Connecting two routers to a network. Different ways to connect two routers on the same network

There is often a situation when one router is simply not enough. In the sense that it cannot provide the required coverage radius of a Wi-Fi network. In some rooms or premises there is simply no Wi-Fi signal. I think this is familiar to everyone who has created a Wi-Fi network in a large house, apartment, or office. In such a situation, of course, you need to install additional equipment and somehow expand the wireless network. It's not difficult to do this. There are several options that we will look at in this article.

I will try to explain everything in detail and in simple language. We will look towards installing two or more routers and combining them into one Wi-Fi network (or creating several different networks). I will provide links to instructions for setting up different schemes that should help you.

If you have installed a router, and your Wi-Fi is not available everywhere, then the most correct solution would be to install a repeater, or several of them. These are special devices, also called repeaters, that are designed to expand a Wi-Fi network. You can look at it for an example. But even repeaters cannot always help in such a situation. Especially when you need to distribute a Wi-Fi network over a very large area. Installing a large number of repeaters is also not a solution. Everything will work, but believe me, the network is unlikely to be stable.

Therefore, many are considering the option of creating a Wi-Fi network of two or more routers. Now we will look into this issue. Everything can be done without problems, and everything will work. One more thing. If you have the opportunity to connect devices with a cable, then you can install one router and the required number of access points (these are separate devices, read more) instead of routers.

How to combine two routers into one Wi-Fi network?

It is clear that in order to combine, for example, two (or more) routers into one network, they need to be somehow connected to each other.

There are two ways here:

Connecting two or more routers via cable. It is necessary to lay a network cable from one router to the second. This is not always convenient, and it does not always work out. But this is the most reliable and stable way. If you need a stable network, with good speed and for a large number of devices, then it is best to connect the routers with a cable.
Connecting routers wirelessly, via Wi-Fi. In this case, a connection in bridge mode (WDS), client, or repeater mode is used. Essentially, it's the same thing. It’s just that on different routers, from different manufacturers, these settings are made differently.

That's sorted out. For example, we have a main router to which the Internet is connected, and it distributes a Wi-Fi network. We need to install another router, for example, in another room, or on another floor. We can connect the second router to the first via cable or via Wi-Fi. Almost all modern routers have this feature.

Also, we need to decide, we need one Wi-Fi network, simply reinforced by the second (third, fourth) router, or each router must create separate network, with a different name and password. The operating mode of the router that we need to configure depends on this. Basically, you need one wireless network, just amplified. So that the devices themselves and quietly switch between access points.

Let's now look at both connection methods: wirelessly and via cable.

How to connect two routers via Wi-Fi into one network?

Most often, routers are connected over the air. This is understandable, because there is no need to lay a cable. But, if you need a stable network, without loss of speed, then it is best to use a cable, I will write about this below. Although, routers also connect and work via a wireless network.

I think it's better to consider specific connection methods for each manufacturer:

TP-LINK. If the router you want to use to expand your wireless network is from TP-LINK, then to connect it to another router you need to use bridge mode (WDS). This is not a repeater mode, therefore, there will be two Wi-Fi networks. But, you can try to set exactly the same Wi-Fi settings on it as on the main router (SSID and password). Then there will be one network, just reinforced. Detailed instructions: .
ASUS. Everything is a little simpler here, because the routers from this manufacturer have a repeater mode, about setting up which I wrote in the article:.
Zyxel Keenetic. These routers also have a Wi-Fi network repeater mode. Everything is set up very simply, here are the instructions: . In addition, it is also possible. Here you need to look at what suits you best.
D-LINK. We configure everything through the only operating mode “Client”. Everything works, tested. I recently wrote instructions: .
Netis. These routers also have different operating modes. Among them is the repeater mode, which we configured in .

If I haven’t written about your router, this does not mean that it cannot be combined into one Wi-Fi network with other routers. Look in the settings, look for information on the Internet. Over time I will try to add information on other manufacturers.

One more point: not necessary so that the devices are from the same manufacturer (but preferably).

On the issue of creating one Wi-Fi network from two or more routers, I think we have figured it out. If there are any unclear points, then ask in the comments.

Wi-Fi network of several routers connected by cable

As I wrote above, a cable connection is the most stable and reliable. Well, there will be no loss in speed, and if there is, it will be minimal. Compared to a wireless bridge connection.

I wrote a separate article on setting up such a connection: . All you need is to connect the required number of routers using a network cable and perform simple settings. On devices from some manufacturers, you just need to activate the access point mode, and if it is not there, then simply disable the DHCP server, and a couple of other functions, and our router turns into a regular access point.

And if you need one Wi-Fi network, and not different ones, then set the same wireless network settings (name and password) on all access points. Everything should work, I checked it myself.

Or maybe distribute the Internet through electrical wiring

If you have any other solutions and ideas on how to build a network of several routers, be sure to share them in the comments. You can also leave questions on the topic of the article there. Best wishes!

The required signal amplification of a Wi-Fi router cannot always be achieved by connecting an additional antenna. And if you need to create a wireless network, for example, in a two-story house, and have access to the Internet anywhere, then you need to know how to connect two routers. You also need to know how to set up 2 routers.

Connecting a router to a router is possible in different ways and depends on what interface a given router model has. The simplest method used to connect a router to a router is Ethernet. For this, a UTP network cable standard RJ-45 is used.

To increase the range of your wireless network, you can create a distributed network using several wireless access points. You will receive Internet through two routers. It is recommended that in order to connect 2 routers, use routers of the same brand and model. You also need to make sure that the software versions for both devices match. Before connecting two routers, you need to determine the locations where they will be installed. The signal must be stable at all points required for operation.

Connecting an access point to a router

Before connecting 2 routers, you need to update the routers' firmware. Let's consider setting up access point connections, connecting 2 routers to increase the signal range. Here access points TD1 and TD2 are enabled in mixed mode and ASUS WL-500gP V2 router models are used.

To configure the first access point TD1, you need to enter the address: http://192.168.1.1 in the address bar of the browser you are using and press Enter. When the registration window opens, you must enter: in the Password field: admin, in the Username field: admin.

In the router menu, you need to open Wireless settings and select the Interface sub-item.

In the window that opens, you need to enter the SSID “WL550gE” and select WEP Encryption value – none.

After that, go to the router's IP Config menu and open WAN & LAN.

Write the value of the IP address of the first access point equal to 192.168.1.1

Find Wireless in the menu and open the Bridge sub-item.

In the window that opens, find AP Mode and in the drop-down list, find and select Hybrid mode. To use the connection between two networks only as a Bridge, you need to select the WDS Only option.

After selecting WDS or Hybrid mode, a message will appear telling you to select a fixed channel.

In the new window you need to select a fixed WDS channel. In this example, channel 3 is used.

Then enable the Connect to APs in Remote Bridge List feature, which is used to connect to the APs that are listed in your list.

For the option to allow everyone to access the network, check Yes next to the Allow anonymous field. The option selected here is No.

After this, you need to enter the MAC address of TD2. Its value should be 00:0E:A6:A1:3F:6E. When you enter the MAC address, click on the Add button.

Then click on the Finish button.

Click on the “Finish” button

In the new window, click on the Save&Restart button

Setting up TD2

Connecting the second router is done in the same way as the first. Open the router menu and enter the SSID. Make sure that the SSID of TD2 matches TD1. After that, open the WAN & LAN ->IP Config menu.

In the window that opens, enter the IP address of TD2 equal to 192.168.1.2.

After this, you need to disable the DHCP server. Then go to the IP Config menu and open DHCP Server.

In the window that opens, select No in the Enable DHCP Server settings and click the Apply button.

Then open the Bridge menu, as for AP1. Check that you have selected the same channel for AP2 and AP1. You need to enter the MAC address for TD1. Its value should be 00:0E:A6:A1:3F:87. After entering the MAC address, click on the Add button.

To complete the settings, click on the Finish button, and then on the Save&Restart button as for AP1. After restarting, the network should work.

How to connect two routers

Before connecting two routers, you need to select a connection option. Connecting a router to a router is possible in two ways: via a wireless Wi-Fi network or using a network cable.

If you connect two routers using a network cable, and one of the routers connects to the Internet, then you must perform the following steps:

To connect the router through the router, you need to insert one end of the network cable into the LAN port of the main router, and connect the other end to the Internet (WAN) port.
Enable DHCP on your main router.
In the “IP address” menu of the second router, activate the “Obtain an IP address automatically” item by checking the box there.

The DHCP mode allows the router you are using to automatically distribute addresses to all computers on the network.

How to set up a wifi router via router

If you need to connect two routers via a wireless Wi-Fi channel, then you need to open the settings of the second router and activate the search for wireless networks to connect the two wifi routers. After that, connect to the Wi-Fi network that was created by the first device. To complete the setup, you need to enable the DHCP function in the main router and activate the “Obtain an IP address automatically” item in the menu of the second router.

How to configure a router via router

Before setting up two routers, you need to check that the LAN settings are set to different subnets. If the address is 192.168.1.1, and the subnet mask of the first router is 255.255.255.0, then the second router uses 192.168.0.1, and the subnet mask of the second router is 255.255.255.0.

You need to connect the WAN port of the second router to the LAN port of the first router. The second router must be configured in “Dynamic IP” mode (in this case, the IP address is obtained via DHCP) or in “Static IP” mode (the DHCP server is disabled in the modem). With this setup, through the second router it will be possible to access not only the Internet, but also the first router (at 192.168.1.1).

Greetings, our dear readers. In the modern world, almost everyone comes across Wi-Fi routers. The Internet is firmly established in our lives. Sometimes you have to connect and configure it yourself, let's find out how to set up a Wi-Fi router yourself.

First of all, we need this:

availability of a wired connection to the Internet;
PC or laptop;
wireless router;
cable connecting to the network card.

Setting up a Wi-Fi router.

How to properly set up the Internet via a Wi-Fi router for your home? Initially, you should connect the equipment. It is the same for all routers; for clarity, everything is clear in the photo.

And sometimes manufacturers simply draw a diagram on the modem itself. Very convenient and understandable.

Here's what we need to do:

To do this, insert the power supply cord into the router.
Next, the provider cable should be inserted until a characteristic click is heard into one of the ports on the device, which is a different color from the others.
We connect our laptop or desktop computer to any of the remaining LAN ports.

Connection via web interface.

Nowadays, almost all network routers are managed using a web interface. Therefore, it is worth considering the question of how to set up a Wi-Fi router at home through a computer browser. To use the program, you must first log in to it.

To this end, we do the following:

Setting up basic parameters.

In the Wan/Basic Settings/Main Settings (or something similar) tab, you need to set the following parameters:

connection type
username and password
IP parameters
connection mode

Currently, in most cases, the PPPoE connection type is used; to clarify it, you can find out from the contract with the provider or from the support service.

Sometimes there is no such parameter, more often the required type of connection is automatically connected there, if it is not found, we skip it.

We enter the username and password from the documents provided when concluding the agreement.

We leave the IP parameters Disable or Dinamic IP, depending on the conditions that the operator provides you.

We set the connection mode to Auto so that devices can connect to it automatically and at any time. And don't forget to save your settings! =)

After this, we proceed to setting up the WiFi connection.

Open the Wireless Networks/WiFI tab or something similar. In the basic wireless network settings tab, we need to specify:

Connection type
Network mode
Wireless network name SSID
Channel

We set the connection type based on the data in the contract, most often as “Access Point”. Sometimes this option simply does not exist.

Set the network mode as b/g/n or g/n mixed. The bottom line is that, depending on the network mode, devices with different WiFi standards will be able to work in it. So if you have an old phone or laptop, it will not be able to connect to Wi-Fi of the modern standard. If you have a modern device, then it can work in most standards.

We set the name of the wireless network as desired - this is the name of your wifi for connection, for example, “My_WiFi”.

The channel can be left on auto.

However, if devices will not connect in this mode, you should change it manually to 7 or any other selection method. This is due to the fact that nowadays there may be several routers nearby, for example in a multi-storey building, and they can operate in the same range, which causes difficulties.

And at the final stage of setting up Wi-Fi on the router, we move on to the security settings. Here you need to do the following:

After that, we try to connect to WiFi from a phone or tablet and check the functionality. Next, you need to correctly change the network card settings in order to connect the laptop to the network.

Setting up the network card

To fully answer the question of how to set up a Wi-Fi router, we still need to correctly configure the network card itself. You can carry out manipulations in the “Network Connections” menu.

The easiest way to get into it is to enter the network adapter parameters through the command line, using the Win+R key combination, then executing the ncpa.cpl command.
Or just go to the network settings;
Next, we should open the properties of the connection that interests us;
After this, you need to go to “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”;
Where should you put a checkmark next to the IP and DNS items, thus allowing their automatic receipt.
After this, we connect to the configured WiFi network of our modem as usual!

So we figured out how to set up a Wi-Fi router (Wi-Fi) without a disk using the web interface. That's all for me, leave your comments or questions below, subscribe to our group, bye everyone.

Updated: January 9, 2018 by: Subbotin Pavel

Not enough. If, for example, you have a two-story house or a large apartment, then the coverage area is often not enough, so you cannot use the Internet in certain rooms . Simply purchasing a better device model is not as effective as adding another access point on the same network.

Routers are connected to each other by cable, but in different ways

Two routers can be connected using a cable or wirelessly via a Wi-Fi connection. Let's consider all the options in turn.

Decide right away which router will be the “main” one. It is better to choose a device with more power, unless, of course, you have two identical models. There are two types of connection using a LAN cable - LAN-WAN or LAN-LAN, but the first is more popular, so we will start with it.

Setting up a LAN-WAN connection

How does this type of connection work? One of the routers becomes the main one - it receives the Internet, and the second device plays the role of a secondary network and receives data from the “main” access point.

This connection has the following advantages:

The secondary network can be controlled and limited access to certain sites, for example if you are concerned about preventing children from accessing “adult” sites.
The connection becomes more secure from outside interference.
This connection method is in most cases recommended by experts, since it is considered the most correct and problems rarely arise when using it (compared to the LAN-LAN type).

To connect LAN-WAN, make sure that when the main router is running you can access the Internet without interference, and the following parameters are set in the settings (they are universal for most models):

a server called DHCP is enabled;
The IP address is distributed automatically.

If you are not sure that you have the same settings or do not know how to check them, follow these steps:

Enter your IP address in your browser and you will see your device settings.
In the LAN section there should be a checkmark next to the DHCP server.
In the WAN section, the connection type is set to Dynamic IP.

We've sorted out the first router, let's move on to the second - it's better to reset all settings on it. This is especially true if you previously used the services of another provider (it could have completely different parameters). Therefore, press the Reset button located next to the connectors and hold it for about ten seconds, after which the basic settings will be restored.

Now you need to properly connect both devices with a cable. In the main router we use a LAN connector, in the second - a WAN cell. Check the light indicators - on the body of each of them a light should light up next to the inscriptions of the same name.

In the main router we do not change anything else, but in the second we check whether the connection type is dynamic (we have already looked at how to do this earlier). Don’t forget to come up with a password to access the Internet - to do this, go to the parameters of the Wireless section, Wireless Security.

LAN-to-LAN connection

This type of connection is different in that here the equipment for accessing the Internet is located in one network segment, and in the previous case, the second router created its own separate network. To establish a LAN-to-LAN connection in the main device, all data remains as default.

We change the parameters on the second router using the following steps:

We connect it to the PC.
We go into the equipment settings through the browser, disable the DHCP server.
We change the IP address - increase by one the last digit in the original combination specified in the standard settings.

After this, connect both routers using a cable through the LAN ports; you will connect a cable to the first and main device for Internet access.

Connecting two routers via Wi-Fi

In this option, we do not need any cables to connect a pair of devices, so this method seems more attractive to many. As a result, we still have a single network, but with the addition of one more access point. Thanks to it, Wi-Fi coverage area increases without losing quality. The only requirement for such a connection is that the second router acts as a repeater for the main signal. This feature was once called repeater mode, but today most equipment has WDS technology.

Let's move on to setting the settings. We do not change anything in the first and main router, all parameters remain the same. You only need to check the channel number in the Wireless section (Chanel line) - you will set the same value on the second model, otherwise they will not start working together.

Now our task is to configure the second device to signal relay mode. We will consider the sequence of actions in the same order as on most TP-Link models, since they are the most common among users.

Make sure that the second router supports WDS technology - this can be checked in the documents or on the manufacturer’s website. Then connect it to your computer and go to settings through your browser.

Here we make the following changes:

In the WPS section, disable the active status and reboot the router.
It is recommended to go to the DHCP section and disable the server of the same name, since the function of the repeater is to receive network data and not distribute it.
Select the Network section and change the last number in the IP address (you can increase it by one) so that it does not coincide with the combination specified in the operating data of the main router. After the reboot, enter a new set of numbers to enter the parameters.
Open Wireless:

Change the Network Name - come up with a name for the access point so that you know which device you are connecting to.
Go to Chanel and select the same number as in the basic Internet settings.
We check the box next to Enable WDS Bridging - this will enable the operating mode as a repeater.
Now that work has begun in the new mode, new settings will appear, so click on Survey to search for the network to which we will connect.
From the search results, select the main access point, click Connect. In the window that appears, all that remains is to set the encryption type (Key Type) and enter a password for logging into the Internet.

Now you have completed all the necessary steps to set up a wireless connection between two routers on the same network. If you want to make sure that you did this correctly, then on the main page the WDS Status line will indicate Run.

As you can see, there are several ways to combine two routers, and you can choose the most convenient option for your home. After installing a second access point, you will significantly increase your Wi-Fi coverage area without losing speed and connection quality - these indicators will be excellent no matter in which part of the room you use the Internet.