Connecting two modem/routers together

[tcawley29]

Hi guys,
Trying to set up two dsl modem routers in my house so that i can have full wireless coverage but I seem to be having problems. I am using a netopia 2247-nwg as the main modem/router and a zyxel p660hw t1-v3 as the secondary modem/router. I am using two different ssid's and two different wireless channels spaced well apart. I have the set up working where I can access the internet from both routers however after a few hours I seem to lose my wireless connection to the secondary router where I can't connect either wirelessly or with a cable and cannot access it via telnet either. It seems to reject any method of communication. The only fix is getting up and switching it off at the socket for a few seconds before restarting it. Have ye any ideas of a fix for this as it would be much appreciated.
Thanks guys,
Tommy

 

[eibgrad]

I assume these routers are connected LAN to LAN. If so, you need to assign the second router a static IP in the same network as the primary router (so if the primary is say 192.168.1.1, perhaps make the second router 192.168.1.2, just as long as it’s not being used by the primary router’s DHCP server) and disable the second router's DHCP server.

Also, if you prefer, you can use the same SSID and wireless security settings and you’ll create a wireless roaming configuration.

 

[tcawley29]

I assume these routers are connected LAN to LAN. If so, you need to assign the second router a static IP in the same network as the primary router (so if the primary is say 192.168.1.1, perhaps make the second router 192.168.1.2, just as long as it’s not being used by the primary router’s DHCP server) and disable the second router's DHCP server.

Also, if you prefer, you can use the same SSID and wireless security settings and you’ll create a wireless roaming configuration.

Yes the routers are connected LAN to LAN. I have it assigned to 192.168.1.2 and outside the primary routers DHCP range. I also have the second router's DHCP disabled yet its still not working.
I understand exactly what you're saying about using the same SSID on both routers however this set up does not work for me. I could connect to the primary router at the other end of the house and have a weak connection but it wouldn't automatically switch over to the nearest router itself for some reason. I have already tried using the same SSID's on both routers.
Any further help/ideas is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[eibgrad]

While I don't know specifically what the problem is, I have noticed, particularly lately, many ppl having problems reusing their old dsl modem+routers. It seems whenever they're not connected to the ISP, they're either outright unusable, or at least unreliable. A lot of the ISPs have locked down the firmware, some even altering it for their own purposes. So who knows w/ any certainty what’s going on in the bowls of these devices.

Let’s face it, connecting two wireless APs LAN to LAN isn’t very complicated, and pretty hard to screw up. In general, it’s either going to work or not work. But it shouldn’t work for a while and then quit for no good reason, even losing access via a wired connection.

And given you can find wireless routers for as little as $15-20, I wouldn’t waste too much time on the effort.

 

[tcawley29]

While I don't know specifically what the problem is, I have noticed, particularly lately, many ppl having problems reusing their old dsl modem+routers. It seems whenever they're not connected to the ISP, they're either outright unusable, or at least unreliable. A lot of the ISPs have locked down the firmware, some even altering it for their own purposes. So who knows w/ any certainty what’s going on in the bowls of these devices.

Let’s face it, connecting two wireless APs LAN to LAN isn’t very complicated, and pretty hard to screw up. In general, it’s either going to work or not work. But it shouldn’t work for a while and then quit for no good reason, even losing access via a wired connection.

And given you can find wireless routers for as little as $15-20, I wouldn’t waste too much time on the effort.

I understand that its not complicated. I even tried the same thing but with custom subnet mask, etc last night with no joy. It just defies logic as to why this won't work.
Its not the money thats stopping me getting this job done, its just that I know it has to be something simple thats causing problems. It has to be :/

 

[tcawley29]

Think its been around 10 hours since I last had to restart the secondary router however its causing problems again now. Here is the ip config/all when I'm having problems:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Tommy>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : UNKNOWN
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : B8-70-F4-98-C8-0E
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5B97 Wireless Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C0-F8-DA-03-21-3E
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::b8bc:7970:2bfd:539a%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, August 22, 2012 1:03:46 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, March 28, 2014 11:40:10 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 247527642
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-17-6C-15-E1-C0-F8-DA-03-21-3E

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{1B05CA40-29CD-4ED3-BFEB-A165C981177A}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{F2F2539E-D2B1-4600-B1C9-65287E0474F6}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Tommy>

 

[eibgrad]

Nothing unusual there.

If practical, try disabling the primary router's AP for a while, relying only on the secondary AP. Let's see if there's any kind of weird interaction occurring between them. I don’t really think this is the case, but just in case, it’s easy enough to try.

I’m still suspicious of these dsl modem+routers when they’re not connected to a dsl line. Let’s say the DSL modem is stupid enough to continue to attempting to connect over the DSL port even when not connected. Suppose all that activity resulted in a memory leak, or filled up a log file w/ errors, etc. These devices are pretty “raw” inside wrt the code, memory management, and error handling. It wouldn’t take much to have some process exhaust some resource and bring the whole thing to a standstill.

So I’m thinking perhaps something like this is going on. After about 10 hrs, something’s exhausted, the memory heap, buffers, a log file, etc., and it just dies.

Again, I’m just speculating here.

 

[tcawley29]

Nothing unusual there.

If practical, try disabling the primary router's AP for a while, relying only on the secondary AP. Let's see if there's any kind of weird interaction occurring between them. I don’t really think this is the case, but just in case, it’s easy enough to try.

I’m still suspicious of these dsl modem+routers when they’re not connected to a dsl line. Let’s say the DSL modem is stupid enough to continue to attempting to connect over the DSL port even when not connected. Suppose all that activity resulted in a memory leak, or filled up a log file w/ errors, etc. These devices are pretty “raw” inside wrt the code, memory management, and error handling. It wouldn’t take much to have some process exhaust some resource and bring the whole thing to a standstill.

So I’m thinking perhaps something like this is going on. After about 10 hrs, something’s exhausted, the memory heap, buffers, a log file, etc., and it just dies.

Again, I’m just speculating here.

I had thought of what you said and I tried to set it up to use ethernet mode instead of adsl mode and use ethernet encapsulation. It was able to get the wan ip of the primary router however I couldn't connect wirelessly atall then and had to factory reset it after. Really at a loss to understand this router. Thanks again for all your help