How can i connect two wireless routers?

Question

one is the internet gateway ,but i find the wireless signal to weak for my purposes. I'm using bt 2wire router and a netgear one. any advice/ step by step instructions would be appreciated

Answer 1

i use a belkin wireless router and a netgear wireless router in the same network, netgear connected to modem because it is better. Connect the better one first, assaign as gateway, and the use on of the ports in the back to connect to the other router.  

Answer 2

Sometimes you have to shut off your fire wall while using them...

Answer 3

get rid of netgear it is terrible, im having so many problems with it now

Answer 4

A far neater solution is to use powerline adapters

- these use mains wiring instead of a long ethernet cable. You plug a powerline adapter into one of the ethernet ports on the router and into a local mains socket and another adapter into your computer ethernet port and a nearby mains socket

Speeds are better than wifi and signals can be encrypted so your neighbour cannot hack in if they have powerline adapters.

Answer 5

That would be very bad because you'd either have Double-NATing (causes problems with games, IM, and other port-forwarding software) or you'd have multiple DHCP servers (if the computer connects to the wrong gateway it wouldn't have internet).

If you want to wire something to increase your range like that, you need to either use an access-point or make the second router act like an access point...

To set up your second router as a "dumb" access point, log onto your second router (the one you just got) and set up the same SSID and Security as your main one.  Now, disable DHCP on the second router (your main router is assigning IPs already).  Last, connect the network cable from a LAN port on your existing router to a LAN port on the new router.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT use the WAN/Uplink port on the second router - if it works it will cause all sorts of problems!

Try these first, some of them are much cheaper/easier and may fix the problem:

Put your wireless router as high up as you can and as far from electrical and metal things as you can, that'll give you the best coverage.  Try to put it in the middle of where you expect to be (usually the middle of the house).  If you have 2.4GHz cordless phones you may want to replace them with 5.8GHz, 900MHz, or the new DECT6.0 phones that won't cause interference.  Also, wireless video senders, or wireless cameras that run on 2.4GHz should be set to the farthest channel from your router (e.g. set video sender to 1 or A and put the router on channel 11).  Channels 1, 6, and 11 are preferable because they don't "overlap" with each other.

A few routers support replacing the antennas with either directional or high-gain antennas, sometimes that works, sometimes not.  I've found it's usually hard to find out if the replacment antenna will be comptible though.

If you really need more range after positioning your router as best you can, some companies sell "WiFi Repeaters" that re-transmit the information stronger to boost the signal.  If you can run wires to (or near) the location where you have weak signal, get an "Access Point" or a router that can be configured as an access point (a second router would cause problems) and set it to the same SSID (name) and Encryption key (security) - then computers will pick whichever is strongest.

I suppose you could always try making one of these, it will decrease the range on one side but increase range wherever it's pointed.  I was able to get from 60 up to 85 percent in my basement.  For free...well ok, a sheet of cooking foil, some glue, and cardstock or photopaper...it's worth a try!

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/tem...

Even if it doesn't help, it sure looks cool :)

Answer 6

You should NEVER use 2 routers on the same connection. To increase your range install a wireless range extender between the router and your furthest required point.

Answer 7

If the 2wire is the prime router (first one in the house from the line), which I am sure it is, you just need to set a static IP on the netgears (WAN) port to a range of the 2wire.

If the 2wire is still at its defaults then set an IP like 192.168.1.5 on the WAN settings of the netgear. The Subnet is 255.255.255.0 and the gateway ip is 192.168.1.254 (or what ever the IP of the 2wire is, could be 192.168.1.1 but most are .254)

Also on the netgear set the LAN to use a different local network range entirely.. like 192.168.10.x  so that it does not conflict with the 2wire. (This generates a second network so as not to interfere with the 2wire network - you don't want two routers on the same network ranges!)

Then on the 2wire set the 192.168.1.5 (or whatever IP you gave the netgear) as a DMZ address!  Then connect the netgear to any one of the LAN ports on the 2wire. (2wire lan to wan on the Netgear!)

Now you have two networks and two routers working all together!

You can bridge the networks if you need to, just change the subnet mask to the appropriate settings!

I have my 2wire setup with a lnksys and a dlink!  (works fine) Three separate local networks all gateway to the 2wire!

Good Luck

Answer 8

use the usb connections in each router and it should work in no time.

Answer 9

If you can not follow their explanation just purchase a repeater that will help you boost your signal. You will have a router doing networking job while the repeater is boosting signal