Right now it’s 3:30 am, I’ve been working on this for the last three hours and have given up.
I hope some genius here can help me.
I recently bought a new D Link Dir868-L router
I am trying to bridge it to my existing TP Link TL-WR841N router (new router as the primary, TP Link in bridge mode)
Stepped all the way through - I can get the TP Link to connect to the D-Link (the Mac address shows up as connected in the D Link admin panel)
But I cannot access the internet
When I access the D-Link admin panel - the mac address of TP Link bridge can be seen - but with no IP Address
I disabled the DHCP server in the TP link so that Primary router would set IP…
No idea of what else I can try…
Are there any suggestions?
P.S - please forgive me if I go to bed now
P.P.S - the Dlink has an IP of 192.168.0.1 - the default IP of the TP-Link is 192.168.1.1
The Dlink appears to drop connection to the modem if I change the IP to 192.168.1.1 while the TPlink doesn’t appear to like anything in the 192.168.0 range… could this be part of the problem?
I’ve seen few setups (outside of industrial IT closets) where it was a good idea to run multiple routers. Do you have some compelling need to set things up this way?
Yeah - my primary is “tied” to the corner of an apartment - there’s about 14" of concrete between it and where I use my computer.
If I set up the secondary router as a bridge - it is only shooting the radio through a pair of wooden doors - the signal is way stronger.
Of course I do have two alternatives -
a) get a $300 router with a more powerful signal
b) run Cat 5 cable round my entire living room, then trough two walls, then halfway round my bedroom before ending in a wired access point
So you only need one router, but more access points, or better positioning for APs?
I can’t quite visualize the arrangement, but a cheap AP instead of the second router would seem like a more reliable setup. You can get quite a few decent APs (including Unifi pucks) for well under $100. Why did you buy a new router instead of just an AP that would extend the wifi zone?
Very much a KISS situation - all that “routing” crap just throws hurdles into the interconnectivity.
If you have what you have and don’t want to buy other gear, I’m sure one router or the other can be dumbed into AP functionality. I can’t see anything wrong with your setup as described, but as in the other current thread, consumer routers often have overly complex configurations with many broken pieces.
As for why to do so? Simple: if the signal isn’t good enough, a repeater can be helpful.
Or you might want a hard-wired connection in another room: In our case, we wanted ethernet up in the master bedroom as the wireless smart TV often didn’t work that well. We have Verizon FIOS, and had just upgraded the wireless router, so I wanted to see if I could set up the older one in the master bedroom - connect it to the cable outlet, then run an ethernet cable from that to the smart TV and to my laptop.
Our configuration is obviously quite different from the OP’s, and the steps I had to do were different, but at a quick glance the steps seem reasonable enough, so I don’t know what the issue is.
Forgot to ask: How does your house get its internet signal? Cable? Fiber? Depending on how that’s set up, maybe your solution might be something like ours, setting up a second router connected hard-wired (I get the impression that your scenario is main router and bridge talk to each other via wireless, not hard wires).
I’m not sure that matters; a WAN port on one router can connect directly to a LAN port on the next. A crossover cable is only needed (IME) when connecting device ports together (e.g., two laptops.)
You need to be careful here: in network topology, bridges, routers, switches etc have discrete and specific meanings. (Now watch me fall into that trap :D)
If I’ve read things correctly, I think you should change the LAN side IP address of the router you are setting up as the repeater - the TP-link - to 192.168.0.2 so it is on the same subnet as the main D-Link router. You’ll also need to make sure that 192.168.0.2 is outside the DHCP range. Then run a cable from a LAN port on the D-link to the WAN port on the TP-link.
But it’s an awful faff and you might find a wired link much better and faster. Don’t bother about going through walls - just route the cable around the door such that it goers through the door on the side away from the hinge. An Ethernet cable can be up to 100m long so there’s plenty of length with which to play. I’ve done this myself with a 30m cable. It goes round 4 doors before it gets to where it’s useful and I put a switch on the end.
As an aside, multiple routers are a good idea for home use when you have children or regular visitors. The children’s devices all go through one router, which is plugged into your main router so that you can do things like restrict the bandwidth they use. And you can set up a guest wifi on a separate router so your own devices are protected from malware on your guests’ devices. This can all be done on a single, more advanced, router of course but KISS applies.
These days most routers/switches autodetect cabling. However, the general rules is that same layer devices require a cross over. In other words, router to router, switch to switch, pc to pc require a cross over.
Now, first thing I notice is that your two routers are on different networks the Dlink has an IP of 192.168.0.1 - the default IP of the TP-Link is 192.168.1.1. That means that (assuming you are using a 24-bit subnet mask, or 255.255.255.0) they aren’t on the same network and won’t talk to each other. The network 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 is one network and 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 is another. To speak to each other, the routers have to be connected on the same network. What I would do is change the IP on the second router to be 192.168.0.254 and make sure it is in bridging mode. If not all sorts of odd stuff can happen if it tries to route for the 192.168.0.0 network. Set the default gateway to 192.168.0.1 and you should be good to go.
Or, on the both routers you could change the mask to 255.255.254.0. This would make the network run from 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.1.255. However, that is not best practice and you really do not want to do that.
Thanks all, there’s some logic to what’s been advised - I’ll start working through it for a solution. To answer some of the queries etc as to the why…
We just upgraded to a fibre access plan - as part of that our provided supplied a new modem & router - so my existing router became “spare”.
I have put the old router into bridge mode (as described to me) - by disabling DHCP and telling it to connect to the new router (which it detects no problem and connects to easily with my password etc)
Yep, It’s a wireless solution throughout
Yep, a wired solution would be a whole lot less stress - LAN to WAN would work for me, but 'Er Indoors doesn’t want to have any cables anywhere.
Thanks guys - will advise if I can get the network running…or any other errors I get.
To add - my TP-Link has this setting called “enable WDS” - which then asks for the details of the router to be bridged (their words) I get the SSID of the primary router and BSSID (mac address) by doing a survey
