Home networking question (1 Viewer)

[ragincajun]

I currently have a cable modem and Dual band router hooked up in my media cabinet (router is on top for signal).

I also have a security panel in our laundry room where all of the cat 5e and cable is terminated too. I woul like to move the modem and router to the panel that way I can have the cat5e powered up. The only issue is that I still want an access point or another full blown router in the media cabinet so I can hardwired a few things and broadcast wifi on that side of the house.

The question is can I have two routers on the same network broadcast the signals?

 

[ragincajun]

Do they both have to be dual band, same brand, etc.....

 

[3C's]

Assuming I understand the scenario and you have an open ethernet port on the router, I would run a cat 5e/6 line from the router to the laundry room and connect to a switch, then connect all the drops on the panel to the switch.

http://cdn5.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-29_132204.jpg

 

[hedzookeeper]

I would get the same brand so you don't have to learn two different vendors.

This is probably the best setup so you'll have file and print sharing throughout the house:

Scenario One:

Configuring a Second Router Without Subnetwork Support

To set up a new router as a network switch, plug an Ethernet cable into any free port of the second router other than the uplink port and connect it to any port of the first router other than the uplink port.

To set up a new wireless router as an access point, configure the device for either bridgeor repeater mode linked to the first router. Consult the second router's documentation for the specific settings to use.

For both wired and wireless routers, update the IP configuration

• 1. Check the second router's local IP address and change it if necessary to ensure it is within the address range of the network as configured on the first router and not conflicting with any other device on the local network.
• 2. Set the DHCP address range of the second router to fit inside the address range of the first router. (Alternatively, disable DHCP and manually set the IP Address of each device connected to the second router to fall within the first router's range.)

Scenario two:

Insert a switch and also a wifi extender if you are not real tech savvy based on Scenario 1.

Good luck.

 

[Bucks]

I would get the same brand so you don't have to learn two different vendors.

This is probably the best setup so you'll have file and print sharing throughout the house:

Scenario One:

Configuring a Second Router Without Subnetwork Support

To set up a new router as a network switch, plug an Ethernet cable into any free port of the second router other than the uplink port and connect it to any port of the first router other than the uplink port.

To set up a new wireless router as an access point, configure the device for either bridgeor repeater mode linked to the first router. Consult the second router's documentation for the specific settings to use.

For both wired and wireless routers, update the IP configuration

• 1. Check the second router's local IP address and change it if necessary to ensure it is within the address range of the network as configured on the first router and not conflicting with any other device on the local network.
• 2. Set the DHCP address range of the second router to fit inside the address range of the first router. (Alternatively, disable DHCP and manually set the IP Address of each device connected to the second router to fall within the first router's range.)

Scenario two:

Insert a switch and also a wifi extender if you are not real tech savvy based on Scenario 1.

Good luck.

I've done this similar to Scenario One as far as just connecting the two routers via a LAN port on each end. So the secondary routers WAN port is unused. On the second router I disabled DHCP and set the Default Gatewaty to the main router's IP. Clients connecting thru the second router get their dynamic IP assignments from the DHCP service running on the main router. Then on the second router I setup the wifi radios to run as an access point. I setup the wifi with the exact same SSID, security type, and passwords as the main router. The only difference was setting a different radio frequency. My home is a long ranch so I actually setup a main router in the middle and two secondary routers at each end. For the 2.4Ghz band I assigned frequencies 1,6, and 11 so there is no conflicts.

The only downside is that I only have 2 open LAN ports at the main and three at the secondary routers. At the main I plugged in a $15 10/100/1000 switch to give me more wired ports.

This was done easily and works great. My difficultly was trying to expand this setup to add a 2nd guest wifi SSID for Internet only that was isolated from the wired ports and the other SSID devices, and worked across all three routers. It required setting up a VLAN and wasn't that straight forward to get working.

 

[captain_amazing]

Question for the networking guys:

I've got a PC, cable modem, router, NAS, and some other stuff all in the office, where the cable drop is.

I ran a long Cat-6 cable out from the router, across the house, to an old Linksys router (flashed new firmware, I think Tomato) working as a hub in the living room, where I've got the networked TV, playstation, TiVo, etc. all going.

Everything works great.

Now, though, I'm thinking I might want to move the NAS box to a separate room. This room is basically in the middle. Can I just buy a network switch with a bunch of ports, cut the Cat-6 cable and splice connector plugs on each end, plug it into the switch and put the NAS on that? Is it that easy? Daisy chain it from the middle and not have to touch anything further down the line?

 

You'd very like have major performance issues if you tried splicing cat.  Just get another cheap switch and place it where you planned on splicing.  

 

[3C's]

Yes, that setup should work fine. Router->switch->router(acting as a switch). Assuming that the router at the end is also a 4 port switch type and you're running a cable from each device to it. I would also use static IP's on all those boxes.

 

[captain_amazing]

As @3C's said, yes that will work. This is what I would do, without knowing how many bends/angles you have in your wall from the middle room to your living room:

1. Pop off the plate in the living room where you have the cat coming in.  Pull out as much as you can and attach some thin but strong twine for snaking.

2. Pull the cable back to the middle room, and put a box and plate wherever you want to plug you that router into.  

3. Using the twine, fish another line back to the living room from the middle room.

4. Punch everything down, ensure you reset the router to factory defaults (although with flashed firmware you prob can't do that), make sure it is not configured to function as a router (turn of DHCP), and you'll be golden.

If you have a punch block in the first room where you have the drops, ideally you'd actually want to fish a line from the middle room to that room and punch it to the block, so you can more easily manage the network from there, but that's a little more work, and both scenarios would work fine.