What is the best way to set up 2 routers on a network? (like daisy chaining)

I googled it, but it didnt really come up with anything.

Quote: Originally Posted by GLO What is the best way to set up 2 routers on a network? (like daisy chaining) I googled it, but it didnt really come up with anything.

You do not want to set up 2 routers. You will need one router and a one switch or hub. Basically all a router does is take your internet IP and share it with all the computers on the network. So a router basically tricks the modem into thinking there is only one PC. How many PCs are you looking to network? The best way to go about it is get one router and one switch or hub. You just would plug in the router configure it the way you would like. Use a cross over cable and hook one of the available ports on the switch. You should just be able to plug it into the first available port on the switch. Your switch might be different than mine so make sure you read the manual. If you are using a switch you will need a cross over cable not a straight through.

Quote: Originally Posted by GLO What is the best way to set up 2 routers on a network? (like daisy chaining) I googled it, but it didnt really come up with anything.

well you could "daisy chain" them if you wanted.
Question? Are they the same type and brand of routers? Also do you want to be able to access the computers on both routers?

You may also have to configure them correctly to if you want to.

I think what you're looking for is Cpt. Planet's answer, however you may be looking to do something more advanced. Things such as Load balancing, diverse paths, redundancy, etc.. If you want to load balance traffic across two routers, you'll have to a) have to run BGP or OSP or another high level routing protocol b) have equipment that is capable of doing a. Provide a bit more detail as to what you are looking to accomplish and there may be a better option.

Quote: Originally Posted by mrcracker I think what you're looking for is Cpt. Planet's answer, however you may be looking to do something more advanced. Things such as Load balancing, diverse paths, redundancy, etc.. If you want to load balance traffic across two routers, you'll have to a) have to run BGP or OSP or another high level routing protocol b) have equipment that is capable of doing a. Provide a bit more detail as to what you are looking to accomplish and there may be a better option.

I think hes just trying to setup a small simple network. Good info Cracker. If he knew he needed load balancing I dont think he would have asked this question.

Good point... sometimes I get ahead of myself...

Check out this article from Tom's Networking. Specifically Page 3 of the writeup. This is what we use to connect multiple routers at my mini-LANs.

Like Cpt. Planet says, this will set up one of the routers as a switch, and works great.

Actually.......I was able to do what e is talking about. I have a Linksys WRT54G and a BEFSR41 v3 routers. My first attempt at getting them to play well did not go so well. Here is what i had:

Cable Modem > Wireless Router > Wired Router > Hub

Two Computers on the Wireless. Two Computers on the Wired. And one computer on the hub. I was eventually able to get all computer to be able to connect to the internet. However, they were not able to see each other on my LAN. The two on my wireless could see each other. And the two on the wired and the one on the hub could see each other. But not between the two routers. They did have net. They could ping each other. But could not see each other LAN wise. I finally got to a point where all computer could connect and all computers could see each other.

This is what i did.....and its not all the steps....because i dont have my router in front of my to go back to the tabs i went too.

First off. Set the second routers local IP to XXX.XXX.1.2 (wireless is 1.1) Put the cable coming from the wireless into port 1 of the wired. Back in the router, i disabled NAT, disabled one other option (i will check when i get home), disabled DHCP, and possibly one other option (like i said i will give you all the options when i get home).

Case in point, that it is possible to do so, without having to configure anything on the computers locally. Which is what i wanted to do as I have a LAN coming up soon.

Thanks for the suggestions/answers, i wasnt expecting such a strong response!!!

I deliberately held back the finer details,so that i wouldnt confuse anyone to early in the piece.

So here is the complete details.

Old set up: Nortel CM115 Cable Modem > Dlink DI-714P+ wireless router with print server.
The DI-714P+ 802.11b wifi +4 ports switch + print server + i fitted a 7db gain antenna.

Since the Nortel would power up but wouldnt pass any data, it was time to replace it.

NEW Set up:
Motorola SURFboard® SBG900 Wireless 802.11g Cable Modem Gateway > Dlink DI-714P+
The Motorola SBG900 has a single ethernet port, a USB port and the 802.11g wifi.
Note: both the SBG900 as well as the DI-714P+ have built in login clients. Naturally only one is needed.

Now since the SBG900 is a wireless router and cable modem in one unit, i would normally have been able to do with out the Dlink wireless router, however the Dlink has a built in print server and more importantly i have fitted a 7db gain pigtail antenna booster to it. The SBG900 does not allow you to connect any other antenna boosters at all.

The SBG900 doesnt have a simple setting to switch between the 2 modes although Motorola have confirmed that its capable of both modes.

So i was trying to set up the SBG900 to work in "bridged mode" instead of "router mode" via the ethernet port. And then i would connect it to the WAN port on the DLink and have the DLink handle the 4port switch and 802.11b wifi.

The SBG900 is accessed by 192.168.100.1 (or 192.168.0.1) and the Dlink used to be accessed by 192.168.0.1, but i had to change it to 192.168.1.1 so there are no conflicts.

I currently have it working in a basic mode similar to Zer0s recommendation.

So that the SBG900 has Wifi, NAT and DHCP all disabled, and the DI-714P+ has its Wifi and DHCP enabled. I used the ethernet port on the SBG900 to the WAN port on the DI-714P+ using the cable from the old Nortel modem (dont know if its crossover or not) So far so good, but as i said this is basic mode for me as i am still looking to streamline this set up as currently none of these 2 units are automatically logining in, i have had to resort to using the software login client on one of the PCs. In short im getting by for now.

Eventually i would like to use the auto-login feature on the SBG900 as it is less likely to fail since its an ISP supplied modem (with the login client as standard) and have the DI-714P+ route all the wired and wifi traffic.

Quote: Originally Posted by mrcracker I think what you're looking for is Cpt. Planet's answer, however you may be looking to do something more advanced. Things such as Load balancing, diverse paths, redundancy, etc.. If you want to load balance traffic across two routers, you'll have to a) have to run BGP or OSP or another high level routing protocol b) have equipment that is capable of doing a. Provide a bit more detail as to what you are looking to accomplish and there may be a better option.

Once i correct the auto-login feature for my basic set up i would like to 'step up' the configuration and look at load balancing. The primary wifi access point (DI-714P+) is 802.11b and feeds 4 pcs for internet access only. The DI-714P+ also is wired to 3 other PCs via the LAN ports. Have a look at the DI-714P+ emulator here.

Actually I would even like to enable the 802.11g on the SBG900 and have that running in stealth mode as a 2nd Wifi Access point for 54mb/s file transfer on the rare occasion from the HTPC.

I presume that load balancing would be handled within each router. But im not sure how much i will benefit from using it? Any ideas know that you can see my set up?

Thanks

Quote: Thanks for the suggestions/answers, i wasnt expecting such a strong response!!!

thats what you get when you ask an intelligent question....

Wow, this turned out to be a much better thread than I initially thought. Have you tried changing the DHCP Server and the NAT functonality to the SBG900 and setting up the dlink to use DHCP relay? If you were to do this all traffic would be living on the same subnet. This should also allow you to enable both wifi points. You want to switch management of the network upstream to the SBG and dumb down the dlink. As for load balancing and such, I was referring to diverse paths out to the net, something I don't think you need to do, unless you're feeling ambitious and want to get a second provider...

with my current setup, are they all living on the same subnet.

note: my HTPC is actually connected via wifi to the Dlink router, and that connection is only used to software downloads or updates. (I previously mentioned that i could utilise the 802.11g from the Motorola if i needed faster xfer speeds, but this would be extremely rare, less than 4 times a year i think)

Quote: Originally Posted by GLO with my current setup, are they all living on the same subnet. note: my HTPC is actually connected via wifi to the Dlink router, and that connection is only used to software downloads or updates. (I previously mentioned that i could utilise the 802.11g from the Motorola if i needed faster xfer speeds, but this would be extremely rare, less than 4 times a year i think)

Here is a Network Map. credit to EZlan.net


Now this surely is workable.

Are you still having problems or somthing? Sorry im missing something

I got it all working.

I just thought i would put up a netwrok diagram to make it clearer for anyone else who may attempt the same thing,

Cheers!