Best setup for two wifi routers

[lucianothomaso]

Which would be the best setup for this situation?
In my office I have an Arris Tg862(modem&router) with a PC plugged in. In the other room 30feet away I have a ASUS RT-N66U WiFI router which is connected to a smart tv and has two usb backup/media hard drives connected.
The Arris is connected to the Asus through a cat5 cable.
Q:
1 should I enable both WIFI with a different SSID?
2 how can i access ASUS usb hard drives from Arris office router on my office PC?
should Arris router be setup in bridge? don't know much about networking setups
3 should I setup Asus as a repeater? and how

To make the long story short, how would you setup your routers in such a given situation to get the best out of it?

Any Idea is more then appreciated


Luciano

 

[Elixer]

Ugh, I hate those combo units.
How is the ASUS hooked up to the Arris, or is that the issue here?
If that is the issue, then, you need the ASUS in bridge mode (disable DHCP), run cat 5e cable to the ASUS from the Arris.
Then, you will be able to look at anything that is connected to the ASUS.

 

[JackMDS]

The Arris should stay as is.

The Asus connected through cable should be configured like this.

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

You can use same SSID, same Password, but put the Arris Wireless ,on Ch. 1, and the Asus on Ch. 11.

 

[smitbret]

If you've got devices plugged in to both the Arris and the Asus, then you'd probably want to set the Asus up as an AP:

http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

Run the LAN cable from the Arris to the Asus and plug it into an empty LAN port, not the WAN port. That will stay empty. Your Arris will take care of routing and DHCP.

 

[lucianothomaso]

Thank you
Elixer, JackMDS, smitbret

I just logged back in the forum and found your responses. Awesome!
It will take me a bit to digest each suggestion. As you can tell I don't know much about networking but with your help I will get this thing fixed today.
Before I will move forward let me tell you what I accomplished yesterday. Please don't laugh
I the office I have the main PC (plus two laptops PC&MAC) and the modem/router Arris. The main PC is cable connected to Arris ( which is the modem/router provided by the internet company). From Arris pulled a cat cable to Asus rt-n66u and plugged into WAN. From Asus all the cables to TV, PS4, and usb bacup/media Hard drives. Very basic and easy to imagine what I did. I run a test and things are functional. The Smart phones, Ipads etc are all functioning. But this is not the plan.
Right now I have two different wireless access points with two different SSID. Arris is set up channel 1 , Asus is set up channel 11 (Arris 2.5ghx is set 20-40mhz, and Asus 5ghz is set to 40Mhz).
Here comes the problem, which I will fix based on your feedback.
While in the office I was trying to connect to the backup usb hard drives. Not that fast Eugene... the cable goes to Arris and Arris is speaking gibberish with Asus. I can connect from the office to the Asus usb hard drives only by switching to Asus WIFI router. Best transfer speed is 4mbps. Same with the MAC laptop and other devices.
Today I will follow your advice and educate myself to see how to set up one SSID and password for the two routers so when I cable connect office devices I will get full cat5 speed transfer from/to media room.
No matter what I will do I don't want to minimize Asus router WIFI potential.
- Will I get WIFI signal from both routers?
- Does it matter which router is channel1 and which is channel 11, JackMDS suggested Arris channel 1 and Asus channel 11?
- Should I set up Asus in bridge and disable DHCP as Elixer said.
- If I simply plug the cat5 cable in the Asus router in LAN port not WAN port, Arris is going to self configure by itself? as smitbret said?
last question:
Which is the best IP range setting for each router ( example Arris 192.168.1.1-192.168.100 / Asus 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.200) and when should I apply this change before setting Asus in bridge and diable DHCP or after?

I know that all this questions are very annoying for someone who knows all this stuff but I really appreciate your patience.
I will get back with a final resolution.

Thank you very much for your time and patience

 

[lucianothomaso]

If you've got devices plugged in to both the Arris and the Asus, then you'd probably want to set the Asus up as an AP:

http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

Run the LAN cable from the Arris to the Asus and plug it into an empty LAN port, not the WAN port. That will stay empty. Your Arris will take care of routing and DHCP.

After I did this I couldn't access Asus router by typing the 192.168.1.1. I do have two usb hard drives connected to Asus so I need access to those from all the computers. I can access via WIFI, but very slow.
Maybe what I am trying to do it s not possible.
From Office PC I send a request to Asus to check the usb HDD and send me back the data through the same cable.
PC-ARRIS-ASUS-HDD and back to PC. I just don' t know how to setup the Asus router in order to have all the transfers through cable.

 

[Hmoobphajej]

After I did this I couldn't access Asus router by typing the 192.168.1.1. I do have two usb hard drives connected to Asus so I need access to those from all the computers. I can access via WIFI, but very slow.
Maybe what I am trying to do it s not possible.
From Office PC I send a request to Asus to check the usb HDD and send me back the data through the same cable.
PC-ARRIS-ASUS-HDD and back to PC. I just don' t know how to setup the Asus router in order to have all the transfers through cable.

If you followed the instructions on the site you should have set your ASUS router to a different IP. In order to access the ASUS router you'll need to log on to the IP you specified for it.

 

[Elixer]

I the office I have the main PC (plus two laptops PC&MAC) and the modem/router Arris. The main PC is cable connected to Arris ( which is the modem/router provided by the internet company). From Arris pulled a cat cable to Asus rt-n66u and plugged into WAN. From Asus all the cables to TV, PS4, and usb bacup/media Hard drives. Very basic and easy to imagine what I did. I run a test and things are functional. The Smart phones, Ipads etc are all functioning. But this is not the plan.

No, not the WAN, you hook it to one of the LAN switches, it can be anyone of them...
Then, what happens is that on your ASUS, it basically becomes a switch, and that just means that it won't assign an IP to any device itself, the request will go to the Arris instead.

For your other questions, IP range don't really matter that much, your Arris will control what it will use. The only thing you care about is if it is in the same subnet. (That just means that your IPs will all be in the 192.168.1.xxx range)

Don't get me wrong, it still is possible to use the ASUS as a router as well, but, then you are going to be dealing with different subnets, and things get more complex.

For wireless, usually, you want the channel with the least amount of interference. You can figure that out by doing speed tests, or, if you have a wifi analyzer on your phone, you can walk around the house with it, and see what channel is the strongest & has the best range.

For bridge mode, it is more or less the same as what they talk about here: http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/114552 but, in your case, one router is the Arris.

 

[lucianothomaso]

I didn't do that. I will try again.
Thank you for your help.

 

[lucianothomaso]

Elixer,

I plugged the cable into the LAN port. But I didn't used the Asus new IP to access it. Consequently I could" t access the backup hard drives usb connected to Asus.
Now I am getting closer.
Thank you a lot for all your help