Nested routers

[rallynavvie]

OK so now that my other workstation is up and running I need to get my wireless routers working happily together again. I never really got them to work right after my first attempt and hadn't the need again until now.

I have two routers, both wireless capable, one is also my DSL modem. The DSL modem/router has G wireless and one LAN port available. The other router is a D-Link 624 with fast G wireless, 1 WAN port, and 4 LAN ports. Since I now have two PCs at my workstation desk next to the DSL modem the single LAN port won't cut it anymore and I'm not going to daisy-chain my network through one of them when I have a perfectly good router available.

So where do I start? If I use the uplink port on the 624 and disable DHCP on the modem and enable DHCP on the 624 for wireless clients (I assign IPs and set up port-forwarding on the wired PCs) but it still seems to cause problems. Someone suggested using a crossover cable between the modem LAN and the router WAN but I can't see why that would make a difference. My biggest problem lies in making the modem just be a dumb old modem instead of a modem/router. What else do I need to turn off in order for it to run properly to my 624?

[Greg12]

I would disable the wireless in the dsl modem and plug the super g in to the dsl modem through the lan/wan port.

[Ripper2860]

Never done it but ...


What if you have router 1 get it's IP from your modem (WAN Port to Modem and seti it to get it's IP from your ISP's DHCP server). Have your your 1st Router act as a DHCP server and let it dole out IP addresses. Set a Fixed DHCP provided IP address for use by the 2nd router. Use the Fixed Mapping ability of the primary router to have it assign the 2nd router the same address ervertime by associating it's MAC address with the fixed mapping. That way DHCP will always assign the same address to your 2nd router. Let the 2nd router pass IP address requests toi the 1st router and don't try to setup 2 DHCP servers.

Make sure that the 2nd routers Gateway is the WAN port IP of your 1st router (usually 192.168.0.1) . Try hooking up the 2nd router to one of the "switched" ports on the 1st router and not the WAN port. This should eliminate some problems in dealing with 2 internal / NAT IP adresses / subnets, which really complicates matters.

Just a thought . Again -- I've never really nested 2 router, although I do have a WAP connected to a wired router.