I have a bridged router acting as a modem, and a non-wireless vpn router. I need two add one or two wireless routers...how?

September 29, 2012 11:50 PM

I have a bridged router acting as a modem, and a non-wireless vpn router. I need two add one or two wireless routers...how?

I am talking about my brother's home network setup. He has a router (Zyxel) which is in bridge mode, and connected to a Cisco non-wireless vpn router which was bought specifically for its terrific vpn features. The Cisco doesn't have built-in ADSL modem so that's why he needs the bridged Zyxel.

He would like to add wireless capability by adding one or two wireless routers (to cover the whole house) to his network, but we're not sure whether these should be connected to the bridged Zyxel or to the Cisco. I assume they would work connected to the Cisco so long as each router had separate dhcp ranges, gateway IPs, and subnet masks.

Am I missing something, or is there a better way to do this?

posted by Unhyper to computers & internet (2 answers total)

You don't want wireless routers, you want wireless access points (APs), which you would connect to the Cisco. Then everyone's on the same network, and the Cisco does DHCP and acts as the gateway for everybody. Also with this setup, devices can move from AP to AP seamlessly since they're always on the same network.

While there are lots of dedicated APs available, many wireless routers can be set to act as an AP. My ASUS RT-N66u has such a mode (BTW, it also has great range so you may only need one to cover the house). Another router with AP mode is this Buffalo, which has a handy switch on the back for that purpose.
posted by zsazsa at 12:00 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Just to add to zsazsa's comment, all wireless routers can be used as access points. You simply turn off DHCP and plug all the wires into the LAN ports (don't plug anything into the WAN port). If you want to add multiple access points, ensure the wireless SSID and security are the same (same WPA2 password!) but put them on different channels. (1, 6, or 11 in the US). Then your devices will automatically switch to the strongest signal.
Connecting to the Cisco is as simple as running a network cable between a LAN port on the cisco and a LAN port on the wireless router (once again, not WAN).
As an aside, in the old days you had to run a crossover cable between network hardware, but all new network hardware has auto-sensing ports, and if you're running gigabit, you shouldn't use a crossover cable anyway, so just an ordinary network cable will work just fine.

Oh, before you add the routers to the network, you should connect to them directly with a computer, turn off DHCP, set up the wireless network, and assign them a unique static ip, so you can access the router configuration later. Check to see in what range the cisco router is assining IP's (in its DCHP configuration, it will look something like 10.10.x.x, or 192.168.x.x, or 172.169.x.x) What you need to do is assign a static ip outside that range to the wireless AP's, so you can't have a conflict, but you can still access them. (For example, my DHCP assignes in the range of 192.168.1.10 - 192.168.1.100. I use 192.168.1.245 -> 192.168.1.254 for my network hardware, and I write the static IP I assigned on the physical boxes) Memail me if you need more details.
posted by defcom1 at 8:04 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]