Can you use any router with any other router?

[Xylitol]

Say I have a 2wire Homeportal router - Could I use a linksys for my 2nd router in the house?

Just need a quick response - posted it in networking for the long response but want a quick yes/no on the off topic group

Thanks

 

[RossMAN]

It sure would be nice if we had a networking forum

 

[Kadarin]

Short answer: YES. Turn off the dhcp server on one of the routers, and make sure the LAN addresses are both different from each other, and are in the same subnet.

 

[Xylitol]

Originally posted by: Kadarin
Short answer: YES. Turn off the dhcp server on one of the routers, and make sure the LAN addresses are both different from each other, and are in the same subnet.

K - sounds complicated
I found the exact same model as the one I currently own - I'll just get that one

 

[George P Burdell]

Short: YES

Long: To begin with, why do you need two routers?

 

[Xylitol]

Originally posted by: George P Burdell
Short: YES

Long: To begin with, why do you need two routers?

My house is too big for my 1 router to give good reception to a lot of places in the house

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: Xylitol

Originally posted by: Kadarin
Short answer: YES. Turn off the dhcp server on one of the routers, and make sure the LAN addresses are both different from each other, and are in the same subnet.

K - sounds complicated
I found the exact same model as the one I currently own - I'll just get that one

No reason to do that as you would still need to do the same thing as you would with your old router. Having the same model doesn't make them magically work... if that were the case all my windows 2003 servers would run without a hitch.

 

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: Xylitol

Originally posted by: George P Burdell
Short: YES

Long: To begin with, why do you need two routers?

My house is too big for my 1 router to give good reception to a lot of places in the house

Huh?

 

[nsafreak]

Sounds like he's trying to extend the range of his wireless network. If that's the case OP you're better of getting a wireless access point instead of another router. Adding another router when you don't know what you're doing (not trying to be an arse here) is just a recipe for headaches.

 

[seemingly random]

I would imagine the two routers are wired together.

 

[Czar]

I have a thomson router from my ISP which connects to my ADSL TV box and a linksys router. I connect my computer to the linksys router.. plus I have a range extender because of that stupid concrete wall

 

[Rubycon]

I'm no networking guru, but you don't have to be one to do this either.

Let's say your current router's IP (and usually this is your default gateway) is 192.168.1.1.

On the new router, plug it directly into a PC. By default it should have its DHCP server enabled. Do an IPCONFIG/ALL to get the default gateway. Go to this IP and log on using your web browser.

The first thing you want to do is turn OFF the DHCP function. Your PC should keep its address but if it doesn't that's ok as you can assign one temporarily in order to connect to the router.

Log back in the router and change its IP to 192.168.1.2 (it's normal for the DHCP client range to start at 100 and if not on the first router change it so you don't have an overlap!)

Set up your SSID and security for your second router WLAN as you wish. If your SSID on router 1 is called mywirelessnetwork you may want to name the second in a similar fashion; such as mywirelessnetwork1 etc.

Finally when connecting your second router to your network just plug in one of the switch ports to your existing network. Do NOT connect the WAN port to anything. The second router will function as an access point like this and give you better coverage as you need.