2 Routers one network

[Vich3]

If this has been answered I apologize I done a lot of searching and reading and can't quite figure out the solution.

I have a 2Wire Uverse Modem gateway set with an address of 192.168.2.254 subnet 255.255.255.0

I have a Cisco EA4500 connected from the EA4500 WAN port to the ethernet port on the 2Wire. It's is set up with a static IP of 192.168.2.1.
It has DHCP enabled for 192.168.2.100 - 199.
All other PC's and printers use this both wired and wireless. There is also a netgear switch connected but I think that is irrelevant.

What I would like to do is add either my WRT54Gv2 or WNR2000 at the other end of the house. I am guessing the WNR2000 would be better since it also offers 802.11n.

The reason is the parental controls on the EA4500 are too limited. The WRT54 or WNR2000 with DD-WRT will give me much better contol over access for my 2 kids PC's.

So how do I add another router and which would allow the kids to access PC's and Printers on the EA4500 network 192.168.2.##. My research so far has indicated that I have to connect the WAN port of the new router to an ethernet port on the EA4500 in order for access controls to work. And I thought along with that DHCP would have to be enabled which would create yet another network like 192.168.3.#.

Can I set up the new router with DHCP as well and use it to allocate 192.168.2.200 - 253 and not conflict with the EA4500?

If not how can I set up so the PC's on the new router can access Shares, printers etc on the 192.168.2 network?

Thanks for any help. I hope I made this clear enough.

 

[smethrony]

Two router for one network that allow additional computer access the Internet. If you have two wired router then there are double number of ports are available so you can connect more than one computer.

 

[Vich3]

Anyone got any ideas?
Is my explaination not clear enough?
Some help would sure be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[jgutz2006]

Ok so when you use a Router with its WAN port, your essentially creating another network or broadcast domain as broadcasts are not sent over the WAN port. So for instance if you have your entire network running behind the EA4500 and then at the far end of the house (Or wherever it is) you have the kids room and try to put another router in there, This is going to allow them internet access but will prevent them from accessing anything shared on the network "above" it.

Question: Do you have your U-verse modem configured to act as a network bridge?

This is what i would do, Make sure your uverse is in bridge mode, then plug in whatever DD-WRT device you decide to go with and configure it as a router, set up your DHCP ranges etc.
I would then simply use your E4500 as an access point and additional switched ports, to do this, you will go in and configure your LAN IP on this device to something valid, in the same subnet as your other router, but make sure the IP chosen is not in the DHCP Range. Next you will be sure to disable the DHCP Server on the device and make sure you do not use the WAN port, only use the LAN ports. (Some routers with DD-WRT support changing your "WAN" port to a "LAN" port so you can still use this port).

So theoretically, lets say that you use the EA4500 in the kids room, you can apply all of your filters, kids rules and apply them specifically to, lets say port 4 on your DD-WRT router that runs directly to this linksys device and now everything plugged into this linksys router has these rules applied (this would also do the same for any and all wireless clients, maybe a good "guest" wireless network while you utilize the wireless on your DD-WRT Router. This config would allow you to access the kids' deices and vice versa.


**Any reason you dont flash your EA4500 to use DD-WRT? it is supported, I've only purchased DD-capable routers in the last few years and have used this firmware to create many mesh type WDS networks combining 4-6 routers for a large wireless network, its amazing stuff that it can do at a fraction of the price of commercial parts!

 

[Vich3]

Thanks for the quick reply.

My U-Verse Modem is not configured to act as a network bridge and from what I have read is that I can DMZPlus to another router. (http://forums.att.com/t5/Residential-Gateway/2wire-3800hgv-b-in-Bridge-Mode-and-U-verse-Voice-VoIP/td-p/3202609)
I could change that though.

I would gladly try to put dd-wrt on the EA4500 which would solve everything but I read it is not supported (it is based on the Marvel Chipset?????) http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=683495

I have not used DD-WRT but from what I read I can tell it will do everything I need.

My concern in putting the dd-wrt on my WRT54G and using the EA4500 as an access point is that he wrt54G does not have the speed of the EA4500. I also liked that I connect my PC and my Server to the EA4500 wired and get great throughput. I was also hopeing to attach a USB drive on the EA4500 and use it for shared storage.

I am new at learning and understanding the networking side so I am a bit dangerous with my limited knowledge. I am trying to read a lot but just haven't figured it out

Are my concerns above valid?

Where did you see that DD-WRT would work on the EA4500?

This may be a crazy question but can I not have 2 routers on the same lan issuing IP addresses from different ranges. Router 1 issues 100-199 and Router 2 issues 200-250?

Thanks for you help and time.

I apreciate your help.

 

[jgutz2006]

So when you express apprehension about the WRT54G speeds vs the EA4500, Your referring to the wired ports being capable of gigabit and the wireless being capable of "N" speeds. SO if you were to use the WRT54G, and then configure the EA4500 behind it as i explained, you could then use any hard wired devices behind this device and still benefit from the gigabit speeds. Your WRT54G would not bottle neck you at all because the only traffic going beyond the EA4500 would be either broadcast traffic (DHCP Requests etc) and then Internet traffic and unless you have the most amazing WAN connection ever, your ISP connection is probably less than 20Mbps. All of your LAN traffic would remain on the EA4500 because this device is intelligent enough to only forward data requests to other devices specifically to the port it is used on. maybe this physically will not work and accomplish all you wanted to based on the actual locations you need these devices at but i had simply googled ea4500 and DD-WRT and saw a lot of articles and didnt realize they were pages about non-compatible chipsets! my bad.

No such thing as a crazy question, (well maybe this is the one crazy question ever) but yes you can have as many routers on the same subnet as you want, as long as only one of them is actually being used as a router. The second router turned on would try to establish itself as the DHCP server and when theres already another one in place it would start to freak out. Now if you wanted to connect these routers to separate subnets, you could manually enter in static routes between the subnets to establish a connection between them but this is getting beyond the basics.

You would have much greater control of everything on your LAN with a DD-WRT firmware controlling everything. Now if you just used the DD-WRT router for the kids room, as just another networking device, i dont know if you can still implement parental controls because all requests are simply forwarded directly from the computer to the switched port that your using as uplink to the EA4500. That you would need to look into further.

Your other option, Would be using the WRT54G with DD-WRT right behind the uverse modem and then plugging directly into a small 5-8 port Gigabit switch which would be cheaper than buying a new router, Then you would connect the EA4500 with DHCP disabled and a valid IP on the subnet of the WRT54G from this gigabit switch and all of your LAN traffic is on a gigabit backbone or a Wireless N wifi connection and again, only internet traffic is sent up to the slower WRT54G 10/100 ports.

 

[Vich3]

Thanks for your continued time and help. I am trying to digest all that you said. It is getting a little clearer,

I see your point in the first paragraph now, should have to begin with. The challenge is the kids are at the other end of the house from where the 2 wire and all other connections are. They were getting a weak signal from the Uverse 2Wire so I ran one cable to one room and set up the WRT54G as an access point. (Surprising since its only about 50 feet)

Life was good.

I then thought I would upgrade my router purchased an E4200 which failed and they replaced it with the EA4500. Having seen the parental controls on the WRT54G I thought things would be good. The parental controls on the EA4500 are even more limited plus the signal is still weak at the other end of the house. Hence the reason to want to implement the WRT54g in the boys room as a router so the access controls would work.

Is my understanding correct that the router has to have DHCP enabled in order for the access controls to work?

I actually have 2 WRT54G's so I could put one by the Uverse as the DHCP router and put the other in the boys room as an access point and hang the EA4500 on the first WRT54G, Seems convoluted though.

Is the static route set up that difficult. I can read about it. It seems like it would solve my problem?

Thanks for continued help (I hope)

 

[jgutz2006]

SO i dont think the DHCP service has anything to do with parental controls, it was more the idea of the router controlling everything on the network, The devices behind it using that devices as the Gateway on the network. If its setup on the LAN behind the other router and using the switched ports, Once the routing tables are established, packets will just be switched to the appropriate port whereas when they go through the WAN port which will segment the network, it can filter and block everything.

 

[rrslot]

Dear jgutz2006,

""**Any reason you dont flash your EA4500 to use DD-WRT? it is supported, I've only purchased DD-capable routers in the last few years and have used this firmware to create many mesh type WDS networks combining 4-6 routers for a large wireless network, its amazing stuff that it can do at a fraction of the price of commercial parts![/quotemsg]""

I have been searching for DD-WRT firmware for the EA4500 to flash as i would like to install my www.strongvpn.com account so i can watch my netflix from Suisse. However what i can find so far on http://dd-wrt.com and other sites is that only older models (like the LinkSys E4200) are supported. Could you tell me where to obtain this EA4500 DD-WRT firmware?

Thank you so much for your support and reply!
rgds, Rod