Connecting One Router To Another

[Robin]

I want to use an existing router as the master one and use my new one as an wi-fi/lan extender (slave) and connect the two via ethernet (through powerline).

I have read loads of threads around the net and still can't get it to work. People can't seem to explain in plain English what to do to make it work.

Can someone help?

 

[TB]

We'll start with the basic questions and go from there.

Have you checked that the cables are plugged into the correct ports?
Is the master is at 192.168.0.1 and the second 192.168.1.1 (as an example)?
Is the DHCP disabled on the second?

 

[Robin]

This is what I have done so far as I understand it from the guides.

On the master router,

- Left the IP as 192.168.1.1.
- Changed the DHCP range to start at 192.168.1.3.

On the slave router,

- Changed the routers IP to 192.168.1.2.
- Turned off DHCP.

Rebooted both,

Plugged them together using ethernet on LAN1 ports and its not working. The slave is still knocking the master out.

Surely there is some other setting needed?

 

[wfooshee]

What does "knocking it out" mean?

If I understand correctly, you just want the second router to be a wireless access point elsewhere in the house. The "primary" router is the Internet gateway for everything, right?

Is the first one wifi also? They should both use the same SSID and security key to allow devices to roam between them freely.

Some routers treat the wifi as a separate network, different from the wired network, and in such a router you would actually have to allow traffic to pass between the wireless and wired or it won't find the Internet through the main router.

 

[Infinital-NG]

Model of your routers would be helpful.

 

[TB]

On the master router,

- Left the IP as 192.168.1.1.
- Changed the DHCP range to start at 192.168.1.3.

On the slave router,

- Changed the routers IP to 192.168.1.2.

I might be incorrect but if your slave is outside the range of the master, it won't work, will it? Try changing the range to start at .2 instead if .3.

 

[Akira AC]

It depends on which "master" and which "slave" you might be using.

ISP -> Modem 1 -> Modem 2

DNS -> First Range IPs (own WLAN) -> Second range of IP's (own WLAN), if bridge mode is used then you need to set up the ppp settings in your second router with your ISP provider.

If not, then manually range the DHCP.


Edit:

It would be helpful if you enable DHCP on them, but give them ranges, in this case the first router should use the 192.168.1.1 as default gate and should range until 192.168.1.16, then the second router should go from 192.168.1.17 onwards. Depends on the modem model, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the DHCP range that one of the routers is using.

 

[Robin]

What does "knocking it out" mean?

If I understand correctly, you just want the second router to be a wireless access point elsewhere in the house. The "primary" router is the Internet gateway for everything, right?

Is the first one wifi also? They should both use the same SSID and security key to allow devices to roam between them freely.

Some routers treat the wifi as a separate network, different from the wired network, and in such a router you would actually have to allow traffic to pass between the wireless and wired or it won't find the Internet through the main router.

Knocking out as in killing the DSL connection to the phone exchange, so when I plug the slave router in to the main router its messing up the connection to the outside world. Probably because the master router is getting confused. Bare in mind the master router is an all in one unit (not got a separate modem).

Yes I just want to use the second router as a switch / repeater but joined by cable.

Model of your routers would be helpful.

It won't really help because these are OEM routers provided by the ISP. They aren't sold models but have all the same settings you would expect of a normal router.

It depends on which "master" and which "slave" you might be using.

ISP -> Modem 1 -> Modem 2

DNS -> First Range IPs (own WLAN) -> Second range of IP's (own WLAN), if bridge mode is used then you need to set up the ppp settings in your second router with your ISP provider.

If not, then manually range the DHCP.


Edit:

It would be helpful if you enable DHCP on them, but give them ranges, in this case the first router should use the 192.168.1.1 as default gate and should range until 192.168.1.16, then the second router should go from 192.168.1.17 onwards. Depends on the modem model, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the DHCP range that one of the routers is using.

All the posts I read said disable DHCP on the slave router, could this be where I'm going wrong?

I might be incorrect but if your slave is outside the range of the master, it won't work, will it? Try changing the range to start at .2 instead if .3.

Makes sense but again all the posts said to have the DHCP start after the IP of the slave router, let me also give that a go.

I really appreciate all the replies guys, thanks

 

[DQuaN]

Don't have two DHCP servers enabled on the same network, it will cause all sorts of problems.

I might be incorrect but if your slave is outside the range of the master, it won't work, will it? Try changing the range to start at .2 instead if .3.

You are incorrect. The DHCP range is what is handed out to the clients. You start it at .3 so it doesn't try to hand .2 out to a PC/laptop/etc.

It's almost certainly going to be a setting on the slave router that's causing the problem. Are you certain that DHCP is disabled on it? If it's an OEM router some information/screenshots of it would still be helpful.

 

[Robin]

This is what I've got set on the master router,

View attachment 84209

And what I have set on the slave router,

View attachment 84211

When I plug the two together using LAN1 I can't access the internet wired (LAN2 port) or wireless through the second router.

 

[Akira AC]

This is what I've got set on the master router,

View attachment 84209

And what I have set on the slave router,

View attachment 84211

When I plug the two together using LAN1 I can't access the internet wired (LAN2 port) or wireless through the second router.

Okay, I would set up like this:

Router one (master) :

IP address: 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
----------------------------
IP adress: 192.168.1.1
-enable DHCP
Start IP address: 192.168.1.2
End IP address: 192.168.1.15

DNSs: (are you sure about these ones, because they don't seem like proper DNS dirs to me)
========================

Router 2 (slave) :

IP address: 192.168.1.2
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
secondary IP (I would disable this) : 192.168.1.16

-enable DHCP

Start IP: 192.168.1.17
End IP: 192.168.1.254
=======================

I can see the first modem is a Huawei, but I'm not sure about the slave router configuration since it seem to use 2 IPs.


This is the way I would do it.

 

[Robin]

I was just editing my post when you replied, I got it working!

There was one extra setting I needed to change on the slave router which wasn't mentioned in the guides I read.

I had to set the DNS Server (in a separate config window) on the slave router from auto to the IP of the master router. That combined with disabling DHCP and setting the slave to 192.168.1.2 made it work.

I'm not sure why but it seems to be OK now, both wired and wireless through the slave. It would be good to know though for future why that setting made it work.

Thank you for all the help guys 👍

 

[TB]

Troubleshooting networks is a royal pain. Glad to see you got it running!

 

[wfooshee]

If it's not serving DHCP I don't know why it cares about DNS. Usually that setting is so you can specify a DNS server address to DHCP client devices. Without it, the router should specify itself as the DNS server for the network. But if it's not serving DHCP address then it shouldn't be telling anybody what the DNS IP is.

That said, DNS not being specified would make it seem as if you have no Internet access, as without name lookup, no web sites will work. A good troubleshooting step with no web access is to ping a known IP address. Here in the states a couple of good ones are 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2. If you can ping them but not browse web sites, then you have Internet access but no name lookup, which is a completely different issue from no Internet access at all.

Irelevant, I guess, since it's working.

 

[MHPALA]

That said, DNS not being specified would make it seem as if you have no Internet access, as without name lookup, no web sites will work. A good troubleshooting step with no web access is to ping a known IP address. Here in the states a couple of good ones are 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2. If you can ping them but not browse web sites, then you have Internet access but no name lookup, which is a completely different issue from no Internet access at all.

Gotta love Google's DNS servers 👍.

 

[doctorrg]

I had to set the DNS Server (in a separate config window) on the slave router from auto to the IP of the master router. That combined with disabling DHCP and setting the slave to 192.168.1.2 made it work.

I'm not sure why but it seems to be OK now, both wired and wireless through the slave. It would be good to know though for future why that setting made it work.

Might be a router-specific thing. I've got a similar setup, first a modem in bridge, behind it my first router handling all internet traffic with wireless off, then a second router pretty much functioning as a wireless access point, handling all wireless. On the second router, I didn't set up internet access and left the DNS entries blank (default behavior is to act as a DHCP Client), and everything is working as it should. Everything else is pretty much the same setup you've got. Both on the same subnet, the second router's IP outside of the first router's DHCP range, with the second router's DHCP off. No need to specify the first router as DNS server in the second in my setup.

Glad you got it working, though!

 

[Robin]

Although I got it working, I'm now having a weird issue.

Nothing will connect wirelessly to the slave router without being first connected to the master router then switched over Any thoughts?

 

[wfooshee]

I wonder if the "slave" has a setting along the lines of "use as access point?" I have a Belkin in my house that I'm doing the same thing with... I just wanted wireless from it. A port on its LAN switch was connected to the switch on the main router, I gave it an unused address on my LAN and turned off DHCP, but until I found that "Use as access point" check box it just didn't work. It INSISTED on being The Router for the house, even though it had no WAN connection. Once that box was was checked, it's perfect.

 

[Robin]

I wonder if the "slave" has a setting along the lines of "use as access point?" I have a Belkin in my house that I'm doing the same thing with... I just wanted wireless from it. A port on its LAN switch was connected to the switch on the main router, I gave it an unused address on my LAN and turned off DHCP, but until I found that "Use as access point" check box it just didn't work. It INSISTED on being The Router for the house, even though it had no WAN connection. Once that box was was checked, it's perfect.

Yeah I'm going to revisit the settings on the second router because I'm sure there are other things which need checking. I'm surprised its such a difficult process, they should just have a 'Use As Switch' button.

Its almost like the laptop has to shake hands with the master router to be assigned an IP, only then will the second router pass the internet through!

 

[wfooshee]

Its almost like the laptop has to shake hands with the master router to be assigned an IP, only then will the second router pass the internet through!

Well, partly that's exactly what SHOULD happen, except it should be able to get DHCP via the wired connection through the second one to the first one, without having to go to the first one by itself first. The primary router is the DHCP, but the second router should be acting as a simple switch/wireless-access-point, which apparently it isn't.

You wouldn't give the models of the routers because "it wouldn't help, they're the OEM routers from the ISP." Well, it would help. Are these for a DSL connection? How did you end up with two of them if they come from the ISP? DSL routers are ...... different. At least in the states. If they don't authenticate on the WAN via PPPoE, they don't behave well at all. You'd probably do better going down to the store and just getting the cheapest wireless router they have and doing the same stuff: setting its LAN to 192.168.1.2, disabling DHCP, and setting up the wifi the way you need it.