Bigger Network

[thedude]

I have unwilling have to make this setup work. I think my drawing is self explaining on what I want to do. I want to link together two routers to be one network. I have a upstairs office with no internet and I have another setup down stairs in my kitchen setup on the internet. I am not 100% on how to do it but have a theory or two.

[Sparda]

The easiest option would be to use wireless, you can get wireless bridge devices specific for that task of connecting a wired Ethernet device to a wireless network or get a WRT54G (or similar) install DDWRT and run it in client mode. This is not the best option for performance or reliability however. The best option for reliability and performance is to run a wire.

Ethernet over mains adapters might work, however, unless your house is particularly old and has all floors on the same ring main, they probably won't work.

[Infiltrator]

That should be easy to set up, like Sparda mentioned above you could set up the two wireless router together in a bridge mode, but throughput performance may be the only issue you will have to deal with.

However, if the two routers support RIP protocol you could use an Ethernet cable to interconnect the two routers together thus exchanging information among your network devices.

Another option would be to buy x2 small x5 port network switches and connect them together through an Ethernet cable.

[3TeK]

Another option would be to buy x2 small x5 port network switches and connect them together through an Ethernet cable.

i would do that, it's more reliable. you could always buy 2 openmesh routers and connect them together ;-)

[VaKo]

I have a similar setup, with an xBox 360 and a media center in the front room, and a wireless router hooked into a DSL modem in the hall. So I installed DD-WRT on an old WRT54G I had laying about, and I now have it running in client bridging mode connected via wifi to the router in the hall. Speed is a bit shit, especially when the microwave is on, but otherwise it runs well enough to watch iPlayer or 4od on the TV. Would cost about £20 to implement using wireless G, and would take about 1hr to setup if your not used to DD-WRT.

I also used a similar setup at another house, and while LAN -> LAN was piss poor, LAN -> WAN was fine, could max out a 20MBit connection with usenet behind the 2nd router.

[misfitsman805]

Here is my current network setup. Hope it help on setting yours up.

[thedude]

My whole point is to connect the two routers via wireless network. I do not want to run cable to each of them. I am sure I am set on a way to do this and still working on it.

The point is to have Router A with the modem in one room and have Router B that will connect wirelessly to Router A in another room.

[digip]

My whole point is to connect the two routers via wireless network. I do not want to run cable to each of them. I am sure I am set on a way to do this and still working on it.

The point is to have Router A with the modem in one room and have Router B that will connect wirelessly to Router A in another room.

I imagine something like this:

192.168.1.0: network ID

192.168.1.255: broadcast ID

Modem > Router 1 physical connection

Router 1 IP Address: 192.168.1.1/24

Router 1 DHCP Range: 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.126

Router 2 IP Address: manually set to 192.168.1.127/24 > Gateway 192.168.1.1 > DNS set up manually if needed or pointing to router 1 should still work

Router 2 DHCP Range: 192.168.1.128-192.168.1.254

Not sure what you would do though if passwords have to be set to access the networks routers or how keys are shared.

This is just an example. You could change the IP address class and mask for a much larger network, but will you need more than 200 or so devices connected at the same time from a home network?

Edited June 5, 2010 by digip

[Infiltrator]

My whole point is to connect the two routers via wireless network. I do not want to run cable to each of them. I am sure I am set on a way to do this and still working on it.

The point is to have Router A with the modem in one room and have Router B that will connect wirelessly to Router A in another room.

Then all you need is bridging mode set on your routers nothing else. Make sure that routers support this feature.

Edited June 5, 2010 by Infiltrator

[Razor512]

My setup at home uses 2 WRT54GL's one uses my internet connection and the other is setup as a client (both are running tomato firmware)

While wireless may not be as fast or reliable, I get my full internet speed since the wireless can easily handle it.

I have not changed any settings for over a year and I never had a connection problem.

I use the wireless router in order to provide internet to1 computer and a xbox 360 (don't have any games for the console but I have orb 2.0 which makes the xbox 360 great for streaming content from my PC), the computer in the basement is mainly used as a server)

Compared to dd-wrt, I find tomato to be much easier to use. It is also more stable than dd-wrt. The last time I restarted my router was when I updated to tomato 1.27, other than that, I never restarted and my connection uptime is about the same as my system uptime.

If you have a compatible router, I recommend you try dd-wrt and tomato to see which is best for you.

For additional info, here are simulations of both the dd-wrt UI and the tomato UI

dd-wrt http://www.informatione.gmxhome.de/DDWRT/S...aVPN/index.html

tomato http://lampiweb.com/virtual/Tomato_RAF/status-index.html

[VaKo]

Never had a stability issue with DD-WRT myself, it will happily run without being touched for well over a year solid.