A question about using two routers

Dragonschild · 23 Mar 2010

Alright, I recently posted here about trying to set up two routers to use the same Homegroup to share files through wireless connection. However I can not seem to get it working right, I reset both routers which totally messed up the wireless connections that I had set up already and they needed to be fixed so they could connect to the internet. I still cannot get the computers connected to the second router to even connect to the internet now which I don't understand at all, I will try reseting the second router again when I get home but I think I am going to try another approach this time. I have my wireless router upstairs within reach of three computers one(sometimes two) wireless and two(sometimes one) wired connections, downstairs I have two wireless computers( one is a laptop and one is my HTPC) and I also have a PS3 and a Wii which were using the wireless connection. So my question is can I possibly connect the second router which is wired only to my HTPC and share the wireless connection that it recieves with the Wii and the PS3 via ethernet cables connected to the router? I know this is a long post and not the clearest so if there is anything that I can do to make it more clear so that I may get help please let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Dragonschild

Darryl Licht · 24 Mar 2010

See if your router has a setting for WDS...

WDS (Wireless Distribution System) is a Wireless Access Point mode that enables wireless bridging in which WDS APs communicate only with each other only (without allowing for wireless clients or stations to access them), and/or wireless repeating in which APs communicate both with each other and with wireless stations.

Hope this helps!

Also, what is the make and model of your router?

Dragonschild · 24 Mar 2010

Darryl Licht said:

See if your router has a setting for WDS...

WDS (Wireless Distribution System) is a Wireless Access Point mode that enables wireless bridging in which WDS APs communicate only with each other only (without allowing for wireless clients or stations to access them), and/or wireless repeating in which APs communicate both with each other and with wireless stations.

Hope this helps!

Also, what is the make and model of your router?

I will see if my wireless router has that setting, however I don't really understand what it does from your description. I do not have access to my routers right now because I am at work atm, but when I get home later I will post the make and models of each one. For the time being I do know that one is a belkin(wireless), and the other is a D-Link(wired). The Belkin is the one connected to the modem upstairs and the D-Link is the one that I was going to connect to my wireless HTPC downstairs to share the internet connection with the PS3 and The Wii.

I would think that it would be an easy thing to set up although I know it is not a PnP thing. At this point I am just trying to reduce the number of devices that connect to the network wirelessly and the PS3 and Wii are good choices because I do not want to use them to access the homegroup network. Also this will allow all the regular pc's to be connected through the same router(wireless Belkin) and make setting up the Homegroup much easier because I will not have to worry about changing any settings on the second router to allow access other than internet access. Whew, this whole network setup is a lot more work than I originally thought it was going to be. I am glad that I found a good forum to discuss these things on.

Darryl Licht · 24 Mar 2010

OK... from early on in your original post, I thought you were trying to use 2 wireless routers... and use them to bridge 2 wired networks. Upon further review I think I understand your problem....

So my question is can I possibly connect the second router which is wired only to my HTPC and share the wireless connection that it recieves with the Wii and the PS3 via ethernet cables connected to the router? I know this is a long post and not the clearest so if there is anything that I can do to make it more clear so that I may get help please let me know.

Yes, not very clear here... Your 2nd router isnt wireless??? ...and you want to use the built in wireless in your HTPC to share wireless access with your other devices (Wii & PS3)??? Is that correct?

Dragonschild · 24 Mar 2010

Darryl Licht said:

OK... from early on in your original post, I thought you were trying to use 2 wireless routers... and use them to bridge 2 wired networks. Upon further review I think I understand your problem....

So my question is can I possibly connect the second router which is wired only to my HTPC and share the wireless connection that it recieves with the Wii and the PS3 via ethernet cables connected to the router? I know this is a long post and not the clearest so if there is anything that I can do to make it more clear so that I may get help please let me know.

Yes, not very clear here... Your 2nd router isnt wireless??? ...and you want to use the built in wireless in your HTPC to share wireless access with your other devices (Wii & PS3)??? Is that correct?

Yes, although wouldn't the shared connection that the PS3 and Wii use be considered a wired connection because they are connected to the router via ethernet cables?

Darryl Licht · 24 Mar 2010

Dragonschild said:

Darryl Licht said:

OK... from early on in your original post, I thought you were trying to use 2 wireless routers... and use them to bridge 2 wired networks. Upon further review I think I understand your problem....

So my question is can I possibly connect the second router which is wired only to my HTPC and share the wireless connection that it recieves with the Wii and the PS3 via ethernet cables connected to the router? I know this is a long post and not the clearest so if there is anything that I can do to make it more clear so that I may get help please let me know.

Yes, not very clear here... Your 2nd router isnt wireless??? ...and you want to use the built in wireless in your HTPC to share wireless access with your other devices (Wii & PS3)??? Is that correct?

Yes, although wouldn't the shared connection that the PS3 and Wii use be considered a wired connection because they are connected to the router via ethernet cables?

The point to my question is you are trying to share the wireless connection on your HTPC and not a router... right? Since you say this other router is a wired router...

If that is the case the only way I think you can do it is with a wire from router to router.

Dragonschild · 24 Mar 2010

Yea, I want to share the wireless connection that my HTPC is getting with both the PS3 and the Wii but what I wanted to do is connect the wired router to the HTPC and share the connection through it to both of the consoles.

Darryl Licht · 24 Mar 2010

Dragonschild said:

Yea, I want to share the wireless connection that my HTPC is getting with both the PS3 and the Wii but what I wanted to do is connect the wired router to the HTPC and share the connection through it to both of the consoles.

I not sure that's going to be possible!

Maybe ICS can do it... make sure you turn off DHCP on router connected to HTPC...

mdweaver · 24 Mar 2010

I think i understand what you are trying to do, I have a similar setup. It took a little persistence. You need to allow other users to use this internet connection on your thpc wireless connection in ICS, and then give the Ethernet connection a static address in the TCP/IPv4 properties that is not the same as your default gateway. Then with your second Router you need to make sure that it has a different IP address than everything else in your network and turn off the DHCP and service in the setting gui you can get to form your internet browser, and leave everything else turned on. You might have to give the second router a different SSID name I would suggest this anyway but you could probally use the same encription code to keep it simple for yourself. Then with my router (Dlink) I have to connect form in your case the HTPC's Ethernet to one of the lan ports of the second router not the wan. I would take one of your laptops and connect the ethernet into one of the lan ports and get everything working and make the wireless connection.

After rereading your posts you can disregard renaming the ssid name and encription part unless you want to brodcast wireless from the second router as well but eveything else ie what you neet to do to get the connection working

Dragonschild · 24 Mar 2010

I will give that a try and see what happens, gotta wait till tomorrow though. If it doesn't work out I guess I can just use a wireless connection for the PS3 and Wii, I was just trying to get a couple of devices off the wireless in case I needed those spots for something else. Anyways, thanks for all your help guys.:)