Q&A for How to Connect One Router to Another to Expand a Network

In principle, yes, but it's not recommended. You must first restrict the IP ranges of both of the routers involved to prevent conflicts, for instance; ROUTER 1: IP range 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.150 ROUTER 2: IP range 192.168.1.151 - 192.168.1.255

To do this, you'll need two routers that are capable of wireless bridging. Most consumer routers don't have these functions by default and will require you to upgrade the firmware. Look up information on "wireless bridging" and see if that fits what you're looking to do.

Using the same SSID and password allows your connected devices to pass from one wireless access point to the next without having to connect to another network. It also keeps the device from switching between different wireless networks if you have similar signal strength from both access points, as your device will try to connect to the strongest possible network signal.

Of course. The more connections and traffic you have to a single outbound connection, the slower it gets. For home use this would only matter if you were downloading large files.

See How to Set Up a Wireless Router . Certain desktop computers, especially older ones, may not have a built-in wireless network adapter, in which case you can buy and plug in a USB wireless adapter.

You can, but such antennas don't always extend the network as far as they claim.

There is something wrong with one of your devices, most likely the slave router. There should be no drop in power anywhere. If you mean a drop in speed, this will only happen if your slave router has a lot of traffic going through it. Check what devices are connected to it (is your WiFi secure, or is someone using your internet for free?).

Yes, as long as you follow the steps above, but replace the steps for router 1 to router 2 and router 2 to router 3 and so on. Keep in mind the speeds will slow down with each router you add. It would be better if you could hook router 3 to router 1, but if the distance makes that an issue, the daisy chain is the way to go.

Another router can't just "connect" to your WiFi. It would have to be configured with the same SSID and be added to your existing router as part of the network.

It's possible for wireless keys to be cracked. It's also possible that a user on your network can contract a worm or other malware and pass it along to other systems. Also, individual security risks exist for each of the computers on the network--if a computer has public file sharing turned on, for example, any computer connected to the wireless network can access that user's files.

If there are devices connected to the router and they are not working, first try restarting the router. If it comes back up and still cannot route the LAN traffic, log into its admin interface and make sure DHCP is enabled. If there are still no results, try connecting your computer to the router wirelessly (if you were using an Ethernet cable), or with an Ethernet cable (if you were using it wirelessly).

As long as there's an ethernet connection between the two routers, distance won't matter. Your options are limited only by the amount of Ethernet cable you can buy.

Yes, the principle is the same. As long as there is an option to turn off the DHCP element of the secondary router and an RJ45 (normal patch lead connection) socket for WAN connectivity, you should be able to simply follow the instructions above.

You're connected to your second router from your primary router. Make sure you connect your ethernet cable directly from the second router to your PC.

Check to ensure that the cable you're using is good and that the ports haven't been disabled in either router's setup.

Yes, there should be no issues.

Using this method, you should be able to connect with an ethernet hub, although I would recommend a switch since hubs are more prone to failure as far as I know.

Check out wikiHow's router set-up instructions for some helpful tips.

Yes. That function is the purpose of the device, to take a signal and resend it at a stronger signal to extend a network area of coverage.

The devices may be running old software or simply need a restart. If neither of those work, try resetting the network settings.

Kind of, yes. I have a cable modem/router connected to a slave ADSL router via lan ports, but have to disable DHCP on the slave and change the IP of it to something other than 192.168.0/1.1 (assuming that is the subnet and cable modem's IP), along with adding the slave router IP to exclusion from DHCP on the cable modem/main router.

No, you can connect to any LAN port after you configure system. Remember to disable DHCP on the second router.

Yes, you just have to make sure that Router 2 has the same name as router one, same security type, and password. But Router 1's IP Range should not be in range with Router 2's IP Range. so router one for example would have 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.150. then Router 2 would have an IP Range of 192.168.1.151 - 192.168.1.255.

Your question is confusing ("static IP, dynamic IP"...). Those settings seem to relate to your primary router, that being the one connected to your ISP. There you can have what suits you best. Static IPs are highly desirable within your own network, and as this wiki suggests, required (you should very much assign a static IP to your secondary router). Just make sure the 'DHCP server' is turned off on the secondary router, so that all assignments will be managed by the primary router.

Yes. You can cluster them to distribute all WiFi users on one SSiD and enhance the Performance!

Most routers require only the straight network cable as they can automatically detect the correct connection. The straight CAT6 cables are the least expensive ones.

No, there cannot be more than 1 WAN port unless Router 2 supports link-aggregation.

I suppose you could if: (i) you set the secondary router up per the instructions in this wiki; (ii) your primary router manages the VPN connections;(iii) your primary router allows you to selectively direct a client to the VPN tunnel. It is then a question of defining a range of IP addresses (which you would have reserved for the secondary router), and set the primary router to direct the full range through the VPN tunnel. Alternatively, and on the balance of the number of clients, you could direct all the traffic through the VPN, and make exceptions for the clients who need not to go there. If on ASUS, try looking for RMerlin's firmware.

In this case, the devices on the WLAN will use your main router's DHCP server instead of the one on the router that you have for the WLAN.

An ethernet cable will not work if the distance is over 100 meters. In your case, I would recommend using an ethernet to fiber converter, and then run a fiber optic cable to where you needed to run the ethernet cable, and then use another converter to convert it back into ethernet for the devices on the other end. A fiber optic cable will work at distances up to 100km.