connecting two routers

okey · 17 Oct 2018 at 09:38

I am trying to connect another router to my sky sr102 (black version) so I can use my sky router as the guest network and the asus as the full router, so anyone who is logged onto the sky router cannot access my network / sharing devices / chromecast

I have got a asus ac56 and changed the ip address on this to 192.168.1.1 and the sky router is 192.168.0.1

I have connected my Ethernet lead from the lan port on my sky router to wan port on the asus, I have entered the below for a static ip but I cant get any internet via the asus

ip address - 192.168.1.145
gateway & dns - 192.168.1.254

Is this correct ??

skyripper · 17 Oct 2018 at 10:12

So you are
ADSL / Fibre ---> Sky router ---> Lan port ---> Wan port Asus router --> Private LAN
internet NAT 192.168.0.x NAT 192.168.1.x

That'll be a double NAT, so things that like to have a simple network may have issues. Port forwarding etc. will be a headache.

To solve your internet connectivity, you probably need to just add a default gateway onto the Asus router of 192.168.0.1 (so it forwards traffic to the Sky router, which will forward it to the internet).

Are you running DHCP on both routers?

okey · 17 Oct 2018 at 11:05

Oh right, double NAT maybe an issue then as I have two kids with xbox 1 and ps4.

Just thought it would be easy to link another router and give it a guest account, so my kids friends cannot access my media drive from their phones.

bremen1874 · 17 Oct 2018 at 11:12

I don’t think it’d block things as your expecting. Anything connected to the second router would be able to see everything on the first.

Use user accounts to control access.

Sorry ignore the above I thought you were planning to use the routers the other way round.

Avalon · 17 Oct 2018 at 13:34

Why not just use the ASUS in AP mode and set up a guest network?

bremen1874 · 17 Oct 2018 at 13:40

Avalon said:
Why not just use the ASUS in AP mode and set up a guest network?

To do that'd you'd need to VLAN it, which is a bit beyond the capabilities of a Sky router, and probably the Asus as well.

BigT · 17 Oct 2018 at 15:29

Assuming you can set DHCP ranges on the Sky router then:

Sky router LAN address is 192.168.0.1
Set Sky DHCP server to lease IP addresses in a range of say 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.200
Plug network cable from a LAN port on the Sky router to the WAN port on the Asus
Set the Asus router to have a static WAN address. Make this 192.168.0.2 with a default gateway of 192.168.0.1 (your Sky router's LAN address) and also add in some DNS servers (say Google's of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
Set the Asus router LAN address to be 192.168.1.1
Set the Asus's DHCP server to lease addresses in the range of say 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.200

This assumes using /24 network address spaces (that is a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask)

There are other (probably better) ways to achieve this too but this should work.

Connect to the Sky wifi and you'll be leased a 192.168.0.x address and see the internet and other devices with an address in the same range

Connect to the Asus wifi and you'll be leased a 192.168.1.x address and see the internet, all other devices with a 192.168.1.x address and all devices with a 192.168.0.x address.

You'll be double NATd on your Asus provided network which may or may not be a problem for you depending on what you use the internet for.

Avalon · 17 Oct 2018 at 23:36

bremen1874 said:
To do that'd you'd need to VLAN it, which is a bit beyond the capabilities of a Sky router, and probably the Asus as well.

You may be surprised to learn that the ASUS will have guest networking support built in. Admittedly i’ve not attempted to use it in this situation (the first thing I did with my AC56U back in the day was turn Wi-fi off and plug a UniFi AP in which does support multiple SSID’s and guest networks), double NAT is a potential ball ache, but it’s still potentially workable.

Orcvader · 19 Oct 2018 at 16:22

I've tried the guest network on the Asus, and it offers complete isolation from the main network. So sticking the Asus in AP mode will be best.

While the Sky router is on 192.168.0.1, set the Asus to AP mode and give it something like 192.168.0.2. Then use the guest network feature on the Asus and set it however it suits your needs. That way you can also use the main Asus Wi-Fi as an extension to your Sky Wi-Fi if you wish to.

okey · 19 Oct 2018 at 20:35

Orcvader said:
I've tried the guest network on the Asus, and it offers complete isolation from the main network. So sticking the Asus in AP mode will be best.

While the Sky router is on 192.168.0.1, set the Asus to AP mode and give it something like 192.168.0.2. Then use the guest network feature on the Asus and set it however it suits your needs. That way you can also use the main Asus Wi-Fi as an extension to your Sky Wi-Fi if you wish to.

oh right. that sounds like a good idea so would you suggest turning the wifi off on the sky router and have it all on the asus. would this way be fine for ps4 and xbox 1 using the wifi as i just hear people on about double nat

bremen1874 · 19 Oct 2018 at 20:58

If the Asus is in AP mode you shouldn't have double NAT.

Orcvader · 19 Oct 2018 at 21:31

okey said:
oh right. that sounds like a good idea so would you suggest turning the wifi off on the sky router and have it all on the asus. would this way be fine for ps4 and xbox 1 using the wifi as i just hear people on about double nat

If they're right next to each other and you notice better performance with the Asus, then yes might as well turn off the Sky's one.

And as above, you won't notice any double NAT issues due to the router being in AP mode. You only get double NAT if both routers are in router mode.

From experience, it seems to be only consoles that hates double NAT, but being in AP mode mean you won't have any issues with it.

okey · 20 Oct 2018 at 08:44

ok, I have now set it to ap mode and everything seems to work, but I cant login to my asus now,

I have used the asus network device deiscovery and that says its ip address is 10.0.0.1 but still cant login to the router to access the user account

neil_g · 20 Oct 2018 at 09:36

Probably need to enable Admin access via the wan port if that's how it's connected. Default is usually off for "security" reasons.

okey · 20 Oct 2018 at 10:37

Right. Resetting the router has now all worked and with ip address of 192.168.0.2 enabled guest network. But when i log in to guest network i Can still cast to all my devices.

I am sure i read somewhere that guest network will not isolate if the router is in ap mode

Back to the drawing board

bremen1874 · 20 Oct 2018 at 11:58

Do you still have devices connected to the Sky router? Does isolation work as expected if you only connect devices to the Asus?

okey · 20 Oct 2018 at 12:49

All i have is a lan cable from wan port on the asus to the lan port on the sky router. Everything is connected to the asus and not the sky router. I have disabled wifi on the sky router as well

Avalon · 20 Oct 2018 at 14:04

bremen1874 said:
If the Asus is in AP mode you shouldn't have double NAT.

I was under the impression that in order for the ASUS to do guest mode, it would need to do NAT, otherwise it can’t dictate how data is routed without requiring further potentially unsupported features on the rest of the network.

bremen1874 · 20 Oct 2018 at 15:53

If it's in AP mode there won't be double NAT. Whether AP mode would allow guest mode to work properly is another matter (I'd expect that it wouldn't, but have never tried).