Wireless Networking question

nope, only one would connect and get an ip externally. most residential services will not allow more than one ip assignment per account. you could pay to get another one, then it should work.

alternative is to daisy chain the 2nd router off the first. the first could serve 192.168.10.X and the second 192.168.20.X, essentially keeping them separate. Use any numbers you want as long as the third octet is different.

the "wan" on the second router would get an address of 192.168.10.X and use the 1st router as the internet provider, but the dhcp portion of the 2nd router and devices connected to to it would be one 192.168.20.X.

if you have not bought the hardware yet, i would get one good router and 2 access points or one access point to get more coverage. no need to keep G and N networks separate, unless you want to keep networks apart, like if you have roomates etc.

first, what is suggested will not work. The Diasy Chain idea, as explain will cause double NATing, and thus not work the way your intend.

It's possible to do, but you need different equipment. To have two different networks, you'll need more powerful software/firmware. Maybe DDWRT or Tomato may work; you'd have to research if your modem was compatible and if there firmware/software supported it. You could go with something like Untangle, Smoothwall, PfSense and so on, but you'll need a space PC and additiion NICs to do it. I personally do this in my LAN, but for different because of my own online paranoia.

I'm not exactly sure what exactly your trying to achieve. You're trying to do things: more range, but separate networks for N and G. Depending the on the router, you can create separate SSID networks for N versus G, such as the DLink 655. If you have these two routes already, you could just bridge one router into the other. This will allow to have two separate SSIDs, but you're still on the network like 192.111.111.1. Your just going to assign on router an IP outside the one that actually doing the routing; you're turning the machine into a wireless access point.

For more range, you can look into getting larger antennas if your router allows you to replace them. This can range from about twenty dollars to hundreds of dollars. You can literally set it up to be able to broadcast your neighborhood you're willing to spend the money. The option, put in some repeaters. They're essentially just wireless access points. I haven't looked into getting one myself, but they're may be some that can support more than one SSID/network.

End of the day, you may not have to do all that. Depending on what your house is made out of and location, you may be able to get good signal throughout the whole house. I live in small home, just 1300 square feet. My wireless points at the front of the house. I get signal about halfway through our large backyard. The signal has to travel through several walls and a kitchen. I probably get more range if I had them high on the wall instead mounted under a desk.

The daisy chain would work. You just need to put a static route on router #1 pointing to the network on router #2.

Yes, it is possible...

So long as the inside interface of your cable modem supports the use of two IP addresses.
Imagine 192.168.1.0 on one wireless router and 192.168.2.0 on the second one.
Each router will be configured as a DHCP server.
The inside interface of your cable modem will have two sub-interfaces with IP address 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1.
The DHCP server in each wireless modem will use the corresponding IP address as the default gateway

The outside interface remains untouched and you will not need another IP address from your provider.

You are probably better off using different SSID on each wireless router to make the separation complete...

Yup. Crappy stuff or broken stuff is never worth the frustration

Maybe it is time to get something a little more decent...

I can't imagine having to reboot my router everyday... Neighbours will notice a UFO coming out of my window...

You guys are over thinking this. Yes you can do what the OP wants. Just turn off the DHCP server on the wifi routers and your main router that is hooked up to your ISP will hand out the IPs transparently.

This essentially makes the wifi "routers" into wifi hotspots and local switches. You don't plug anything into the WAN port of the wifi routers, just the LAN switch ports including the ethernet feeds from the main router.

You will need to make sure each wifi "router" has its own SSID and channel.

I did this very thing and it works OK but still I get a lot of dropped connections when moving between the two - especially with my iPhone 4S. Again, when connecting to either and sitting in one place it's great - the problems arise when moving between the two. I expected the laptop/mobile device to simply hop over to the stronger signal seamlessly but not the case. Not sure why.

For WLAN, hand-off between access points is the responsibility of the device and there seem to be few (if any) devices that does this today AFAIK.

I think you clearly missed the point on the OP wanting two separate networks...

I don't want to speak for the OP but there is no reason two have two separate "networks". As I read it he wants to use two wifi routers, a G and an N to provide two different access points with differing speeds.

There is no reason to do double-NATing or static routes in the home unless you are trying to segregate traffic.

I agree that it's over thought, and reading the OP I can't find any reasoning for wanting 2 networks

However, you do connect from LAN to WAN. It's not LAN to LAN

And it's much simpler to have the same SSID and security, as long as DHCP is turned off the whole coverage area (and all LAN ports) will just be one large network. NAT is no different for this approach than it is when connecting to a switch behind a router

http://www.belkin.com/support/dl/f5d6231-4_v2-%20manual.pdf Pg 49 here

http://homekb.cisco.com/Cisco2/GetArticle.aspx?docid=28cee6a2fb0d4176a2210942d1d5836c_Setting_up_the_Linksys_E4200_in_bridge_mode.xml Bottom picture here

Then the infamous DD-WRT. I take it that's where you're coming from with the LAN-to-LAN reasoning? Step 3 explains what to do in the config to go LAN-to-WAN, not sure why they flat out recommend LAN-LAN at first http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point

the last link Dark provided is exactly what I was saying, but in a picture. My post, #5, may have been long winded, but it actually covered a different issues with the problems and solutions that may work best.

And NAT does not have anything to with how many routers. This deals with resolving that the "internet" has a different IP than inside the LAN. Thus, double NATing is doubling the work, and causes at lot of problems that are not always apparent.

The "daisy chain" as present, will either not work because it will either double NAT, which unless the main router has advance features to handle two network, means each router will be doing router, evident from two different networks: 192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x. The turning off the NAT (routing) in the routers and using the access points, assumes the modem from the ISP has a build in router. Not many that many ISP actually do this if it's a similar modem. What you're trying to propose is using the second as an access point or switch.

As to how to setup the various suggestions for access points or switches, it's going to depend on the make and model of the router(s). Some are build to use WAN port, others are not.

The sad bad, we're basically suggesting the same thing, but either have different names or misunderstanding of some key networking principles.

And this is why the answers are all over the place because we're all making different assumptions on what problem you're trying to resolve.

Good of bad, networking is rather limited on how it can be setup. Sometimes if works if not completely correct, but always has issues, even if not apparent.

As for your home WiFi, how many devices you have hooked up is not an issue, per se. It's more, how many devices can your router support or many IPs will your DHCP server support. I've had over twenty in mine. A few years back, it wasn't uncommon for consumer routers to have a limit of ten.

As for your router needing reboots, that shouldn't be happening, at least not daily. Here and there, like once a month or less, not an issue. It's possible your network isn't set completely right or your router is going out.

This is my LAN. Way more complicated than it really needs to be:

nothing wrong with fun. Just have to have idea of what you want to achieve in the fun.

If you see my setup, I have three routers, that are just wireless access points. There is technically four SSIDs. It's not recommend to have them that close because of potential radio interference The black PC is actually my router and hardware firewall. The box sitting on the white ones is my modem. You can also see my print server, voip adapter, my HDHomerun, and lots of cabling. It lots worse than it is. But once you understand some basic networking principles, it's not that bad.. It's more learning how to do it on a particular device.

This thread got me thinking about a possible solution to an annoying problem I've encountered: I cannot get my ps3 to connect wirelessly, but wired it's just fine.

I've tried manual set up with assigning the ps3 a static ip. I've turned off the router firewall as well as the wpa2 psk of the ssid. I've tried a combination of things, but nothing has worked.

I have an Asus rt-ac66u, so I have separate 5ghz ac and 2.4ghz networks set up. I have an Engenius ESR9850 N router currently sitting unused which boasts a "range extender" feature. What I'm looking to do is have the Asus maintain it's position in the network as the main router and have the Engenius sit downstairs by the ps3 and pick up the 2.4ghz N network wirelessly. I don't want a separate N network with a different ssid, as the Asus' network signal strength is good enough throughout my house. My only end goal for this is to plug the ps3 into the Engenius to hopefully trick the ps3 into thinking it's truly a wired connection, and thus work. This should be feasible, correct?
Edited by shiboboo - 1/24/13 at 5:07pm

don't know which ps3 you have, but I don't think any current models have wireless n. if you are asking your router to create an n only band instead of a mixed mode b/g/n band then your ps3 won't be able to connect

I have an original fat ps3. I know it has wireless n because it sees my N only network if I run a scan for ssid's.

It works when I connect the ps3 to the engenius (acting as a repeater) through an ethernet cable. Still can't get it to connect to the exact same network, wirelessly without the repeater.

Well, you really need to give more information. Basically, you're want to use the Engnenious as a repeater or a bridge, wihich is WiFi or wired connection respoective, to the main router.

Where does PS3 fail in connecting to the ASUS. It's possible, the PS3 does not play nice with the ASUS. Does the PS3 even see the SSID on the ASUS; I'm assuming you're broadcast is set to be seen. Have tried manually entering the SSID and passphrase? The static IP would be something you need for portforwading or DMZ because you're not getting a NAT2.

Well, you really need to give more information. Basically, you're want to use the Engnenious as a repeater or a bridge, wihich is WiFi or wired connection respoective, to the main router.

Where does PS3 fail in connecting to the ASUS. It's possible, the PS3 does not play nice with the ASUS. Does the PS3 even see the SSID on the ASUS; I'm assuming you're broadcast is set to be seen. Have tried manually entering the SSID and passphrase? The static IP would be something you need for portforwading or DMZ because you're not getting a NAT2.