2019-03-29

Cascading or Chaining Wi-Fi Routers

If you have an extra router laying around, you can use it extend your network. Having internet connection to another Wi-fi router is also a great boost for your Wi-fi network, which can used to create a separate Wi-Fi access point or extend your current Wi-Fi access point.

Configuration of Main Router

  1. Navigate to your Router settings (Usually, it is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1). If you are not sure, it will be at the back of your router with a username and password.
  2. Once you're logged-in, open the Local Network configuration page. (You will have to figure out where it is in the Settings)
  3. Along with it there should be DHCP Server settings. This gives out the IP addresses to your devices in the Local Network. As, my router's IP is 192.168.0.1, DHCP server is configured to give out IP in the range 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.254 (You can keep your range as configured default or change as you like)
  4. But, now that a second router is going to be connected to this router, this DHCP server must know not to assign this secondary router's IP to any other device. So, we reserve an IP address for the secondary router. 192.168.0.2 is within my range of DHCP IP addresses, so i am going to reserve it for my secondary router. Along with DHCP server settings, there should be DHCP Static IP Configuration or DHCP reservations, add this IP (192.168.0.2 in my case) and the MAC address of the second router (Which can be found on he back of the router or in it's settings page, usually a string like this 00E036E10Q08; Some router's also call it serial number of the router)
  5. That's all for the main router.

Configuration of Secondary Router

  1. Likewise, login to settings of secondary router.
  2. Open, the Local Network configuration, and here you have to change the IP address of the router to what reserved in the Main Router, which is 192.168.0.2 in my case. Then apply changes.
  3. Now, login to the router settings using this new IP of the secondary router (192.168.0.2 in my case) and the disable DHCP server in this router. As the main router is giving out IP addresses, we don't want the second router to give IP addresses to any device.
  4. Now that's all the configuration needed to connect two routers.
  5. Finally, connect a LAN / Ethernet cable from the LAN port of the main router to that of the secondary router. And for good measure, you can restart both the routers. Then, you can use the ports on the secondary router to connect to devices.

Extending Wi-Fi using Second Router

If your secondary router comes with a Wi-Fi access point, it can be utilised to create a new Wi-Fi access point; but if you want to extend the Wi-Fi that you already have, then follow these guidelines:

  • Use the same name and password of your existing Wi-Fi to configure the secondary router's Wi-Fi access point.
  • But, change the Wireless channel to a different channel, something a little apart from your existing Wi-Fi AP's channel, for example, Ch1 and ch7 are wide apart channels. (You may also have to set a Channel on your existing Wi-Fi AP if it is set to automatic). This will ensure that the signal's of the Wi-Fi don't interfere, even if they are kept apart.

Now, you can seamlessly walk across a wider coverage of Wi-Fi signal, any modem mobile device can automatically connect to the Wi-Fi AP which is closer and switch to it from the other as needed. (Some older devices and printers may have trouble connecting seeing two Wi-Fi AP's with the same name)

I made this tutorial based on having an extra ADSL modem-router from an old connection, but this should work for any Router you choose as secondary as long as you can configure it.