Bridging 2 routers

[griffinheart]

Hello everyone,

I have a problem and don't really know the best solution.

So i have cable ISP and a cable router, but for some reason i can only configure few port redirections. And a i have another router, a draytek that takes the wan directly and allows me much more configuration. But i don't know how to bridge them, or if that is the best solution.

Thank you,
Hugo Almeida.

 

[eibgrad]

Is the old router a COMBINED modem+router, or are they separate devices? If it's the former, I could understand why you would want to bridge the new router. But if it's the latter, obviously you could just use the new router.

You can always daisy-chain two routers together, LAN to LAN, thereby effectively making the other just a switch, as long as only ONE of them has its DHCP server enabled. And you’ll want to give each a unique IP in the same subnet, just so long as it’s not in use elsewhere and is outside the IP scope of the DHCP server. For example, if one router is 192.168.1.1 and distributing 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.200 via DHCP, then perhaps make the other router 192.168.1.2. And if they’re both wireless, then obviously you’d most likely want to disable the wireless of one or the other.

 

[griffinheart]

Hello and thanks for your reply.

Indeed the router i wanted to get rid of is cable modem + router, and the one i want to add is just a router.

So turning off DHCP and assigning for example 192.168.1.1 (old router), and turning on DHCP on the range (192.168.1.10~255 range) and assigning 192.168.1.2 to the new router should prolly make things working nicely!?

The thing is, i'm trying to setup an exchange server and the router we have from the ISP is not so good and doesn't allow many port redirections. While the draytek is much better.

Thank you for your help,
Hugo Almeida.

 

[eibgrad]

Hello and thanks for your reply.

Indeed the router i wanted to get rid of is cable modem + router, and the one i want to add is just a router.

So turning off DHCP and assigning for example 192.168.1.1 (old router), and turning on DHCP on the range (192.168.1.10~255 range) and assigning 192.168.1.2 to the new router should prolly make things working nicely!?

The thing is, i'm trying to setup an exchange server and the router we have from the ISP is not so good and doesn't allow many port redirections. While the draytek is much better.

Thank you for your help,
Hugo Almeida.

As I described it, the old router would still be managing the firewall, so perhaps that wouldn’t be ideal if you find the draytek to be better. If you want to use the draytek for port forwarding, then you could configure it differently.

[modem](lan)<--wire-->(wan)[old router](lan)<--wire-->(wan)[draytek router]

Old Router:
IP: 192.168.1.1
DHCP: disabled
Firewall: disabled

Draytek Router:
IP: 192.168.2.1
DHCP: enabled
Firewall: enabled

The old router may even support a mode called “bridged” rather than “router” and would probably disable the firewall and DHCP server automatically. If not, just do it manually, same thing.

This creates two subnets (notice one is 192.168.1.x and the other 192.168.2.x). The first subnet just blindly passes data on through to the second subnet where it’s handled by the draytek router’s firewall.

The key difference from the other configuration was moving from LAN to LAN, to LAN to WAN between the two routers, thus creating the second subnet.

 

[griffinheart]

Hello,

Thanks again for your reply, i've been trying to configure it as you described but failed at it.

On the Old router (Netgear) i've disabled DHCP and Firewall and assigned the IP: 192.168.1.1

On the New router (Draytek) i've configure the IP 192.168.2.1 (for WAN connection) and gateway 192.168.1.1

Then the LAN ip of the router to 192.168.2.1.

I've connected one of the Netgear ports to the Wan port of the Draytek, the problem here is router says Wan is disconnected.

Is there any mistake i'm prolly making? would port forwarding still work (configure forwarding on Draytek) if i daisy-chain them?

 

[griffinheart]

Another Question

Do i need to make any changes to the subnet mask?

 

[Guest]

Is the Netgear a combination Cable Modem/Wireless router? Id so, you're wasting your time. You should get a seperate cable modem to connect to the Draytek router or learn how to forward ports on the Netgear.

 

[griffinheart]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes the Netgear is a combination of cable modem/wireless router. So Won't work with cable modem/wireless router?

I know how to forward ports on the Netgear, what made me start doing this changes is cause the Netgear says i can have 30 port forwardings, tho when you reach 10 it won't allow you to configure anymore.

I'm trying to setup an Exchange server, and it needs a lot of ports. Is there any other solution to this?

 

[Guest]

You can't bridge the Netgear cable modem/wireless router like you can with a DSL modem and make the Internet connection on another wireless router. Have you updated the firmware on the Netgear? Have you contacted Netgear support. I believe they have a forum as well. Probably the easiest way is to get a separate cable modem and use the Draytek.