[FAQ] Using two routers together/ Extending Wi-Fi

tom 2000

Hi guys. I have a second Netgear router connected via homeplug and it works a treat, usually. But it goes off sometimes. The router signal is there but there is no Internet connection. I can't decide if its the homeplug or the router is the problem. At various times I have rebooted one or the other and everything works well til the next time it fails. Any suggestions?

mickevh

Test without the HomePlugs (cable routers together with a network cable) and see if the problem goes away.

When the problem occurs, test pinging both routers from devices connected (preferrably cabled) to each to see if they can "see" each other. If so, not a Homeplug issue. If not, probably a HomePlug issue.

kokolino23

Did you manage to get this sorted? I've just done it for one of my friends and the easiest way was to fit a wireless repeater. I'd guess the second router can be used as a repeater as well but I'm pretty sure you already went through this option.

tom 2000

It's still an occasional problem and have not had time to diagnose. It worked well for months.

Stepney

Hi All,

I have a similar problem to post #63. Apologies but I may have missed the solution or posted this in the wrong thread.

Basically Im trying to connect my primary router, a BT Home Hub 3, wirelessly, to a secondary router, either a spare Belkin F5D8635-4v1 or aNetgear DG834GT wireless router that i have. Wired linking is not an option.

Background
Original setup was cat 5 cable run through most of my house with wireless connectivity as well.. It's old with thick walls over 3 floors and a cellar terminating in the Belkin router in my first floor office. This then connected to my ISP via a phone extension socket.

Work circumstances meant I had to change my ISP and went for BT Infinity which meant the home hub and modem had to be connected directly to the master socket located in another room, one without a wired network connection. I now only connect via wireless but have a blu ray player, ps3, sky box, etc out of wireless range so want to keep them hardwired. Running a new cable between both routers is not an option as it would mean disturbing/damaging some old house features. I've tried a few of the mains power link options which have totally failed after a few days. Also, to save a few quid I thought it best to try and use the redundant kit; Belkin or Netgear. I don't need to use the secondary router to connect anything else to it wirelessly.

Happy to try any suggestions, no matter how technical.

Many thanks

chaz206

Okay people, 1st of all thanks to the OP for the guide really helpfull to newbies like me

Basically ive got a Netgear DG834Gv5 as the primary router & Bt Home Hub 3 as the 2nd router & for the time being its working fine Both wired and wirelessly

when i type in the netgear routers add (192.168.0.1) i can access its settings, but i cant seem to access the BT router at all.

On the netgear the DHCP range is from 192.168.0.2 - 253 (it was 254 but i decreased it by 1 as the BT router ip was 192.168.1.254)

For the 2nd router i have only disabeld its DHCP and thats it i havent given it its own ip or anything. But i would like to be able to access both routers - obvious choice

For the 2nd router BT Home Hub 3 - what else would i need to do and how would i give it is own ip add and or what ip, subnet, gateway would i give it??

Cheers, all

Davemazo

After hours and hours of trying I finally managed to get access to the internet through my second router but I think I still have problems.

My first and main router is a Cisco/Linksys WAG320N with an ip of 192.168.1.1 and a DHCP range of 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150

My second router which I want to use downstairs to improve the wireless signal is a Netgear Rangemax DG834N. This has ip of 192.168.0.1. Somewhere in the settings I changed this to 192.168.1.75 but elsewhere in the settings I left it at 192.168.0.1 because it didn`t seem relevant and I wasn`t exactly sure which one to change. I changed the SSID to the same one as my Cisco/Linksys and used the same wireless password and security settings. Also on the Netgear I changed the gateway to 192.168.1.1, the ip address of the Cisco, and entered the DNS 1 and DNS 2 settings to match the Cisco. Subnet mask I left at 255.255.255.0 to match the Cisco.

I can now connect wirelessly to the Netgear but instead of the SSID showing up as the same as the Cisco it comes up as NETGEAR and warns me that other people could have access to my network as it is unsecured despite me changing the settings to WPA2-Personal, the same as the Cisco..

I have obviously missed something but I can`t now get access to the Netgear settings page to try and sort things out. I know I could reset the Netgear but for the time being I am reluctant to because I`m nearly there

Also I`m not sure if it matters but both routers are using the same channel 11

I hope this all makes sense and someone can help me with this

mickevh

If you haven't changed the HomeHubs LAN Address to 192.168.1.something, you won't be able to reach it from a device with a 192.168.0.something address without a load of faff.

It's probably easiset to reset the HomeHub back to factory default and work through the FAQ (long version) again - it's all described in there, but if you get stuck, post back.

mickevh

Sounds like you may have been changing the "WAN" settings (how router connects to ISP,) not the "LAN" settings. The secondary routers don't need DNS, or any other WAN settings. They just need an IP address and a Subnet mask that's part of the primary routers subnet in the LAN settings. Just be sure it's the LAN IP addresssing you are changing not WAN. The WAN settings will (effectively) be ignored in the secondary routers.

Clients generally don't lie - if it's detecting an SSID as unencrypted and unsecured, then you can be pretty confident it is just so. If you get hold of a programme called InSSIDer (basic wi-fi scanner) that also reports the security settings of each SSID it detects. (It could be that maybe "NETGEAR" is a neighbour with a router using default values - InSSIDer will show that too.)

Without lot's of hassle reconfiguring your client computer, you won't be able to get to the secondary router without lot''s of faff. I'd reset router to factory defaults and start again.

To reduce interference between the two coverage cells, they should be different and 5 apart - pick 2 from the set [1,6,11] or pick 2 from the set  [1,7,13] etc. If either/both of your routers offer some of the higher rate 802.11N modes (more than 150mbps, eg 270,300,450) then you routers are probably using "wide" radio channel and as such there isn't enough frequency spectrum in the 2.4GHz band to get non-interfering channels, so just set them as far apart as possibe [1,13 - or whatever your routers will permit] to reduce interference as much as possible.

Davemazo

Ok, many thanks for your time. I`m still having problems though. I`ve included a photo of the secondary router setup page

                                                                                                                                               

I know that my primary router starts its DHCP range at 192.168.1.100 up to 150. The first thing I did after resetting the Netgear was change the IP address on this page to 192.168.1.149 and unticked the box next to "Use router as DHCP server". I left subnet mask at 255.255.255.0 which is the same as the primary router.  I then clicked "Apply" and restarted both router and attached PC but I can`t get access to the secondary (Netgear) routers setup page again.

This keeps happening whenever I change from the Netgears default 192.168.0.1 I lose access to the setup page. Am I missing something obvious?

******EDIT***** All sorted. I didn`t realise I then had to plug the secondary router into the primary and then access the secondary through the network