Can I hook up two routers on the same network?

Question

I have a dlink wireless router that supports up to four lan computers. The problem is I need to connect a non-wireless laptop,two tivos and an xbox 360 to the network as well. So currently I'm using one of the dlinks ports to connect to a second linksys router to connect to the rest of the items. It works and all the items on the second router have access to the internet however none have access to my main network ont he dlink. Is there a way around this or something I'm doing wrong? Your help with be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You'd be better off buying an Ethernet switch and taking the router back to the store.

An ethernet switch just added more ports to your network and doesn't do any firewalling. The second router is basically firewalling off the rest of your network from things that are connected to it.

If you're stuck with that Linksys and it is similar to the one I used to have (and chucked in the garbage because it stank), there is a way to tell it to act as a gateway instead of a router. I believe that should disable the firewall and allow all of the devices to see each other. Double-check that you disable DHCP on the linksys if you do that or you'll have a mess on your hands.

Good Luck,

Annorax64

Answer 2

You can easily do this. Although a simple external switch would do it also and save your router for real routing.

Take the SECOND router and key in a WAN adress that is within the Dlinks IP range.. Lets say your dlink is at 192.168.0.1 (I think that is the dlink default) set your second router (the linksys) to a wan ip to 192.168.0.2 with the gateway set as 192.168.0.1. (as long as it matches the first routers address) (The subnets should be 255.255.255.0)

Turn OFF ALL DHCP on the (linksys) Second router. You can only have ONE DHCP "server" for any network. Connect the WAN of the second router to any of the LAN ports on the first router.

Hook up all your computers it will not matter at all which router you hook to since router ONE will be the only one that assigns addresses. All of your computers will now be on the SAME network and should work just fine.

Answer 3

No. If you go through the router (i.e. hook up the internet port to the other router) you are in different broadcast domains. You cannot use file and printer sharing properly. You must use the IP addresses than. And you must use different subnets on each router else you won't get anyway. Putting all into 192.168.1.* (with this mask on the Internet port and the LAN ports) does not work.

The simple solution for you is to use those WRTs as access points only. Using them as routers is only for advanced setups and if exactly know what and why you are doing it. I suggest the following:

Setup the BEF

IP 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0, DHCP server on.

WRT1-3

IP 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0, DHCP server off
IP 192.168.1.3/255.255.255.0, DHCP server off
IP 192.168.1.4/255.255.255.0, DHCP server off


Now chain the WRT through the LAN ports, i.e. you connect
BEF LAN port with WRT1 LAN port
WRT1 LAN port with WRT2 LAN port
WRT2 LAN port with WRT3 LAN port

Important: ignore the Internet Setup settings of the WRT. The Internet ports of the WRTs remain empty!

With this setup, you don't you through the internet ports of the WRTs and thus you don't use them as router. Basically they all bridge their wireless clients into the LAN which is directly connected to the other "routers" and your BEF and thus to the internet. With this setup you only have a single LAN which is created by the BEF. That way broadcasts work everywhere and you can use sharing etc. wherever you want.

Please be aware that there are now many settings in the WRTs they do not work, e.g. the access restrictions, port forwardings etc. as those only work when connected to the internet through the internet port. You must do those settings only on the BEF.

Sidenote: also make sure to put the WRTs into the same SSID with identical wireless security settings but use different channels (e.g. 1,6,11 as they don't overlap). That way you have a big roaming network and clients can (or better: should be able to) move between the access points.

Answer 4

You can do it as long as they are all using the same ip range.

eg 192.168.0.x

so you have your linksys's IP as 192.168.0.1 and DHCP something like 192.168.0.2-100

and your d-link's IP as 192.168.0.101 and DHCP the rest(192.168.0.102-254)

that may work

Answer 5

hi,
try this links, this may help you...
http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101496.asp