Home network setup with a switch and two routers

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Blcarroll

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Aug 4, 2013
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Alright, I need some help with a home network setup.
Basically, I have my office, which has my PC, PS3 and PS4, all hard wired to one router (Netgear WGR614v12) and then I have an Asus RT-N65U that I am using for tablets and miscellaneous things in the house. Both of these routers are connected to a Netgear DS104 Hub, which is connected to my Morotola Surfboard Modem. It seems I cannot get both of these routers working at the same time. I have had some moderate success in getting them to work one at a time, but that is as far as I have gotten. I am thinking there is some setting issues with having these two routers on the same network, but I am not sure. What do I need to do to get these all working?
 
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king3pj


First get rid of that hub...
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king3pj

king3pj

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Feb 19, 2013
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First get rid of that hub. A router should be the first thing after your modem. A hub would have to be in line after a router to be used properly and even then it's not a good idea to use them. They have been replaced by much better technology called a switch. You can read about the difference here.

https://askleo.com/whats_the_difference_between_a_hub_a_switch_and_a_router/

What you need to do is connect one of the routers directly to the modem. Since your Asus router is handling wireless devices it's probably the easier one to move. You would then run an Ethernet cable from the Asus router to your office with the 3 wired devices. You could buy a cheap gigabit switch like this one to split the one cable to the other 3 devices. It's designed for exactly what you are trying to do.

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S50g/dp/B001QUA6R0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1436583077&sr=8-7&keywords=Gigabit+switch

I have 3 of these in various rooms in my house all connected to the larger 8 port version of it which is then connected to my router and they have been working great for a few years.

If you want to stick to the devices you already own you can probably turn off the routing functions on your Netgear router and basically make it a switch. To do this you would want to go into the router's settings and turn off DHCP and NAT. There might be a setting called AP (or access point) mode that would do the same thing.

In summary, you don't want a hub anywhere in your network but especially not before your router. You also don't want two devices providing DHCP and NAT services. One device should be the router and the other one should just be providing extra ports or an additional wireless access point.
 
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Blcarroll

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Aug 4, 2013
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I switched the places of the netgear router and that hub, and apparently everything seems to be working fine now. Didn't put my Asus router in AP mode or anything.
Thanks for the advice on the Hub/switch thing though - I didn't even realize there was a difference! I just ordered one to take the place of the hub.
 
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king3pj

king3pj

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I'm glad you got it working but I wanted to give a little more advice. You don't have to put the Asus Router in AP mode but depending on what kind of devices you are connecting to it there may be problems.

The thing that separates a router from a switch is that a router has DHCP and NAT to assign IP addresses to all the devices on your network and provide firewall protection. A switch doesn't do these things. Instead it lets the router it is connected to assign the IP addresses. This is what you want because all of your devices will be in the same IP range and able to network with each other.

Using two routers and not turning off DHCP can and NAT can cause some problems. The way you have it setup now you basically have two separate networks. Everything connected to the Netgear is on one network and everything connected to the Asus is on a separate network. Devices connected to your Asus router will not be able to see the devices connected to your Netgear router.

This may not cause any problems if you just want a WiFi internet signal on devices from the Asus router. However, if you were trying to do something like use Airplay to stream music from an iPhone that was connected to the Asus router by WiFi to an Apple TV that was connected to the Netgear router by ethernet it would not work. You wouldn't be able to transfer a file from a desktop connected to the Netgear to a laptop connected to the Asus over your home Network.

You also wouldn't want to connect gaming consoles to the Asus if it is setup in this way. If you do that you will have "strict NAT." A PS4 connected to the Asus would have to pass through two levels of NAT before it reaches the internet. It would still work but you may have trouble connecting to online games and chatting with some people. I have seen this in action from a friend with strict NAT. We could both play Call of Duty online but we would get an error whenever we tried to join a party together.

If you disable the DHCP and NAT on your Asus router you will unify your network. It will let the Netgear router assign IP addresses to all devices on your Network including the ones connected to the Asus router. It will also fix the "strict NAT" problem I mentioned earlier.

You always want the first device connected to your modem to be your router. Other routers can be turned into wireless access points/switches by turning off their routing functions.
 
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