Setting Up 2-3 Routers In Same Home

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Azndude263

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Mar 24, 2013
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My aunt has a 150mbps connection through Comcast with a provided Modem/Router combo (that can broadcast dual band signal). This comcast modem/router is sitting in the basement (don't ask me why because it was her son in law who set this stuff up). Her house is all wired up which is nice. Comcast router/modem is connected from LAN port 1 to the wall for the house. I am not sure if it is broadcasting any wifi or not because I don't have credentials to login to router. Am also not sure how good this router is.

In the living room (which is 1 floor up from basement) there is an old Netgear N router that can only broadcast the 2.4ghz band I believe. The Netgear is connected from wall via ethernet to LAN port (or WAN, I am not too sure but can check tomorrow). She complained about internet being slow thus her son in law bought and plugged in an Apple Airport Express to the Netgear N router (I don't really know what exactly it does).

I know, very stupid setup but long story short...aunt asked me to improve her setup. Please help me out. All she wants is to keep her wifi SSID and password the same so she doesn't have to connect all devices again. She also wants the basement and the bedrooms (2 stories up from basement) to get good signal. I do not know any of the router's credentials except for the SSID and password to the Netgear N router.

I am planning to replace that Netgear N router and Apple Airport Express (still don't know what it does). I have 2 Netgear Nighthawk R7000 routers.

Comcast Modem/Router (default 10.0.0.1): I think turn on bridge mode so it is only a modem?

Netgear Nighthawk Main (192.168.1.1): Will be sitting in living room, replacing old Netgear N router and Airport Express. Will be broadcasting same SSID and password as before but in "Smart Connect" for ease of dual band management. Since Comcast Modem/Router is in bridge mode, do I have to change any settings for this router like turning off DHCP? Will be connected to wall via LAN

Netgear Nighthawk Secondary: Thinking about putting this down in basement as well but in a different room. Do I have to turn DHCP off? Change to 192.168.1.2? Will be connected to wall via LAN. Do I setup the same SSID and password or I can use a different name and password?



 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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You want to run all the other "routers" as AP.

You can set the same SSID and password if you want. It is sometimes easier for people that don't want to deal with the details. It will sometimes not connect where you want and with the same SSID you can not force it. In general it will always connect to the strongest signal but that may or may not always be the best.

The other issue in general with multiple wifi sources is the end device will stay connected and not search for a better connection even when the ssid are the same. This means that the concept of roaming around your house does not really work so well. You many times must manually drop the connection and it will reconnect to the strongest wifi source.
 
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failboat

failboat

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There is a good chance you will have to sign in to the new wifi again. Most devices will notice the change and require a new sign in for security reasons.
If you go with something like unifi setting up handover and configuring each one will be much easier. Plus you can power them all on POE.

If everything is on the same ssid handover is tricky. You won't know which one you're on. The best system is to tune the antenna power and then put a minimum signal quality on them. The APs will drop the client when it's weak. The client reconnects to the strongest. Fast roaming will share keys across APs so reconnecting is faster. Once you configure handover and it's working then changing the SSID to the same one is fine.
 
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Azndude263

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If I decided to actually use the Comcast Modem/Router and not turn off bridge mode. Since I heard you guys saying the "roaming" might not always work best so lets say I cast the Comcast Modem/Router on a different SSID. I then turn the other 2 Nighthawks to "AP Mode", do I still have to manually turn off DHCP? Or the router does it by itself once in "AP Mode"?

How about this setup

1. Comcast Modem/Router - BASEMENT (1st Floor) - Broadcasting "Basement 2G" and "Basement 5G"

2. Netgear Nighthawk 1 (AP MODE) - LIVING ROOM (2nd Floor) - Broadcasting "Kable Network" in "Smart Connect" mode

3. Netgear Nighthawk 2 (AP MODE) - BEDROOM (3rd Floor) - Broadcasting "Kable Network"...since I am only having a major weak signal in basement, I figured I'll keep SSID for the 2nd and 3rd floor same for ease of roaming hopefully.
 
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failboat

failboat

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The SSID's really only have anything to do with the password you use. The network they connect to isn't related. When you bridge them to the router, then it's the same subnet as the router. For each subnet you want 1 DHCP server. So when they are all APs that means it's one subnet so you only want DHCP on the router.

Client's don't really have any roaming features. They just try and connect to the strongest signal when they first connect.
It's all on the AP side. With no features if you connect to one then move around the house and it doesn't drop you will stay on it even if you are right next to another AP.

For AP mode you Turn off DHCP on the AP. Change the config webpage to an unused ip in the subnet. Apply these two at the same time. Go LAN->LAN to make the bridge. In that order.
 
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Azndude263

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Right, which is why I kind of want different SSID and passwords so I can manually connect to the stronger one if desired because I don't get dropped connections, just weak connections.

I am also trying to decide if I want to use the Comcast Gateway as bridge mode or not. Please help me decide. I kind of want to use 1 of my Nighthawk as a main router because I think it is a better router in general.

So I have 2 options. 1 is to use Comcast Gateway as router and turn off bridge mode and turn the other nighthawks into 2 APs or turn on bridgemode for Comcast Gateway and use the 2 Nighthawks as 1 AP and 1 Router

 
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failboat

failboat

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I haven't used either. If coverage is fine with two then both are options. For basic NAT any of them are likely fine. The nighthawks might have better logs or graphs and more services. If the comcast gateways wifi is much weaker then it may not be worth having on.
 
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