Help Using two routers

[P-Dub]

I'm having one heck of a time setting up my home network.

I've got an old SMC router that has printer sharing. So this works well, I can have 3 computers hardwired, and I can have others access it via wireless, 802.11b. So that was my old setup.

Now I'd like to setup a network drive and have a seperate 802.11g wireless access for a new laptop we just got.

Well I purchased another SMC router and thought I could connect it with a simple crossover cable. It sorta works. Once I have it connected, I can no longer get on the internet.

Oh, and for my netork drive, I can only see it when I am connected via hardwire, not via wireless conection.

What should I be looking for?

[junior77blue]

The problem comes up when you try to hook up TWO routers together. Each router wants to be the DHCP, dynamic host something something....

Which means it wants to control what IP addresses are handed out for each component on the network. When you have two such devices doing this it causes havoc.

You can get it to work, but I've always had headaches in doing so. The simplest solution is to have ONE wireless router and then mutlple (if needed) switches from that to hardwire some of the PC's.

[Kevin P]

How do you have the two routers connected? A LAN port on one to the WAN port on the other, or LAN to LAN?

For your setup, I would connect LAN to LAN. Is the 2nd router being used only to add Wireless-G? LAN to LAN will allow the 2nd router to simply act as a switch and wireless access point, while ignoring it's router and firewall functionality (the 1st router will take care of this).

[P-Dub]

I have the routers connected via the LAN to LAN. I've used a crossover cable from one LAN port to the other.

The second router is used to share a network drive and for wireless.

In theory it should be 'simple' but I'm pretty confused about a couple of things.

Should I have DHCP turned on or off? I need it on on the router connected to my ADSL modem. My network drive has DHCP, I think it's on, and the other router has it as well.

OH and another fun thing happened last night. I was trying to do a backup onto the network drive, I reconfigured so I could see it, and my backup stopped.

Maybe I'm doing too many things at once?

[VGuarino]

May I ask why you want two routers? I'm not clear on it. Or are you just using one as a wireless access point?

Having two DHCP servers on your lan will cause a lot of problems.

You should turn off DHCP on one of them.

If you give me an idea of what you are trying to do, I can help you.

Vin

[Kevin P]

Like VGuarino (Ooh, lookee, another member from NH!) said, enable DHCP on one router and disable it on the other. Let the one router dole out the IP addresses for the entire network.

[VGuarino]

(Ooh, lookee, another member from NH!)

Moooo.......Hudson here. :=)

[P-Dub]

I bought the second router thinking I could get faster wirless g access as well as connect a few more compenents to it.

Here is what I wanted to do, but they don't seem to all work together.

So my first router is a 3 port router and 802.11b wireless as well as a print server. I just want 2 computers connected and the 3rd port should just conect to my second router.

The second router is a newer 4 port 802.11g wireless. Port 1 should be from my other router, port 2 would be connected to another computer, and port 3 would be connected to a network drive enclosure for sharing files and backup.

The wireless g router would provide faster wireless access for the new laptop since I would configure it on a different channel and SSID. This would also be a benefit in connecting to the network drive enclosure, as it wouldn't be limited in range and throughput like on the b router.

These routers are from the same company SMC, can't remember the models at the moment.

Needless to say I would expect to be able to print from all computers, and be able to access all the shared folders and the network drive from all computers.

[cinema bob]

wow to much DIY for me. i was wondering why in the heck anyone would want/need to use to wood routers at once...

[Kevin P]

If you connect the two routers with a crossover cable, LAN to LAN, and disable DHCP on one of the routers (the one that isn't connected to your cable/DSL modem), that should work. I would also disable the wireless on the 802.11b router and let the G router handle all the wireless duties.

So basically, what you would have is: cable modem -> B router (DHCP enabled, wireless disabled), crossover cable LAN to LAN to G router (which has DHCP disabled and wireless enabled). This way, the B router handles the Internet routing and DHCP duties, as well as print server duties, and the G router acts as a switch (to give additional Ethernet ports), and your wireless access point (its router functionality would be unused since its WAN port would be left unconnected).

One other thing: Make sure to set the two routers to different IP addresses, but on the same subnet. For example, make the B router 192.168.1.1 and the G router 192.168.1.2. This way you can access the setup pages on both routers. (Initially, you may have to physically connect your PC to each router separately to do this). And make sure the DHCP on the B router is set up to issue IPs on the same subnet, starting at a higher number (e.g. 192.168.1.100 and up), and disable DHCP on the G router.

It doesn't matter which router you connect the network drive unit to. Assuming both routers have 10/100 ethernet ports, they'll work at the same speed. The speed difference is only on the wireless side, going G instead of B. Just make sure to connect everything (other than the cable/DSL modem) to LAN ports, not the WAN port.

Do you have any B-only wireless devices?

[VGuarino]

Yep, Kevin has it.

If the router lan ports are switches (not hubs), you won't necessarily need a crossover to connect to two routers. The switch will figure it out.

Kevin touched on something I completely forgot about and and is so important, putting the 802.11b router on the same network. I have a similar setup, my router is 192.168.1.254, my other router, which is my access point (and has DHCP turned off), is at 192.168.1.250.

You should configure the 802.11b router by itself. First turn off DHCP, then set the IP static (like 192.168.1.250). You will also want to turn the wireless access point off, if it allows you.

Vin

[VGuarino]

Which SMC are you using? My router is an SMC, I have a Belkin Wireless router, but have the routing turned off.

Vin