Although it is true that signal amplifiers or network extenders have become in recent years very popular devices in most homes in order to extend the signal of the internet connection (either wirelessly or through power grid), it is true that, sometimes, they may not end up working very well, while in other cases a good outlay of money is needed, since it is most likely that we need more than one.
Luckily, if we have a router from the old telephone company forgotten at home, the reality is that we can give it a new life again, configuring it to connect two routers and, with it, expand both the range and the maximum number of possible connections .
Even though the easiest way to connect them is by Ethernet connection, it is also possible to use a wireless router to connect to the main router, which is characterized by being the original device to which the ADSL or fiber cable is connected.
Connecting two routers with Ethernet
Before proceeding to make the first changes, it is necessary to be clear about which will be our main router. In most cases, the most common thing is that we leave the device that is already connected to the internet. Note that this will be the router that connects to the network. However, if you have the same device, then it will not matter to choose one or the other.
The second router, which we could call the secondary router, will be the device that will help expand the original network, which could even control the secondary network if we are creating a LAN or WAN network.
We will start by placing both routers near our computer , to be able to access them easily. When deciding the type of connection, the possibilities are several. For example, we can choose between LAN to LAN or LAN to WAN connection.
And what differences are there between them? While the LAN-to-LAN connection helps to extend the reach of Wi-Fi connectivity to include the second router (or to share files between the same computers connected to the network), the LAN-to-WAN connection creates a second network within the main one, which offers the possibility of establishing specific restrictions.
Now we must proceed to carry out the initial configuration of the router . To do this, we connect the main router to the modem via an Ethernet cable, or to the fiber connection directly, and then we connect the computer to the router via a new Ethernet cable. In case we are using a Mac, we will most likely need an Ethernet to USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) adapter.
We proceed to configure our router . Since this will be the device that will be in charge of the Internet connection, we must configure it as if we were only using a single router. To do this, we access the control panel of the same as always, entering the IP address of the router in the web browser.
Once inside, we change the DHCP address if we are creating a LAN to WAN network. In case we are only creating a LAN to LAN network, we can leave this configuration with the default values. Once we are done, we disconnect the computer from the router.
Now it is the turn of the second router. We connect the second router to the computer as we did with the first, and we open its configuration page. Of course, this time it is necessary to change the IP address to match the first router, but then increasing the penultimate digit by 1 (for example, 192.168.1.1 will become 192.168.2.1), which will avoid unnecessary conflicts between the different IP addresses.
We also need to make sure that the Subnet Mask number matches that of the main router.
Now we configure the DHCP server on the secondary router . If for example we are simply creating a LAN to LAN network, the DHCP service must be completely disabled on the second router. Whereas if what we are doing is creating a LAN to WAN network, the DHCP server of the secondary router must be distributed between addresses 192.168.2.2 and 192.168.2.50.
Finally, we change the wireless channel , especially if both routers are wireless, to avoid interference with each other. A simple option is to configure the primary router on any channel from 1 to 6, and configure the secondary router on channel 11.
Clever! We will only have to place both routers in the places of the house where we want to place them, and connect them to each other.
