Setting up 2 routers in one home

RandmTask · Sep 19, 2017

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong here?

My setup:

I have a modem/gateway installed by my ISP

Downstairs I have an Airport Extreme plugged into the Lounge room ethernet wall socket (into Airport Extremes WAN port)
Internet seems to work fine on this router

Upstairs I have an ASUS RT-ACRH13 plugged into the bedroom ethernet socket (Into ASUS WAN port)

Cant for the life of me get the Asus to work. Usually gives me a self assigned IP address on my MacBook and have to set it up manually and force it to have an IP 192.168.1.x so I can access the router settings again.

Any thoughts on how I can get it up and running? Have tried setting up as AP and plugging into LAN port of Asus but no luck.

Thanks

AirPort Extreme Settings

AirPort Extreme Settings

Asus WAN Settings

Asus LAN Settings

Asus DHCP Settings

cheers

bill001g · Sep 19, 2017

It appears your apple box is getting actual internet wan addresses. This means you ISP device is running only as a modem. Most ISP only allow you to have 1 ip address and that is being assigned to your apple.

Unless you have a reason that you have to have these other routers your best bet is to let the ISP be a actual router and run the other 2 devices as AP purely to provide better wireless signals and as a switch.

Running mulitple routers will cause you lots of strange issue especially the way you are attempting...ie you are using the same subnet behind both. Even with different subnets you will have issues communicating between machines that are behind different routers if you use the same subnet you have no chance at all because of how subnets work.

Life is much easier when you have only 1 router.

c4s2k3 · Sep 19, 2017

What are the Ethernet jacks in the house connected to? Sound like the one downstairs is somehow connected to the ISP modem, but what is the upstairs one connected to? Is there some kind of switch involved?

You can generally set up a primary router with DHCP running on it, then chain a second router to that without DHCP. The WAN port of the 2nd one must be pyhsically connected to a LAN port on the 1st one (directly or through a switch). Alternatively, the 2nd one can be set up to extend the wireless network from the first.

RandmTask · Sep 20, 2017

What are the Ethernet jacks in the house connected to? Sound like the one downstairs is somehow connected to the ISP modem, but what is the upstairs one connected to? Is there some kind of switch involved?

The AirPort Extreme (AE) is connected via the wall socket to port 1 of the modem and the Asus to port 2.

You can generally set up a primary router with DHCP running on it, then chain a second router to that without DHCP. The WAN port of the 2nd one must be pyhsically connected to a LAN port on the 1st one (directly or through a switch). Alternatively, the 2nd one can be set up to extend the wireless network from the first.

You can see here that the Calix device is plugged into ports TV-01 and TV-02 (which are the corresponding ports that the AirPort Extreme downstairs and the Asus upstairs are plugged into). You can also see it controls two ports for the phoneline as well V01 and V02.

Here is the back of the device

AFAIK the Calix ts not supposed to be used as a router

You can generally set up a primary router with DHCP running on it, then chain a second router to that without DHCP. The WAN port of the 2nd one must be pyhsically connected to a LAN port on the 1st one (directly or through a switch). Alternatively, the 2nd one can be set up to extend the wireless network from the first.

I have the AE set up with DHCP running on it and the Asus disabled. I thought since they were both connected to the walll sockets that would be good enough? It was in my last place.

I seem to have a different public IP depending on each of the Asus or AE, I thought they would only be given one IP to share?

Thanks

RandmTask · Sep 20, 2017

It appears your apple box is getting actual internet wan addresses. This means you ISP device is running only as a modem. Most ISP only allow you to have 1 ip address and that is being assigned to your apple.

It seems that both the AE and the Asus are getting actual and different WAN addresses? I am not “allowed” to access the ISP’s modem to change any settings and I haven’t been able to work out how to log into it anyway!

Unless you have a reason that you have to have these other routers your best bet is to let the ISP be a actual router and run the other 2 devices as AP purely to provide better wireless signals and as a switch.

I dont know if its supposed to function as a router. They said if they want me to have them set it up I need to purchase a router for them, but they wouldn’t fix upstairs anyway

Running mulitple routers will cause you lots of strange issue especially the way you are attempting...ie you are using the same subnet behind both. Even with different subnets you will have issues communicating between machines that are behind different routers if you use the same subnet you have no chance at all because of how subnets work.

Managed to have them both working with the same subnet and same SSID in my previous place, not sure why its not working here!

Thanks

bill001g · Sep 20, 2017

After reading this I suspect your problem is just that asus does not have dhcp server enabled.

The documentation says the box from your ISP is a router. It should allow both your other routers to function behind it. It is strange you get actual IP addresses though but if both get them and they both work then I guess that is just how your ISP works.

The problem you have using the same subnet is lets say a machine on your network wants to talk to 192.168.1.xx How does it know if that xx address is on router 1 or on router 2. It will always assume it is on the router it is connected to. As long as you need no communication between the devices connected to different routers it will cause no issues.

c4s2k3 · Sep 20, 2017

I think you were almost there running AP mode on Asus, but the physical connections necessary are missing. That looks like just a patch panel for room connections rather than a switch. Do rooms have more than one Ethernet outlet?

Right now it looks like you have this:
Modem--->AE(WAN)
Modem--->Asus(WAN)

I believe this needs to happen one way or another:
Modem--->AE(WAN)
AE(LAN)--->Asus(WAN)

If (a) that is indeed a patch panel, and (b) you have more than one outlet in each room, I think you should be able to make this happen by completing the AE-Asus connection with an extra cable at the patch panel.

Also, I used to run AE myself and I recall the setup via the Mac airport utility had a simple and straightforward "Bridge" mode configuration. So making the Asus the primary router may actually be easier. The caveat with that is that I also recall this bridge mode mode did not always work with more modern routers and I don't recall why. Of course my own AE was pretty old too.

RandmTask · Sep 26, 2017

Thanks guys, managed to solve it after doing the physical connection suggested by placing the AE next to the Calix box. Then using the AE to provide the connections to the wall sockets and the Asus Router.

Cheers for the help!

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