from the PC.

TommyTrouble · 27 Apr 2017 at 11:42

Hmm, I wonder why I can't find it then, I'll have another play with it tonight, see if I'm missing something like an 'on button' inside the camera....

The IP for the PC does begin the same I think.

Thanks for your help, really appreciate it

APM · 27 Apr 2017 at 18:28

I could never get an IP camera working when using Virgin routers,as soon as I put the SH into modem mode and plugged in an Asus the camera appeared though.

I was using a freeware called Ispy.