Connect two routers, peer to peer.?

Question

I have two computers connected via wireless to router “one” which is connected to the internet.

I also have another two computers connected to router “two” wirelessly which has a printer and HDD attached to it.

Both routers are in range of each other, is it possible to connect the routers together so router "two" can receive and re-transmit the internet, whist computers connected to router "one" can connect to the HDD.

Please note: I have got to use two routers in this configuration; I cannot just move all my stuff onto one router. Trust me if I could, I would!

Answer 1

its very simple

turn off dhcp on router number two

run an ethernet cable from one of the four lan ports in router number one to one of the four lan ports in router number two

it goes lan to lan port - most important

with the dhcp setting off on router number two router number one will now handle the extra ports

if you leave the dhcp on router two on - there will be two routing tables - it may work , but it will be erratic and sporadic

the default setting on a router for wireless connections is usually 256 so there is lots of capacity left over in router number one

Its very simple

Answer 2

It depends on the routers themselves. You could setup a route on router 2 to forward any external IP request on to router 1. If we are talking very simple linksys boxes that probably is not going to work.

I think it would also require each router to have a second wireless connection as well to send the traffic out on. I've never heard of that kind of setup before but I'm sure it's possible. Not on simple routers though.

Another option would be to put a second wireless NIC in each of the four computers. NIC1 connects to router1, NIC2 connects to router2 (I would split those across different subnets).