Adding a Second Wireless Router to an Existing Wired Network

I apologize ahead of time, I know this has been asked before, but I'm still having problems...maybe you guys can help. I started out with the basic instructions from the highest-voted answer at http://serverfault.com/questions/41572/adding-a-second-wireless-router-to-my-network

The new Wireless router in question is a Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router, Model # WRT310N

Here are the steps I've taken in setting it up:

• Plug my laptop into LAN port #2 in the new router. Nothing else is connected at this point
• Configure the new router to be 192.168.1.200 (the original router is 192.168.1.1, and its DHCP clients are from 192.168.1.100-x.x.x.199)
• Set the internet connection on the new router to "DHCP Client"
• Turn off the DHCP server & NAT routing on the new router
• Plug in a LAN cable from the original router into the LAN port #1 on the new router (NOT the WAN port, nothing is plugged in there)
• Reset the new router

Afterwards, I try to ping 192.168.1.1 from the laptop plugged into LAN port #2 on the new router, with no response. 192.168.1.200 garners no response either. Typing "ipconfig" tells me:

Autoconfiguration IP Address: 169.254.198.113 Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway: 169.254.198.113

What's going wrong? I appreciate any help!

From serverfault Kevin C.

• Start over.

  Take rtr1 and configure its ip to be 192.168.1.1 and the dhcp range to be the remaining ip's.

  Take rtr2 and configure its ip to be 192.168.2.1 and the dhcp range to be the remaining ip's.

  Plug your internet into rtr1 wan port with whatever is required to connect to the internt.

  Plug rtr2 wan port into one of rtr1's LAN ports, with the port set to obtain IP address automagically.

  Kevin C. : This didn't work :( thanks for the suggestion, though.
  From dbasnett

• If you've got nothing plugged into the "WAN" port (which is CORRECT), then the DHCP settings for the WAN are totally irrelevant.

  You should also never see the 2nd router appear in your DHCP lease, because you've assigned it a static IP address, outside of the DHCP range of the first router (also correct).

  What might be happening is that the router in question (WRT310N) might not permit this sort of configuration. I'm not familiar with that model, but I had a Belkin device once that would ONLY route traffic over the WAN connection, because it expected to be the only device on the network.

  The surest way to find out what's going on (or rather, not going on) would be to use Wireshark on another PC to watch what is being sent/received over the WiFi connection. If it's not even TRYING to connect, then it might be that the device just won't do it. Otherwise, it might be able to narrow down where the issues are arising.

  dbasnett : Many of the SOHO routers, whats the technical term I'm looking for...starts with an S ends with a K with a uc in the middle. I have one that when you tracert through it, gives some amusing results. I agree that there should be nothing wrong in expanding one routers LAN port count by using another routers LAN ports, so long as that is your intent.

  dbasnett : Based on some advice I received I am about to try d-link routers(DGL-4500), partially because they have the best "blinking" lights I have seen in a long time. Hopefully someone there actually read the pertinent RFC's.

  Kevin C. : Do I need to setup some static routing configuration on the primary router, to get the secondary router working? Based on there being some sort of configuration present when I type in "ipconfig," I'm thinking that it is trying to connect, but it's just not working. I haven't even gotten to the WiFi part yet, but I'm not worried about that, the new router will be the only WiFi router on the network. Do I need to change the default gateway on the 2nd router to be 192.168.1.1 (the first router)? Somebody mentioned that, but I only see a "default gateway" setting when setting the WAN to static.

  Kevin C. : HAHA oh wow...well, this is embarrassing. Turns out that I had been plugging in the wireless router into a LAN port that wasn't connected to the primary router...I plugged it into the proper port and this configuration worked without a hitch. Feels much more kosher than using the WAN port on my secondary router or a subnetwork on 192.168.2.x...thanks again guys. Nothing to see here, move along...

  JJ01 : +1 for looking at the traffic in Wireshark
  From Farseeker

• Here is my home config:

    Internet
      |
      |
      |
     WP
    -----
   |IRTR |LP---Server
    -----
      LP
      |
      |
      |
     WP
    -----
   |WRTR |
    -----
  
  
   WP = WAN Port
   LP = LAN Port
  
   IRTR – primary internet access
   WRTR – wifi rtr
  
  
   IRTR – LAN – 192.168.1.128 /24
   WRTR – LAN – 192.168.1.254 /24
  

  It works as expected. When you attach two devices LAN ports together, those devices are in the same collision domain.

  My WIFI RTR WP and SERVER are in the same collision domain.

  Kevin C. : Do you have the DHCP server turned off on WRTR? Is its WAN set to DHCP client?

  dbasnett : DHCP is on in both routers. WRTR gets its IP from IRTR. But... I use DHCP and then I use address reservation, which has the effect of statically assigning the IP's. It is only an issue when I change the routers, but it can be accomplished from one location. I received my new d-link 4500's yesterday, replacing IRTR / WRTR both, and was finished in 15 minutes, and every device has the same IP it did before I made the switch.

  dbasnett : I am very happy with my new routers.
  From dbasnett