Make two routers work together.

[uncommon33]

OK I have two wireless routers. One is a combo moden, router, telephone connection. I didn't really want it but my ISP gave it to me. I have a Netgear 3700 dual band router that will broad cast on both 2.4 and 5 G simultaneously. I have tried several times to connect the two but I am having one hell of a time making it happen. The combo is a Thomson TWG870U.
I want to use the Net Gear because it has far more features and power. Some of the Thomson features are limited by the ISP. But I can shoot whoever needs the information to you so that you can see how I have it configured.

What I have done so far..
1. Disable the DHCP on the Thompson and enabled it on the NG.
2. Changed the default IP from .0.1 to .1.1 for the Thomson and .2.1 for the NG.
3. Hard wired the connection from port 1 on the Thomson to port 1 on the NG. This could be where I made a mistake, as I probably should have done it from port 1 to the WAN port on the NG so that I had an internet feed.

I also tried it with .0.1 Thomson, and .1.1 for the NG and visa versa still no hope.
I have tried to hardwire the modem to my Mac, and then login to it while the other one was up.

Basically what I need is to know how to make the two work together, or disable the wireless on the Thomson and then allow the NG to take over the wireless duties for the entire network. And while I have asked the ISP if I could get just a regular cable modem for the network, being in Holland the answer I got was, "that's not possible".

Thanks in advance.

 

[eibgrad]

There are two approaches.

The simplest is to connect the Thomson to the Netgear, LAN to WAN, respectively. This creates two networks, one belonging to the Thompson, the other the Netgear. Any traffic on the Netgear is simply routed back and forth over the Netgear's WAN port. Fact is, you can chain routers in this fashion endlessly. You just keep creating one subnet behind the other. Simple. The downside is, each router represents an additional NAT firewall, which complicates firewall management when you want to open it for inbound traffic (e.g., Remote Desktop Protocol). But it will work, you just need to make sure each router uses a unique subnet (e.g., 192.168.1.x, 192.168.2.x, 192.168.3.x). Of course, since each has a wireless AP, it adds needless redundancy, but it should be easy enough to disable thoses AP you don't want/need.

The other option is to DEMOTE the Thompson from a router+modem, to simply a modem. Most such devices have an option called "bridge mode" that does just that. It turns off routing, disables the DHCP server, etc., so that the device is literally just a modem. And now it's no different than another other situation when you have a dsl/cable modem and router; you connect them LAN to WAN, respectively. Now, instead of the Thompson getting the public IP, it passes the public IP to your router over its WAN port. And there is only one DHCP server and firewall between you and the ISP, the ones belonging to the Netgear.

 

[Emerald]

third option:

enable the DHCP on the Thompson and disable its wireless.

then configure your Netgear as a AP by doing the following:
disconnect the Netgear from the Thompson
log into the Netgear.
set up you wireless security.
disable the DHCP and set the LAN IP to 192.168.2.253
finally connect one of the four LAN ports of the NetGear to the Thompson