2 routers 1 network

[at80eighty]

great now i have that[/] video in my head

anyway - networking idiot here, so any help appreciated (apologies if this was posted recently)

I was hoping for the following primary clarification:

a) How do i connect the second wifi router to the network being broadcast by Router 1?

Thereafter I'd like to then use CAT cables to the different devices in the room

Secondary questions:

b) do i need to flash new firmware on router 2 to pick up the 5ghz signal?
c) will this approach result in a more stable signal than using individual adapters for each device?

Fire away if i can answer anything from my end

Thank you

 

[at80eighty]

guess im not just an idiot at networking alone. mods please move this to the Networking tab?

 

[bearxor]

So a quick look on teh Googles shows that the DIR-615 doesn't have a bridge mode out of the box. So you're not going to be able to connect it to another router via wireless using stock firmware.

DD-WRT appears to be available for most models of this router, so you'd need to flash that on to it and that will give you a wireless bridge mode.

http://forums.dlink.com/?topic=13599.0

Secondly, the DIR-615 doesn't support 5ghz at all. The hardware is not there.

Finally, I don't know if it would make a "more stable" connection, as that's a pretty crappy low end unit. You'll probably need to power cycle it once every couple of weeks. It's certainly (probably) cheaper than getting adapter for each device, which is usually the biggest appeal of using an old router like that.

If you can spend money on it, you might check out the Netgear WN2500RP, which is a bridge/extender. It will extend wifi on both 2.4 and 5ghz (N600 only) and provide you with a 4-port switch to connect devices directly to it. It's $80 and I'm sure there are other devices out there to do this as well, but am really only familiar with this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-Dual-W.../dp/B006V72AHC

 

[JoeBleed]

Are you trying to just use the old router2 to give wired only devices wireless capability or do you also want router 2 to double as a second wireless access point to give better coverage to your house?

Can you not use a network cable to connect the two routers? This would give the best results. Also, you'll want to plug it into one of the normal ports, disable dhcp on router2 and make sure it doesn't have the same address as router 1.

 

[Anubis]

easiest way is to wire a cat5 cable from router 1 to router 2, you lose a port on each but as long as you turn off DHCP on router 2 it will act like normal, as long as you set the wireless password the same.

its what i do in my house

Modem - Router - 3 floors - router - switch. both broadcast the same wireless signal

 

[at80eighty]

bearxor

Thanks for the details. i'll admit im trying to cheap out a bit here; bought some new toys so im strapped this month. will keep this or an equivalent in mind.



JoeBleed

I'm (atleast in my head) trying to go with a)
I'd like to mention that the devices do have their own wireless capabilities, but I did some very elementary skimming and saw a link or two that says using wires connected to a wireless bridge allows marginally better bandwidth.

The Cubox is my main worry, as im looking to use it as a headless unit to stream flac files from my NAS (in the living room) - and would prefer whichever option might give me a less stuttered experience, if that makes sense


Anubis

I'd love to but my room is positioned in the house layout in such a manner, that it's a complete PITA to do so; so unfortunately im ruling that out.

Thanks guys

 

[Matt1970]

Why do you need a second router? I have a wireless G router that even the weakest devices can easily connect at 100 feet.

 

[smitbret]

If I read this right, you want:

modem----wired----router 1))))wireless))))router 2---wired----a bunch of devices

I hope my art makes sense.

Basically, you are asking for router 2 to be a wireless bridge. Router 2 will have to have a bridge mode or be able to be flashed to something like DD-WRT that does have a bridge mode. You will need to check with the DD-WRT website to see if your router is compatible.

If not, I recommend this one for cheap:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122275 if you want just 2.4Ghz

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122275 if you want dual band

Either can be flashed to DD-WRT and act as a bridge

It sounds like you want to use the 5Ghz band as "the" band for the wireless bridge and as long as there's not too much distance or too many obstructions, that will work fine. Personally I think it's a great idea so that other devices don't saturate the connection. 5Ghz just doesn't penetrate or cover the distance that 2.4Ghz does, so keep that in mind. My personal experience is that it is about half as good. If a 2.4Ghz will go through 4 walls, then expect 2 walls from 5Ghz. If a 2.4Ghz will cover 150 feet, expect 75 feet from 5Ghz.

 

[JackBurton]

If I'm hearing you correctly, you're wanting a wireless bridge. To do that you don't need two router. Just get one of these and connect it to any switch you want. In your diagram, this would be installed in your bedroom. It would connect wirelessly to your router, and when connected to a switch, it will also provide connectivity to any wired device in that room (bedroom).

 

[spacejamz]

I am using a pair of Netgear powerline adapaters, one connected to my cable modem/router in my home office room and the other to an 8 port switch in the living room...no issues at all streaming high def video (netflix, amazon, etc)...

house is only 11 years old so the wiring is pretty new which helps...

 

[cmdrdredd]

If you use Tomato on that router you can set the WAN port as an Ethernet LAN port, disable the DHCP server, and you can run the wifi as "Access point + WDS" and type the MAC address of your first router in so that when you connect through WiFi to router 2 they will be connecting to the same network as router 1 and receive an IP from router 1. Then you have two access points and no matter which one you connect to, whether it be wired or wireless, you are always getting the same IP range from the router connected to your modem. I use this setup currently. There are some disadvantages to this. Any traffic between computers or other devices that communicate between the access points have bandwidth halved. It's not ideal but it works fine for my usage which doesn't include any latency sensitive data transmission.

 

[at80eighty]

smitbret : read it right. thats what im looking at. didnt know about the 5ghz range issues. explains a lot viz. my experience

JackBurton & spacejamz : noted; going to look out for an extender, after this thread

cmdrdredd : got it - was keeping DD WRT in mind, but i'll look into Tomato too

Thanks again all

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

One other option is to use MoCA adapters. They use the coax cable in your house and essentially turn them into Ethernet cables (doesn't affect the TV signals over the same lines). You would run a line out from the LAN port of the router in the living room to a MoCA adapter, then have another MoCA adapter in the bedroom upstairs connected to a coax cable which would go into a network switch to distribute to the various devices over Ethernet cables.

The advantage is that it's very simple to use (DD-WRT can be a bit of a headache if you aren't a bit skilled with wireless networking), more reliable and faster than wireless or powerline networking.

 

[sdifox]

wireless bridge is fairly standard these days.