# How can I stack my routers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531 "2003-11-11T02:38:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/1 "2003-11-11T02:38:51Z")
I’ve got my new house wired for networking and am eager to move the cable modem from the den to the basement control center so that I can take advantage of the wiring. Before **laserkitty** and I moved in, we had a router at each of our apartments so I now find us with two 4-port switched routers, no (strictly) switches, and 7 lines of CAT-5 throughout the house. I know the easiest solution would be to just buy a switch and run everything from that, but I just can’t imagine there isn’t a way to stack them and utilize only the switch portion of one of the routers. This is what we’ve got: Netgear models [RP614, 4-Port Cable/DSL Router with 10/100 Mbps Switch](http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_details.asp?prodID=131&view=) and [MR814, 4-Port 802.11b Cable/DSL Wireless Router](http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_details.asp?prodID=151&view=) I asked the Netgear tech support about this and got this reply, which didn’t really clear anything up for me, which is why I’m coming to you. > [@](#): > > This is not possible to disable or turn off NAT (Network Address Traversal) on RP614 Websafe Router or MR814 and WGR614 Wireless Routers. However, you can configure MR814 or WGR614 Wireless Routers and disable DHCP server on them to use them as a Wireless Access Point to connect and connect the local port to RP614 Websafe Router local port and share the internet through wire or wireless connection. What do you say, can you help me along the path of becoming a Teeming network geek? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/2 "2003-11-11T04:19:55Z")
Well, unless cash is really tight, I’d recommend against this, as you will have issues down the road, like some things in the house won’t be allowed to see other things, and whatever connectivity issue arises someday (and you know it will), it’ll be doubly tough to debug. But if you’re still interested, there’s no reason you can’t one router connect to the outside world, and one of it’s spigots act as the internet feed for the second router. Which will get you 3+4=7 feeds. You’ll need to configure the connected interfaces to be on their own LAN; here’s one way: Router One: WAN: connects to Internet. likely DHCP LAN: 192.168.1.1 DHCP server: 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.132 Router Two: WAN: DHCP LAN: 192.168.2.1 DHCP server: 192.168.2.100 - 192.168.2.132 Plan that those off router one won’t be able to see those off router two. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/3 "2003-11-11T05:11:38Z")
What about only using the LAN ports on the second router, ignoring it’s WAN port? You’d have to turn DHCP off on the second router, though. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/4 "2003-11-11T05:17:43Z")
**Cleophus** has the right idea. You don’t have to use the router on them – you can just use it as a switch by only using the four LAN ports. You can connect the two and create what is effectively one six-port switch by using a crossover cable to plug a LAN port of one router into a LAN port of the other router. Most computer stores like CompUSA or Best Buy sell crossover cables. And **Cleophus** is also right that, you’d better disable DHCP on one of the routers, or you’ll get some conflicts there. Most of them let you do that in the configuration screen (my router/switches have been D-Link, Linksys, or HP, not Netgear, but I’m sure Netgear’s configuration utilities are similar). ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/5 "2003-11-11T13:08:53Z")
This sounds similar tothe advice I’ve recently heard, so let me make sure I understand what y’all are saying: I plug the first router, the RP614, directly in to the cable modem, and have the four outputs (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A) from that. One of these outputs, 4A, I use a crossover cable instead of a standard one, and connect that to the the second router, _but not to the regular internet input_, instead to one of what would normally be one of the four outputs? From there, the other three ports can be connected tot he rest of the house. This solution isn’t ideal, in that it still leaves me one port short, but it’s better than having to go out and buy new hardware (I have a x-over cable already) so if I’ve understood y’all correctly, I’ll give this a try tonight and see what there is to see. Thanks… oh, and if I’m misunderstanding, jump on in and point it out, please, I can use the help! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/6 "2003-11-11T13:24:23Z")
You’ve got the wiring idea right. You still definitely need to disable the DHCP feature of the second router or intermittent craziness will result. And all 6 connected devices will be able to see one another just fine. ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-stack-my-routers/212531/7 "2003-11-12T12:59:17Z")
Looks like it’s working. Thanks, all.