linking 2 routers

mrochester · 13 Apr 2007 at 14:11

say I have an ADSL router with the modem built in. Is it possible to connect another router to the 1st one and have that route an internet connection to other PCs?

csmager · 13 Apr 2007 at 14:32

Far too complex and expensive. Just buy a switch.

ns400r · 13 Apr 2007 at 15:00

If you already have a second, spare router then it's neither complex nor expensive.

csmager · 13 Apr 2007 at 15:08

ns400r said:
If you already have a second, spare router then it's neither complex nor expensive.

As long as you disable everything on it that makes it a router, that is.

Tony Williams · 13 Apr 2007 at 16:09

If you don't already have the second router, just buy a hub/swich.

mrochester · 13 Apr 2007 at 17:37

i already have the 2nd router, plus the 2nd router is wireless.

csmager · 13 Apr 2007 at 18:01

mrochester said:
i already have the 2nd router, plus the 2nd router is wireless.

Is this implying the first router isn't? You will still (unless you have WDS on both routers) probably have to join both routers with a cable.

You will also need to disable DHCP on the second router and literally just use it as a switch (or access point + switch if you want to use the wireless for clients). That is nothing plugged into the WAN port.

Verbium · 14 Apr 2007 at 00:10

What make of routers have you got? I recently set this up to increase wireless signal across my house and it works like a charm (until i buggered up my second router and bricked it). The easiest way to do this is to find a function on your routers called RIP, it's a dynamic route finder basically.

Each router will broadcast its info to other routers and they'll take it into their routing tables. You don't need to know the details, just know that it works.

On the wireless router find the DHCP server settings and set that to DHCP forwarder, the name may differ but it simply allows you to put the ip address of the first router in and that will do the rest of your ip assignment for you.

The rest of it is just fiddling, post results on how you're doing with it and if you get stuck just shout

oddjob62 · 14 Apr 2007 at 01:42

Mr Sniper said:
What make of routers have you got? I recently set this up to increase wireless signal across my house and it works like a charm (until i buggered up my second router and bricked it). The easiest way to do this is to find a function on your routers called RIP, it's a dynamic route finder basically.

Why do you need RIP on a single subnet? :confused:

Verbium · 14 Apr 2007 at 07:33

It just makes everything easier and less hassle, he could setup static routes if he wanted to. I used RIP because i'm lazy lol.

Phemo · 14 Apr 2007 at 10:39

Mr Sniper said:
It just makes everything easier and less hassle, he could setup static routes if he wanted to. I used RIP because i'm lazy lol.

Yes, but how is RIP going to help when you're only using one subnet? Why would you need to set up static routes to access one subnet? It doesn't make sense.

RIP is not required when you just have one subnet as the routing table won't need any additional routes anyway.

Let's say you have two routers on the same subnet - 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 and both have a mask of 255.255.255.0. Since they're on the same network they'll be able to communicate with each other anyway. Neither router needs to go via a different gateway to access each other, so how is a static route and/or RIP going to make any difference?