Basically I thought I would check in before I actually did something .
Basically I want to replace the two hubs that I have with routers ,as the price difference for the performance is neglible.
So the internet/home network setup so far as of now is that
DSL–>Router—>split between one computer , Xbox , and a connection to the first hub.
From that hub the connection splits to two computers directly , and a third connection to the second hub.
The second hub connects two computers and an Xbox soon.
This setup was basically bolted on in pieces , over the last several years , which explains the dogs breakfast of mapping it.
But multiple routers are beyond me for configuration at the moment , as the price and need was beyond my ability then.
So , the question is , will the primary gateway router recognize and auto detect the two routers downstream, or is some more config gonna be required ?
You don’t say how many ports you have on each hub, but I would try connecting both hubs to the router, then all the computers and stuff to the hubs. If my count is correct, you’ll have 5 computers and 2 Xboxes (Xboxi?), so if they are 4-port hubs, you’ll still have a port for other connections (plus whatever is left on the router).
just set up the “upstream” router as a dhcp server on one subnet (make it’s ip address 192.168.0.1). Then the two downstream routers will pick up setting like an ip address of 192.168.0.2&3, with 192.168.0.1 as their default route. Then set the downstream routers up as DHCP servers on other subnet, say 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1. And set the computers up to get their info via DHCP.
A grouchy baby is on my lap, so I can’t go into better detail at this time.
What benefit are you trying to achieve with the multiple routers (and thus multiple subnets). With so few machines, any performance improvement from reducing broadcast traffic on each subnet will be insignificant, especially considering the extra latency introduced by the routers.
I’d probably use something like:
DSL->Firewall/Gateway Router->Switch->Computers, X-Boxen, etc.
As I said , it was more of an attempt to rationalize the network, so far its been an exercise in justifying a wireless router sometime in the future , and just running everything off the one unit.