Connecting to Routers?

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:24 pm

Can anyone tell me how the heck to connect two routers?

I have to WAP routers and would like to connect them both, so I can have wireless in the house for the laptop, and wireless in the guest house.

I can not figure out for the life of me why I can not get them to work together.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:39 pm

What make of routers are you using?
Also is the distance over ~50 meters?

What you want to enable is "WDS" (Wireless distrobution system)

Both routers must have IP address's in the same range. ie. 192.168.1.1 & 192.168.1.100
You need to select 1 router as your internet gateway......this will be the router plugged into your ph line, cable or another router.
Each (wifi) router can have a different SSID (name) but you must turn off WPA encryption and the in-built firewall (remember to protect your pc via software firewall). You also need to make sure the wireless channel is the same on each router.
Take a note of each router MAC address aswell.
When you enable WDS (on the router in the guest house) you need to enter the MAC address of the other wifi router

You should see an option in each routers config page for WDS.
You will have 2 wifi networks, but it won't matter which one you connect to.

SAMSAMHA · Post by **SAMSAMHA** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:57 pm

I am not sure if your router has this button but my router has an "uplink" button and when I press it, then I can use one of my port to connect to another router. If your router has this one, try to use it. Also check your router's manual, it should give you the instruction.

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:50 pm

Thanks guys.

The router I am using to hook to the Cable Modem is:

F5D6231-4 Belkin Router

I also have a Netgear Router in the guest house:

WGR614 v5

On the Belkin, there is an option for making this a WAP only. Should I look for WDS or WAP only option?

When I get my laptop charged, I'll go plug in on the netgear and see if it has the same option.

Thanks again for the tips.

NAiLs · Post by **NAiLs** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 10:00 pm

What you probably want to do is repeat your router signal. Generally what you have to do is select the repeater option in your routers, put in the host routers ID number into the one that is repeating the signal, and you are good to go. I'm unsure if you can use two different brand routers, but this would be your best option. There might be something else you have to do, but I'm unsure. I haven't touched this in a while and don't have two wireless routers in my house yet.

If you don't understand the "repeater" part, all it is doing is repeating your original routers signal, so long as it receives a signal from the host router.

You can also bridge routers, but I don't think that's what you need. That's more for wired settings. This is what I'm going to do to get wired internet on the other side of my house. I don't feel like running cable even though I have a brand new box of cable.