Question need advice on network setup

[blackrain2]

My office and family room are on complete opposite sides of the first floor. I have cat5e coming from both the office and family room to a small area in my basement (like a small computer/network closet) that has a computer, xbox and a bunch of other stuff. I think the optimal set up would be 1 router in my office (close to my laptop, printer, etc), and 1 router in the family room (close to the firestick, xbox, and other family room AV stuff). 2 routers would also split the house in half (signal to basement, first floor, and second floor from each respective router for that respective half of the house).

My internet comes in through a cable modem in my office. I have an asus AC68U, an ASUS NT-66R, and a switch.

Would I be able to connect the Internet from my office cable modem and router (lets say the ASUS NT-66R) to the switch in the basement. Then connect the switch to AC68U in the family room.

Asus NT-66R connected to cable modem (office) -> Trendnet Gigabit switch (basement) also connected -> AC68U (family room)

Trendnet switch (basement) separately -> xbox, PC (basement)


If so, how would I do this? Would I basically do this, but connect the switch in between -> https://www.wikihow.com/Connect-One-Router-to-Another-to-Expand-a-Network

 

[aigomorla]

Disable DHCP on the second router and make it into a switch.

So you have Cable modem -> 66R -> Trendnet -> 68U with DHCP disabled.

or you can just replace the 68U with another switch.

 

[SamirD]

Yep, that wikihow should have you covered. Feel free to post back here if you have any issues.

 

[blackrain2]

Disable DHCP on the second router and make it into a switch.

So you have Cable modem -> 66R -> Trendnet -> 68U with DHCP disabled.

or you can just replace the 68U with another switch.

Will the 68U act as a wireless router for a firestick in the family room and that side of the house in general? I am basically trying to get wireless coverage for that half or side of the house with the 68U. I dont want to use it as just a switch for wired connections.

 

[aigomorla]

Will the 68U act as a wireless router for a firestick in the family room?

yes as long as u enable wifi on it.
Disabling DHCP will make it into a switch/access point.

 

[blackrain2]

Yep, that wikihow should have you covered. Feel free to post back here if you have any issues.

the wiki doesn't cover router->switch->router. It covers router->router. Thats why I was asking. But the person above you didnt mention that I needed to follow the wiki. So now, im not sure.

 

[blackrain2]

yes as long as u enable wifi on it.
Disabling DHCP will make it into a switch/access point.

so do I still need to Enable DHCP Server on Router 1 as described in the wiki before disabling DHCP on Router 2? I assume i should basically just follow the wiki instructions but I will plugging in the switch as an intermediary between the 2 routers Also I edited my last message but I dont think it matters:

I am basically trying to get wireless coverage for that half or side of the house with the 68U. I dont want to use it as just a switch for wired connections but it sounds like you understood that.

 

[JackMDS]

Maybe this can Help.

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

Yeah the Wireless as Now switch too. It is what it is it does not affect anything.

The "Silly" thing is that in our "Silly reality" Wireless with swicth and Router cost less then just Access Point, I.e., Wireless with No Switch and No Routing.

 

[aigomorla]

so do I still need to Enable DHCP Server on Router 1

yes... one of the routers will need DHCP to hand out IPs.
Typically its the one with the cable modem plugged into the WAN.

Problem happens when you have 2 DHCP's on the same network, as they fight over IP's to hand out, unless you set up a specific range for each of them.

Like router 1 - 192.168.1.100-150 and router 2 - 192.168.1.151-254 or you want to setup a seperate IP domain entirely like Router 2 - 192.168.2.100-254

 

[SamirD]

the wiki doesn't cover router->switch->router. It covers router->router. Thats why I was asking. But the person above you didnt mention that I needed to follow the wiki. So now, im not sure.

The switch in the middle doesn't make a difference since a switch behaves the same way a long cable would. Hope this helps.

 

[blackrain2]

Next question:
why does step 7 of the wiki require that router 1 and 2 have the same name (SSID?) and passcode?

Configure Router 2's Wi-Fi name and passkey. They should be identical to Router 1

If I am on my firestick and want to connect to wifi, I want to connect to the U68. How do I know that I am connecting to the U68 or the 66RT if both have the same SSID? Does this really make sense?

 

[SamirD]

Next question:
why does step 7 of the wiki require that router 1 and 2 have the same name (SSID?) and passcode?

Configure Router 2's Wi-Fi name and passkey. They should be identical to Router 1

If I am on my firestick and want to connect to wifi, I want to connect to the U68. How do I know that I am connecting to the U68 or the 66RT if both have the same SSID? Does this really make sense?

The same ssid is just to allow a device to connect to either. But you can set them differently so you can manually choose which one to connect to. In fact, if you're only worried about connecting the firestick, I would set it to something just for the firestick and block all other mac addresses from connecting to it.