One Network with two Wireless Routers?

Housey

Housey

Housey

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Joined
21 Feb 2006
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I have 2 Wireless Routers and a Powerline ethernet configured as below:

- Netgear DG834N which is connected to my ADSL line in my office and wireless from most of the house
- Netgear DG834GT which is in my lounge which is THE dead spot for the above!
- Netgear HDX101 Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter to join the 2 up

I have a few devices I use in the lounge I need network connections for such as Laptops, consoles and media players so really I am looking for advice on how I should configure things to ensure I remove any conflicts.

Assumptions:

- The DG834N will remain as the main wireless point for the house
- The DG834GT will be soley used as a wireless point for the lounge
- All devices will be running the latest Firmware

I would greatly appreciate settings around IP Addresses, Wireless bands and any other settings I should 'tweak' to ensure it all works together and please come back to me if I have missed anything.

Thanks in advance.

Housey
 
Recently did this with a Netgear and a Belkin.

Settings:
Main Router - DHCP on, 192.168.x.1 IP, IP range 192.168.x.2 to 254.
Fill in your details as per usual on this router.
Wireless SSID: XXXXMAIN300MBPS
whatever password
Channel 1/6/11

Secondary router - static IP
DHCP OFF
IP 192.168.x.255
Wireless name XXXSECONDARY54MBPS
Channel 1/6/11 (not the one used for the other one).

Connect them direct with the homeplug and that should be jobs a good 'un.

Just chose the nearest network to connect to with each PC. I tend to use seperate channels and network names as it saves confusion/complication and stops the routers interfering with each other as much.

A way to tell if everything is working correctly is connect to the secondary router network, then try to use the web admin for the other router; should work fine.
(so secondary network wireless connection, then try to go to the netgear at 192.168.x.1 and use the web config wizards)
 
Going to need some more help as this crunched my office router needing a reset. This is what I did to be clear.

1) I confirmed the IP for the Office router was 192.168.0.1
2) I confirmed that the range on the Office router was 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254
3) Office router was called Office Router and Channel was set to 6

a) Lounge router was set to a static IP of 192.168.0.100
b) DHCP was switched off
c) Lounge router was called Lounge Router (I live in the middle of nowhere so its easy)
d) Channel was set to 11

Now I am confused about the IP 192.168.x.255 you mention above as I am not sure where this needed to be set.

I connected the two routers via the home plug, could see them all but something got confused somewhere and my Office router failed. I rebooted but still nothing, left it off for 10 minutes and nothing and in the end had to do a full factory reset and reconfigure. So, sorry to be an eejit but can someone be a little more prescriptive or tell me where I went wrong. I have many skills, most of them nothing to do with technology but the ones that are NEVER involved networking which I am pretty much useless at!

Again thanks for the help so far.
 
Sounds like that was just a bug. The X I mentioned was due to varying router manufacturers and home networks using different combos, Belkin have used 192.168.2 before, Netgears have used 192.168.0 before and others use 192.168.1 etc

This is just the section of an IP network, so bar the network was all running under the same corresponding value like it said it would, thats fine.
The fact that you could see them all means it was likely working, perhaps you accidentally knocked another setting somewhere :)
 
Fair chance, I will have another go tomorrow when I have calmed down. Bloody computers have a way of making me annoyed like little else and at 41 its not good for the ticker, or anyone else (wife) within earshot ;)
 
Solution

Hi sorry it took me so long to post, but it took some time for OcUK to activate my forum account.
First of all Re: instructions from Alexrose1uk "setting the IP address for your lounge router of 192.168.x.255 would be invalid. Assuming that your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 the address of 192.168.x.255 is the broadcast address and it would NOT work as a valid host address.*

My main router/ADSL modem is from Linksys, but I found the Netgear Router in the attic and I did some investigation for you. Hope it will be useful for you.

Bare in mind that to make the setup work I didn’t have to do any changes at all to my main router (this is your office router) but that may vary depending on your DHCP settings.

1 Changing the LAN settings on lounge router
The main problem I encountered was the LAN settings on both routers ware the same on both routers (this address is the same as the address you use to access the router GUI) in my case it was 192.168.1.1.
So before even connecting the lounge router to the office router you should go to LAN settings on your lounge router and change the LAN address there from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1 (this puts the second router local network on a separate subnet and it will work best that way in case you ever want to configure static routing). Leave the DHCP setting on - all your lunge computers will have the IP address of 192.168.2.x
!!! Once you change this setting you will loose the connection with the router and it might require a restart. And from now one you will connect to it with 192.168.2.1

2 Connecting 2 routers and confirming internet connection
Now you ready to connect the main WAN port from you lounge router to your office router. If it is on default settings as in my case it will pick up the address from DHCP and your WAN port will have an address of 192.168.1.x just like one of your office computers. You can monitor that in your Basic settings area. At this stage after I set the lounge router to pick up DNS from ISP (basic settings) my internet started working.
There you go almost there.

3 Setting the 2nd router with static IP address and static DNS
Now I didn’t have to change anything on my setup but I might differ on yours.
2hat you want to do is to set your WAN port on your lunge router to static
I used 192.168.1.2. For DNS type in 192.168.1.1 (if that is the IP address of your main router) before you do that you have to check if this address is not within the DHCP pool on your office router.
Log in to you office router go to LAN settings check DHCP settings make sure u start your DHCP range with 192.168.1.3 or higher (I recommend 100).

4 Confirm connectivity and additional tips

Ping a device located at the office from a device located in the lounge area and do the same the other way round.

Tip 1
On lounge router enable possibility of managing the router trough WAN port so you can configure and access router from your main office computer (you might have to configure one computer with static IP like 192.168.1.3 and insert that address as the remote access area on lounge router).

Tip 2
2 Firewalls?? Both your routers have firewalls. You have 2 options
First option: disable firewall on 2nd router.
Second option: leave the firewall on but on your security settings on your office router set the DMZ for 192.168.1.2 (this puts the lunge router into the demilitarized zone and so it passes the first firewall)
I would chose the second option my self

Tip 3
some users advise to set the DNS settings on your 2nd router to the same as the settings picked up on your 1st router. I personally didn’t notice any difference in performance

That’s about it

In terms of wireless settings i would follow the instructions given by Alexrose1uk.

Have fun and let me know how it went. And I hope you will find this guide useful even if you already configured this network

Regards
Jordax
 
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