Gaming 2nd router as access point

[CoNS]

Hi, I am in need of some advice in connection with expanding the wireless range in my house.

I have a modem, which is connected via a cable to a wireless router (a Linksys WRT160N). This all works fine, except that I have a big house where my new iPad 2 seems to have problems picking up the wireless signal in some rooms. Therefore I am thinking about buying a second wireless router to be used as an access point. I assume that the best way would be to use a long patch cable between one of the LAN ports of the old router into one of the LAN ports on my new router.

But how does this work? Should I use the same SSID in both routers? What DHCP settings should I use? What about security settings (encryption type - WEP or WPA). Other stuff with regard to setting up this system, I need to know? Which specific router name/model would you advice me to buy, for ease of setting up the access point?

Thanks in advance

Henrik

 

[Samutz]

Same SSID and security settings, but use a different channel (out of 1, 6, and 11). This way your wireless devices will automatically connect to either one without needing two profiles configured.

WPA2 is highly recommended for security. But a DS requires a WEP or no security.

Disable DHCP on the new router. You can split up your DHCP range between the two of them for redundancy, but its not really necessary on a small network. If the main one goes down, you loose internet anyway.
Some routers also have a DHCP Forwarder option that lets the router tell devices to go to another DHCP server (the main router) to get an IP address. Again, not really necessary for a small network though.

Make sure you change the new router's IP to avoid conflict with the main one as they might both be something like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.0.100 by default.

I would say get another Linksys if that's what your familiar with. Personally I use Linksys with DD-WRT firmware at home and Cisco devices at work. I've had several Netgear devices die on me and don't recommend them. I have one D-Link switch that's worked great so far, but I have not tried any of their wireless products.

Alternately, you can buy a dedicated wireless access point, but wireless routers are typically cheaper.

 

[exangel]

I wanted to mention something that may or may not be of help, but worked out better than expected for a friend of mine.

This solution costs more money but may be easier to set up and possibly more reliable depending on your house's construction.

We used a Belkin powerline network extender kit that was sharing the connection from his primary cablemodem/wifi router and I used a small, low-end four-port wireless router in the bedroom all the way at the other end of his one-story ranch style house, simply configuring the guest room router as a whole seperate access point. I did not expect the signal quality of the powerline network extender to be so strong because his house was built in the early 1970's but I was able to torrent and play MMO's with reckless abandon when I visited him. I cannot recall what transfer rate I got but I believe my peak torrenting speeds were in the high 900's there. I was also able to watch netflix from my laptop in the bed when previously I was getting dropped signal from the primary Cablemodem/Router combo (it was only wireless-G, and the router I used in the guest bedroom was wireless-G which is veritably all obsolete already).

 

[CoNS]

Ok, so I went ahead and bought a Netgear N300 router model WNR2200, to work as a second router / access point. But I cannot get it to work

I have changed the IP address for the Netgear router to 10.0.0.1 so that it does not conflict with the Linksys router at 192.168.1.1. In the router configuration for the Netgear router I have disabled "use router as DHCP server", and in the wireless settings I have used the same SSID as my Linksys router sends out, and I have selected a different channel (channel 11, whereas I have selected channel 6 for my Linksys router). I have used the same wireless security settings (WEP 128 bit) and the same passkey as in my Linksys router (and I have also tried to turn off security encryption in both routers just to make sure that this is not where the problem lies - but no luck).

I have read in another forum that I should make sure to connect my second router to the first router via a normal LAN/patch cable, which goes into a normal LAN port on both routers. But when I do that, I cannot get access to the internet through the second (Netgear) router, no matter if I try to connect via a PC with a LAN/patch cable to the Netgear router (i.e. to a different LAN port than the one I use as "input" from the Linksys router), or if I try to connect wireless. Also, I cannot ping the Linksys router in this setup.

If I instead put the LAN/patch cable coming from my Linksys router into the "Internet" (WAN?) port of the Netgear router, I can get access to the internet when I connect a PC to the Netgear router with a LAN/patch cable. And I can also access the router config of my Linksys router (as well as the Netgear router). But the wireless part for the Netgear router still does not work.

Any ideas are most welcome!

 

[Samutz]

I have changed the IP address for the Netgear router to 10.0.0.1 so that it does not conflict with the Linksys router at 192.168.1.1.

10.0.0.1 is not valid for your network. It needs to be 192.168.1.2 or something else in the 192.168.1.* range that's not being used.
Also check the DHCP range on the first router to make sure 192.168.1.2 (or whatever you use) isn't in the range so that it doesn't try to give that IP to a computer.

For example, on my network my DHCP range is 192.168.1.50 - 255. 2-49 are reserved for static IPs, like switches, servers, etc.

You also shouldn't be using the Internet/WAN port on the 2nd router. Doing so is like creating a second network within your main network. What you really want to do is extend the existing network for things to work smoothly.

 

[CoNS]

THANK YOU SAMUTZ

That seemed to do the trick!!