Dual Router setup

Hello, i'm having real trouble trying to setup a dual router system. I've tried
Broadcasting the different SSID of both routers
Turning off DHCP in the secondary router
Changing the IP address of both routers so they don't clash
Having the IP of the secondary router within the parameters of the primary router eg: 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254

XP seems to be OK (apart from having to re-enter the password every time i turn on the laptop)
But Vista laptops keep getting disconnected
thanks in advance

 

So, why are you using two routers?

GK

 

If you need to expand coverage in your house (I'm assuming that's why you have two routers), why not just buy a repeater instead and hook that up to the original router?

 

Well, you can, technically, use 2 routers, so long as only one is doing the NAT-ing and you have them on different networks.

I have 3 E3000's at my workplace that I utilize to switch clients over to some dedicated ethernet, and can use them simultaneously by following these steps:

The first router that is connected to the WAN is set up the same as it was, essentially, out-of-the-box, barring a static IP. DHCP range is 192.168.1.100-254, and that's that.

The second router must have NAT turned off in the settings, as well as having a static IP on the WAN connection. I set it to 192.168.1.2, default gateway to 192.168.1.1, DNS servers the same as what are assigned to *.1.1. On the second router's DHCP server, it must be issuing addresses to a different network, mine is set to a range of 192.168.2.100-254, and the router's address on that network is *.2.1.

If you aren't afraid of Tomato or DD-WRT, almost all of the versions in the last few years have had a repeater mode baked in. On the E3000, setting them both to the same SSID works automagically with W7 on the stock firmware - good enough for me, although it isn't a continuous session like you might be able to do with DD-WRT (or my Cisco wireless controller).

 

What you need to do is on the slave router is turn off DHCP, set static IP outside of the DHCP range of the Main router. Then you connect LAN to LAN. I have 2 slave routers in my home network. I know this works.

Now for the wireless there's two thoughts. One is set the SSID the same with the same PW. This should allow for seamless roaming.

Others say to use different SSID and have them set for auto connect. The problem this way is that in most cases a connection will not be dropped till it gets very weak.

 

You could also turn off the DHCP server entirely, and simply utilize the switchports. In your scenario, you are not able to utilize the WAN port of your slave routers. In mine, all switchports are available, and I'm able to service 300 DHCP addresses simultaneously - and both networks have no issues communicating with one another.

W7 will automatically weigh signal strength of multiple access points with the same SSID - the connection to an AP is independent of the IP routing, which is the problem.

 

So, can a user on LAN2 browse shares on LAN1?

And could you skip using the second DHCP in router2, making it all one LAN, or would you have to also connect the routers LAN to LAN port?

I understand that you had reasons for your setup, but I'm curious to learn what is possible.

GK

 

Sounds like you want your secondary router to be in the same subnet. So do you have a wire running from a LAN port of router-1 to a LAN port of router-2?
For instance:
Modem goes to router 1 WAN port
router-1 LAN port to router 2 LAN port (don't use WAN port)
router-1 IP address set to 192.168.0.1
router-1 DHCP range set outside of static IPs used
router-2 IP address set to 192.168.0.2
router-2 gateway set to 192.168.0.1
router-2 DNS set to 192.168.0.1
router-2 DHCP disabled