Two Router Network

F

fastpat27

Active member
Hi All
Working at home and my Wifi has lost a bit of it's strength so was wonder on how to setup a twin router network, hard wired between each other to give wifi at each end of the house.

Has anyone done this, and is there a recommended type of router for doing this? I've been looking for bundle deals with 2 routers but doesn't appear to be any.

Ideally I would like devices to automatically connect to the strongest signal as I walk from one end of the house to the other, is this possible or is this a manual disconnect from the weak one and the re-connect to the strong one?

Thanks for any advice and info.

FP
 
Pagey

Pagey

Bright Spark
Not sure about automatically switching, if the signal is lost completely then it goes to the strongest one...
I got this thing, does what you want it to do: extend your wifi range.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
fastpat27 said:
Hi All
Working at home and my Wifi has lost a bit of it's strength so was wonder on how to setup a twin router network, hard wired between each other to give wifi at each end of the house.

Has anyone done this, and is there a recommended type of router for doing this? I've been looking for bundle deals with 2 routers but doesn't appear to be any.

Ideally I would like devices to automatically connect to the strongest signal as I walk from one end of the house to the other, is this possible or is this a manual disconnect from the weak one and the re-connect to the strong one?

Thanks for any advice and info.

FP
Click to expand...

Yes you can do this, although if you have only one phone/fibre line from your ISP all the network traffic will run through whichever router is connected to the phone/fibre line. That's not a problem in itself, it's just a single point of failure. You don't need matched or paired routers for this, almost any routers will do. That said, you get want you pay for in a router so don't scrimp on cost, also you want the more powerful and stable router connected to your ISP.

You must make each router a separate network, so for example one router could use 192.168.1.x and the other 192.168.2.x, but they cannot both use the same network address. This isn't a problem though, you just configure DHCP in each router to allocate addresses from it's own network address pool. Also be sure that each router is using a different channel, it will all work using the same channel but performance is likely to be better if they're different.

How well the disconnecting from the weak signal works depends on the software and drivers in each device. Some will want to hang on to the existing wifi signal as long as possible whilst others will switch almost as soon as they detect a stronger signal. How much control you have over this will depend entirely on each device, so this might not work quite as seamlessly as you hope.
 
F

fastpat27

Active member
Thanks for the replies guys

I have tried the powerline adapters before but had no success, my home office was wired later than the house so this might be causing difficulties with this method.

Ubuysa, sounds like too many variables to make this they way I want but I see where you are coming from with this. It's getting quite technical though, I'm stupid when it comes to networking IPs, Ports, DCHP, SSID's etc.. I was kinda hoping of a plug and play kit, set one up and the other would know what to do. I'll have a go at what you explained though and see how I get on.

Thanks again guys

FP
 
R

RType23

Bronze Level Poster
^what he said^
I've previously used Netgear 102 Wireless Access Points, but they are only 54Mbps, though there is likely a new faster model. It was only a couple of hours work to set 6 up with overlapping coverage for clients laptops to hop around as we had poor propagation in the building.

Powerline adapters are okay if you're power wiring is good and there isn't noisy stuff plugged in.
 
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