I have a wireless router. It’s not very reliable, and likes to disconnect me a lot. Unfortunately it also likes to disconnect the wired-in computers as well. I have a reliable wired router, but I also want to be able to use my laptop wirelessly. Is it possible to connect one router to another so I can have my desktops through the reliable router, and still have the ability to use the wireless? I tried just plugging them together but it doesn’t seem to work.
YES!!! First go into the wireless router and change it’s address. I would suggest changing it to 192.168.1.2 (VERY IMPORTANT TO DO THIS FIRST!!!). Now take it out of the system, hook up your wired router and configure it (the modem will connect to WLAN on this router). Now hook the two routers together. This is the tricky part. IIRC, you’ll have to use the uplink* port on the wireless** router and an empty port on the wired router.
Now it’s a matter of futzing around with settings and cables to get it all working properly. BTW we changed the address of the wireless router to 192.168.1.2 for two reasons. 1. When you computer wants to get on the internet, it still connects to the router that’s ‘online’ and 2. If they both had the same address, you’ll only be able to configure one of them. Ask me how I know this.
*Sometimes when you use the uplink port, you can’t use the port next to it for anything else, sometimes not. Sometimes if this is the case there will be a line between the two of them, sometimes not. It’ll probably be easier if you leave the port next to the uplink port empty.
**I’m pretty sure this is correct, but I could have it backwards.
PS, this is the same setup I have, I just took a look. I hooked a regular port from one router to a regular port on the other, I didn’t use the uplink at all.
Have fun. Oh, and it will be loads easier if after changing the address on the wireless router, and putting the wired router in it’s place you make sure everything is running smoothly before re-introducing the wireless router. That way if things get wonky, you know it has something to do with the wireless router.
Feel free to report back with questions.
I came in here to weigh in on the difference between carbide tipped and high speed steel bits. I am a smokestack guy in a silicon world.
I essentially do pretty much what you’re trying to. Joey P’s post is good; I’d also disable DHCP on the wireless router so it doesn’t try to hand out anything itself. Unless your router is really old, most network devices are autosensing these days, and won’t care about uplink ports, etc., so don’t worry if you don’t have one.
As an aside, an annoyingly large percentage of (wireless especially) routers are released with firmware that is nowhere near what you’d call acceptable. I’d say at least half of the wifi routers I’ve dealt with required rebooting at least once a month due to lockups or intermittent connectivity, almost completely being resolved by installing the latest firmware.