4

I am trying to set up my home network with the following setup: Main router - wired router with 8 ports to connect all outlets in the house Secondary router in computer room port - Wireless, will provide house with the wireless signal

If I turn off DHCP on the secondary router, will the primary router be able to assign IP address to the devices connected to the system wirelessly? or do I need to leave DHCP 'On' on the wireless router?

Any hints or tips on setting up this kind of network would be appreciated.

Luke
  • 41
  • 3
  • You can enable DHCP on both routers. Just make sure the secondary router assigns a secondary sub-intranet range ( i.e. 10.0.0.X vs 198.168.1.x ) – Ramhound Jan 03 '14 at 18:47
  • @Ramhound, I typically wouldn't recommend using double-NAT, it often seems to create strange, hard to debug problems, especially for novice network admins. – heavyd Jan 03 '14 at 20:03
  • and I am very novice... so this idea sounds like I'd create more problems. Thanks @Ramhound for the suggestion though! – Luke Jan 03 '14 at 20:14

2 Answers2

5

Yes, with DHCP turned on from the first router the wireless router/AP will allow DHCP to pass through. With a setup like this the second router is acting like an AP more then a router. Proposed setup as follows:

  • 192.168.0.1- primary router/dhcp

  • 192.168.0.2- wireless AP/router

  • 192.168.0.3.20- reserved for other stuff you may add in the furture

  • 192.168.0.50-249- DHCP RANGE-Active slots for connected equipment.

Notice the dead space from 192.168.0.21-.49 that is in case you need either more room for static ip equipment like webcams, servers, more AP's... in the future. Or if you want more DHCP address's. It leaves your network some breathing room if needed.

CodeMonkey
  • 1,257
  • 8
  • 12
  • A router router is a router. haha. What is AP? – xtian Jan 03 '14 at 19:24
  • 1
    @xtian, AP = [Wireless Access Point](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_access_point) – heavyd Jan 03 '14 at 19:47
  • Will I need to do anything to make this happen? Like turn off DHCP or do as @Jake suggested, and use DHCP forwarding? AP means Access point, right? – Luke Jan 03 '14 at 19:47
  • 2
    @Luke, yes disable DHCP on the router acting as an AP and then make sure to plug the cable that connects your AP to the main router into one of the LAN ports (not the WAN) on both routers. You may also need to make sure that your two routers do not have conflicting IPs, that should be it though. – heavyd Jan 03 '14 at 19:49
  • Thanks @heavyd ... when I am changing the IP address of the secondary router, do I need to change it to something within the allowable range of the primary. Ie range is 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.1.199 does it need to be like 192.168.1.105 ? or can it be 192.168.1.2? – Luke Jan 03 '14 at 20:08
  • You'll want it on the same subnet, but outside the range of the DHCP server. `192.168.1.2` is a great choice. You'll just need to remember that IP (or maybe write it on a piece of tape and stick it on the router), in case you ever need to access the router configuration again. – heavyd Jan 03 '14 at 20:55
  • @Ryan E, thanks for the edited info, this is perfect! I appreciate all the help from everyone... I will be attempting again to set this up later today... thanks! – Luke Jan 03 '14 at 22:21
  • Mark the answer as correct if it's right. – CodeMonkey Jan 05 '14 at 04:37
1

Some routers offer dhcp-forwarding, if your secondary router has this option enabling it should be all it takes.

Jake
  • 418
  • 5
  • 12