[joe063]

I am running a CISCO Linksys E1000 as my primary router. I have a Netgear DI-524 that I would like to set up as a second access point on the far end of the house due to weak signal. My thinking is that I could run my entertainment center off the LAN ports and have "extended" range of my wireless network.

The routers are connected LAN to LAN and it seems to be working. I have read several posts about the need to run the second router with a static IP address and the DHCP needs to be disabled. I've also seen that I should not connect LAN to WAN which is why it is connected the way I have it. With the CISCO connected, I can't seem to access the DI router to make these changes; I just get a "connection was reset" error on my browser. Any suggestions?

I do not have the setup disk and had been using the router website to access it before I bought the CISCO.

[TerryNet]

Ya gotta assign an appropriate LAN address to the D-Link before connecting it to your network.

JohnWill's procedure (Aug. 30, 2008) for configuring a secondary router as a switch and, optionally, wireless access point follows.

Connecting two (or more) SOHO broadband routers together.

Note: The "primary" router can be an actual router, a software gateway like Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing, or a server connection that has the capability to supply more than one IP address using DHCP server capability. No changes are made to the primary "router" configuration.

Configure the IP address of the secondary router(s) to be in the same subnet as the primary router, but out of the range of the DHCP server in the primary router. For instance DHCP server addresses 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.100, I'd assign the secondary router 192.168.0.254 as it's IP address, 192.168.0.253 for another router, etc.

Note: Do this first, as you will have to reboot the computer to connect to the router again for the remaining changes.

Disable the DHCP server in the secondary router.

Setup the wireless section just the way you would if it was the primary router, channels, encryption, etc.

Connect from the primary router's LAN port to one of the LAN ports on the secondary router. If there is no uplink port and neither of the routers have auto-sensing ports, use a cross-over cable. [You will not need a cross-over cable if one of the "routers" is a computer.] Leave the WAN port unconnected!

This procedure bypasses the routing function (NAT layer) and configures the router as a switch (or wireless access point for wireless routers).

For reference, here's a link to a Typical example config using a Netgear router

[joe063]

well explained. Thank you for your help.

[TerryNet]

You're welcome.

If you have it working now ..

You can mark this solved using the button at the upper left of the page or just below the last post.

[joe063]

I'm actually away and won't be able to try it for a few days. I'll either ask for more help or mark solved. I hate when i post in forums and don't get feedback so i was acknowledging your help.

[joe063]

I had a chance to play around and did get everything working. Thank you for your help.

A few things that had me hung up that may help someone else reading this are:

1) I plugged the routers LAN to LAN with my computer connected to the primary router.
2) Restarted the second router then my computer, only then was I able to connect to the second router.
3) Found the LAN setting page and changed the IP address. (I had been trying to change this in the WAN settings page and it wasn't working.
4) Rebooted both the Router and my computer
5) Found the DHCP settings and disabled it - as directed by TerryNet.
6) Rebooted my computer

Now everything seems to be working correctly; I think. I don't understand the principle behind it, but rebooting my computer at the various steps was the missing link to my problem.

[TerryNet]

You're welcome.

By "the principle behind it" do you mean the whole procedure/configuration, disabling the Dhcp server, or some other specific part(s). If you're interested perhaps we could discuss it.