If you're like most people, you have at least two routers in your home. Get the second router out of the closet and put it to work.
How to Run Two Routers Together
If you have more than one router, you can run it as a wireless access point and extend the range of your WiFi network. Or you can use it as a hub and allow multiple computers to share network resources and communicate with each other. But the configuration for this is a little tricky, but if you have a little patience, you can have your extended network up and running in a matter of minutes. This article will explain how to turn a standard router into a hub or access point by disabling many of the features in its configuration that make it a router. All of this will be done on the second router and no configuration should be necessary on the main.
Start By Gathering Information About Your Network
You will need several bits of information before you're able to run two routers together. The first is, you must know the main router's internal IP address. You router receives two IP addresses, one the outside world sees and another the internal network sees. The easiest way to figure this out is to login to a PC and go to Start>Run and type cmd and hit OK. At the prompt type ipconfig /all and you will see the Default Gateway address. This might be something like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 or even 10.0.0.1.
You will also need to know your second router's default login because we are going to reset it to system defaults. If you have a D-Link, the username and password might be admin / admin or admin / with no password.
If you have a Linksys router, the username and password will be something like admin / admin or no username and admin as the password.
You can then depress the tiny red button at the back of the router to reset it. Next, connect an ethernet cable to the router and a PC or laptop. Open your browser window and type in the router's default IP address. You should now see the router's login box. Try the default password for that model and you should gain access to the router's configuration window.
Turning Your Router into a Wireless Access Point or Hub
Now that you have access to your router, you can turn off some of the features that make it a router. You will first want to disable DHCP. You will then want to set its IP address to something loacl to your current network. For instance, if your router is 192.168.1.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, you can set the static IP address on the second router as 192.168.1.11 or something similar that doesn't conflict with any other devices on your network. You can specify whatever SSID you want. If your main is also a wireless router and its SSID is OFFICE, then you can make the second router OFFICE2.
Be sure to enable WPA (or if you have to WEP) on the second router. It's a good idea to keep the security and passwords the same as the main router to keep it simple. But you can give them both different setups for security.
Some Extra Tips For a Dual Router Setup
One of the main things that trips people up when trying to configure a second router is the IP address of the computer. Since you are likely switching IP addresses to the other router, you must also temporarily switch the IP address of the connecting computer so it can see the second router. For instance, if your PC has an IP Address of 192.168.1.2 and your second router has a default IP of 192.168.0.1, your PC will not be able to login to the router. You will need to go into your network connections and right-click the connection, then select Properties, then select the TCP/IP and edit it's properties. Give it a static IP address to match the second router. You may need to reboot once you make this change or click the connection again and select REPAIR.
It's also a good idea to disable the wireless on the computer if it's a laptop. You do not want to be connection to BOTH the main router and the second router at the same time.
If you have any other questions about connecting two routers together, be sure to visit our free computer message boards today.
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