I am considering ordering a second FiOS router (connects to network from coax). I am not a networking expert but know enough to get in trouble. My current router shows up as 198.162.1.1, which I think is typical. If I add a second router, is it going to get assigned a new private IP address automatically, or is it going to create a conflict with the first one?
What to do when adding a wireless router ?
You want to add an access point, but you go to the shop, and the thing called " wireless router " is 1/3 rd the price.
0 . The reason the “Access point” is expensive is because it does all sorts of stuff you don’t want.
- Sometimes the wireless router has a “access point only mode”. Tick that. And stop.
If you have a router, whether its WAN is ADSL or ETHERNET, then you can still use its wireless access point as JUST an access point.
- Don’t plug anything into the WAN port.
- plug your computer into the router with a cable.
- enter the config menu and disable the DHCP server
- The local LAN ip address MAY clash with the LAN address of the Upstream router.
You can change this ip address to prevent the clash - Save settings and reboot the router and then make sure its all set the same way
- connect your slave router to the main router via the LAN port. you are leaving the WAN port empty. This may be called "WAN bypass ", and it leaves the slave routers, NAT, Firewalling, Anti-virus, any other security bypassed.
- Oh, there is a tick box in some which is “Separate wireless from wired”… This would still work, and be quite fatal to the practical use of this “WAN bypass” mode… you do not want to separate…
IF you have a wireless router, with ethernet WAN, you don’t have to use WAN bypass.
a. the local LAN address RANGE of the 2nd router may still clash with the LAN address RANGE of the first. Suggest changing the 2nd router 's LAN address range to 192.168.2.0/24 (24 = 255.255.255.) .
Note: If it says 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 that clashes with ALL 10.* addresses ! So thats why I suggested setting it to 192.168.2 or 192.168.3 or so on , and definitely a netmask of 255.255.255.0 (or /24 , which means the same thing. Can you see the 24 bits in that netmask ? 
)
Your question is kind of muddled so it’s not clear what you are asking. In particular, the use of 198.162.1.1 as an IP address is your internal address.
If you want to connect a second router to your external network, that’s going to be a problem. Your ISP will almost certainly not allow you to have two routers connected to their network.
So I’m going to ignore that possibility.
If you want to have more ports for internal connectivity, you may not need a 2nd router. A hub (sometimes referred to as a switch, but a real switch is not likely needed) may suffice. It just adds more Ethernet ports, no routing/IP address issues at all.
If you do add a 2nd internal router, see if you can switch off its routing function. I did this once when I added a wireless router. I wanted the original router to continue to do all routing, DHCP, etc. It just did the wireless stuff and added more ports. (I now have a gigabit wireless router, which is nice.) Isilder has just posted more about this.
If you still need both to act as routers, it is easy to assign an address to one of them. E.g., 198.162.2.1. But you might need to have just the one you’re changing plugged into the network connection of the machine you’re setting it up from.
That might depend on which “second router” you purchase. I dimly remember that I had to manually change the local IP address range on mine. Note that I typically purchase really cheap stuff, and my router was no exception. (There’s no point in mentioning which router I purchased, as I’m confident that they don’t sell that model anymore.)
OK, let me clarify what I want to do. I have a Verizon router that is connected to the network on coax, which comes from some sort of network interface box where the fiber comes into the house.
The router does not have sufficient range to reach all areas of my home.
I have tried an extender (Netgear WPN2000RPT) but am unhappy with the results. I assumed a better solution is to add a second wifi router connected to the coax in another part of the house. I do not need to add Ethernet LAN ports. I do not need another wireless access point if it’s just going to be co-located with the existing router, unless it gives me tons of range compared to what I have now.
ftg, why wouldn’t Verizon allow me to have two routers?
In the early days, ISPs like Verizon used to be worried that you’d do something like purchase a single connection from them and then turn around and resell that connection to your neighbors (say, by laying three Ethernet cables between your router and three neighbors’ houses, then having each of them set up a router for their own household). I don’t think they worry much about that anymore. Verizon certainly hasn’t ever mentioned the presence of my second router to me, and it’s been up for several years now.
For that matter, Verizon’s early DSL contracts stated that you could only connect a single device to their DSL modem, and that device couldn’t be a router. (I remember mentioning that limitation to the Verizon tech who installed my DSL modem at the time and he essentially said “yeah, that’s what the contract says, we know that everyone ignores that clause, and every tech I know just ignores the presence of the routers they see hooked up to our DSL lines when we do repair calls”.
Most of instructions above describe adding a second router with an Ethernet cable between the two.
Adding another router via a Coax connection is different and probably requires extra hardware or a special router. I have not done this, bit I do know that technically you have to use what is called a MOCA bridge (for Multimedia Over Coax Alliance). Try reading some the hits from this Google search.
Agreed (and sorry I missed that part of the OP’s comment). Leave the COAX portion of your Verizon setup be and just run a simple Ethernet cable from one of the Ethernet connections on the back of your Verizon-supplied router to the inbound Ethernet connection of your new one.
The Ethernet cable will only run a few dollars, the Ethernet connection between the two routers is fast (much faster than any wireless connection) and is simple and reliable.
This is the device I would get, which is basically an upgraded version of what Verizon gave me when they started the service. It’s not a vanilla router.
I’m assuming that you’re referring to the Actiontec M1424WR router that’s the first of about twenty items listed in the link you referred to.
I found Verizon’s user manual for that router here (warning: it’s a PDF). That manual certainly implies that you can use this router’s COAX port to connect to the primary router and via that to the Internet, something that I’m not familiar with.
(And hey, even if the COAX connection doesn’t work you can still use this router’s hardwired Ethernet WAN connection to connect it to the original router the way some of us suggested earlier, so it looks like your biggest/only risk is just that you’ll have spent a few dollars more than you needed to.)
If I were going to do that then I could just get any good router, not the Verizon one. But the point is to provide an access point 50 feet away in another part of the house, and it’s impractical for me to string cable there.
Yes, sorry, I thought I linked to a page just for that device.
I don’t know what they mean by primary router but yes, this kind of device is the only way you can get connected to the Internet with FiOS.
If I can’t run two of these to coax then I’m going to get a good dual-band wifi router for the same price. This one is single-band 2.4 GHz.
I’m currently using a FiOS router with two other routers configured as WAPs, as described by Islider. This configuration works just fine. The Verizon router is surprisingly flexible and has plenty of complicated configuration options.
That said, I believe the coax is upstream of the NAT part of the router (the router has your firewall in it), so even if it were possible to connect two routers to the coax you would end up with two disjoint networks, with no way for a Mac on one to run a backup to a Time Capsule on the other and so on. You would have two public IPs and be frowned upon or charged more, as others have said.
Give Verizon a call and see what they can tell you. You might get a person who is a dumb as a box of rocks, or you might luck out and get a tech who can tell you exactly how to achieve what you are trying to do. The relatively rich config screens of the router make it seem as if you just might be able to do what you are trying to do.
In my situation it was worth it for me to buy a 100’ length of Ethernet cable at Home Depot on the cheap and route it through my heating ducts to where I needed it to go (I used plenum rated cable). All of the issues solved. Reconsider the relative annoyance of running Ethernet cable between your devices.
I just did the same thing (use another spare router as an additional wireless access point). While I know it’s not a solution you are looking for, I used powerline adapters to connect the existing router to the additional router. It works great.
Just to bring you up to date I just got off the phone with tech support. He didn’t say I wasn’t allowed to do it, but he said it was unsupported so if it doesn’t work they won’t help. He said that this generally doesn’t work although some people have gotten it to work. He wasn’t specific about the technical issues involved, either because he didn’t know or he figured I wouldn’t understand it.