Saturday, January 10, 2009

Configuring more than one Router at Home

I can group my wireless devices into two sets based on the level of security they support -- newer devices supporting WPA/ WPA2 and WEP, and older devices supporting only WEP. Since most of the wireless routers available in the market do not support simultanoeous activation of WPA/ WPA2 along with WEP, I decided to configure two wireless routers - one with WPA and the other one with WEP.

Let us call the router configured with WPA as Router1 and the router configured with WEP as Router2. The idea is explained below.
  1. Connect Router1 to the cable/ DSL box
  2. Change the IP address of Router2 to 192.68.1.254
    • The default IP address of most of the routers is 192.68.1. We need to change the IP address of Router2 to a value other than 192.68.1.1 to avoid the conflict. I found this configuration under the "LAN IP Setup" page of my Netgear router.
    • In order to perform this step you need to connect your computer to the Router2. After performing this step you will have to use 192.68.1.254 to access Router2
  3. Disable DHCP on Router2
    • The devices on router2 will use the DHCP service from Router1. I found DHCP configuration under the "LAN IP Setup" page of my Netgear router.
  4. Connect LAN port of Router1 to LAN port of Router2
    • We need to connect to the LAN port of Router2 (yes, it is not WAN) because we are configuring Router2 as a switch.
Notes/ Observations:
  • Remember "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link". An intruder can use Router2 as a week link to enter your home network. So I keep Router2 on only when I use it, for example, I turn Router2 off as soon as son has finished playing with his DS-Lite which support only WEP.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 9, 2010 at 12:54 PM

    And you may wish to switch off SSID for router 2.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 21, 2010 at 5:45 PM

    "In order to perform this step you need to connect your computer to the Router2"
    Can you expand on that? I tried to connect the PC to the router2 using an ethernet cable, but the PC does not see it, keeps saying there is no internet connection, work offline.
    Needless to say I am clueless about this stuff but I need to set up a WEP network for my kids DS.
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2011 at 7:54 AM

    If you input the ip address on #2 from #1 you will have inernet and WEP enabled on#2 and WPA on #1 with DHCP enabled on both if that is what you are looking for but will operate as two separate networks . Whatever computers are configured to #1 or #2 will connect thru them individually. Essentially #1 will provide internet for the 2cnd WEP router so peripherals connected to that router can connect .While this works for internet and such I have not yet been able to see all connections from both routers thru either router .Each is individual

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownMay 12, 2014 at 12:55 PM

      This is exactly what I am looking for but a bit dense on following the above.
      I have a LinkSys 2500 N600 connected connected to my 2 CPU's and iPod with WPA2 security. I have a NetGear WGR614 router that I need to also connect for a LinkSys wireless radio that ONLY operates on WEP security. Would rather not lower security on the rest of the newtork.

      Any further guidance is appreciated.
      HH

      Delete
  4. AnonymousDecember 3, 2017 at 10:38 AM

    Thanks for your post. I’ve been thinking about writing a very comparable post over the last couple of weeks, I’ll probably keep it short and sweet and link to this instead if thats cool. Thanks.
    Shower Taps

    ReplyDelete

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