2 Wireless routers... how do I get one to connect to the other?
 

I have a wireless router in my basement which supplies the main internet connection for all the computers in my house.

I picked up a Wireless G router for VERY cheap from a friend's parents... and what I want to do is have a wireless router upstairs so that when I need to fix a computer and have to hard wire a connection, I don't need to haul the thing downstairs to plug it in.

Now, this is where I'm at a loss... how do I do this?

Basically I need the wireless router upstairs to acquire an IP from the wireless router downstairs... for example, it'll be 192.168.1.50. Then obviously any computers I wire into the router upstairs will use 192.168.1.50 as the gateway.

I'm not too keen on wireless router setups, but I'll give the manual another read... perhaps there's something I'm missing, but has anyone done this before?

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
try this site for networking tips

Router 1: DHCP's address from your ISP. Gives 192.168.0.xxx addresses to internal network. Say it's internal static address is 192.168.0.1.

Router 2: Statically set it's IP to something like 192.168.1.1. Gateway would be 192.168.0.1.

Both would have subnet masks of 255.255.255.0.

Make sure that if you have the wireless on both of them turned on, one of them is set to channel 1 and the other to channel 11.

The router upstairs will just "know" how to connect to the one downstairs?

I have WEP on the one downstairs, and I can't find anything in the settings to enter the key. Does that mean I'd have to disable WEP and leave the router completely open downstairs?

Yeah, I don't think this is gonna work.

1. I can't find out details on how to do this at all.

2. If one is set to channel 1 and the other set to channel 11, then how does one connect to the other? They'd be on diff channels.

3. There's no settings at all for picking up an IP from another wireless router. Where do I put in channel/ssid/encryption info for the other router (unless it just "knows", which I doubt).

So yeah, unless I'm missing something, there's no way this could work..

you are missing something, I have made it work several times, it's really not that complicated.

for starters, what model router's are you using? you're asking model specific questions (where do I enter the SSID/encryption) without providing what kind of router you have.

to summarize, both routers need to be on the same channel, set up with the same encryption. one router should be DHCP, and the other should NOT be DHCP. it really doesn't matter which one. You need to also set them as 2 different IP address - 192.168.1.1, and 192.168.1.2. To do that correctly, you will need to separately config each router by attaching them directly to a computer, without them both being on the network simultaneously. after you config them, then you can hook them up on the network.

provide your router brand and model #'s and more descriptive info. can be provided.

The new one (upstairs) is a Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G.

The other is a bit older... Wireless-B router BEFW11S4. This one is currently downstairs providing all the connectivity to the house.

I will try setting them up the same (as you described.. encryption and all) as soon as I get home!

one of your wireless routers (the one that will need to be upstairs) needs to be capible of running in "client mode" this will allow it to connect to the primary AP and bridge its wired ethernet ports to the wireless network. Not all wireless routers will run in client mode.

Also there is no need for the upstairs router to hand out dhcp addresses too, once connected to the network, dhcp can be serviced by the downstairs router.

heres a howto for the wrt54g. it doesnt look like it supports client mode bridging nativly, but it seems pretty easy to make it work with a quick flash and some configing.