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Can I have multiple Wireless Routers?

Dave, I'm trying to get my local network set up and can't figure out whether one wireless router will pick up a signal from the other so, say, you could stretch the distance a wireless signal reaches? And if they do talk to each other, would it speed up or slow down things?

And a related question: does the distance a signal travels matter, whether the indoors signal has to travel up from a basement onto a second floor of the house, vs. having the router on the same floor with computers using it?

Dave's Answer:

You can definitely use Wifi boosters to extend your network. A neat solution in this regard is the Apple Airport Express device: plug it into the wall anywhere in your house and it'll automatically detect an existing wireless network and extend its range further. There are plenty of other options, of course.

The distance a signal travels matters in the same way that DSL speed is affected by how far it has to go down the phone line before it gets to your modem. Having said that, you probably won't see the problem too much, though if you're asking about a repeater, well, maybe you are seeing this problem.

My office wireless network -- based on the faster 802.11g protocol -- extends sufficiently far that I can go to a café elsewhere in the building and still see it. At home, my base station is in the basement and yet I can easily work online anywhere in the house or yard. I've even sat in my car in the driveway and been online (don't ask!)

The 802.11b technology (11Mbps wireless in WiFi) travels about 300 feet in open spaces. It's sometimes considered a "two wall" technology, meaning going through two walls is the best you can hope for the signal. Wall composition matters too (a concrete wall with reinforced metal bars, for example, is more problematic than a typical wood frame and plasterboard interior wall in a house), and newer protocols are extending the range of wireless networks too.

External antennas also help, as do new higher-powered PC Cards such as the SMC Networks SMC2532W-B card. It uses a more powerful transmitter/receiver and increased a colleagues signal strength in limited testing by about 50 percent. And 802.11g lets you add repeaters and additional antennas to extend that distance.

Oh! One more point: if you have a dual-antenna base station, position your antennas pointing in different directions to maximize the extend of your wireless field. I have one pointing at approximately one o'clock and the other at about nine o'clock.

Hope that helps you out!

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Comments

Dave: You did not answer the question whether we can use two wireless routers on the same network. I bought a second wireless router which has a printer port trying to make the printer available within my net. I could use this one to access the printer. But I already set up my original wireless router to work with the DSL modem. What steps if needed to conncect the second WL router with printer server to my existing home network?

Posted by: Antony King at September 11, 2005 2:10 AM

I think he is completely avoiding the question because he doesn't even know. Even during the CCNA training I have been in doesnt cover this. Unfortunatly I have the same problem, but I have had some success by turning the DHCP service on one of the two routers off, and giving one of the routers a static internal IP address and leaving the WAN port unused. You're kinda lucky in your predicament. LOL! I am stuck on getting 2 routers, and a Host computer to share a dial up connection, and give DHCP data to the other computers, with XP Home.

Posted by: Eric Anderson at December 4, 2005 6:01 AM

"What steps if needed to conncect the second WL router with printer server to my existing home network?"

You need to have routers that support a feature called "(WDS) Wireless Distribution System", which allows a point to point link to be established between two or more access points or WiFi routers.

There are expensive business grade routers that support this but if you don't wanna spend $1000+ you can take a look at , it's a modified firmware version for the LinkSys WRT54G and WRT54GS WiFi routers.

Posted by: Soneone at July 16, 2006 12:32 PM

Stupid CGI script stripped out the URL from the post. Just google for "OpenWRT" or go to "openwrt DOT org".

Posted by: Someone at July 16, 2006 12:37 PM

so if i have a dsl/cable modem coming into a dlink router, do i need to physically connect the second dlink router in order to boost the wireless signal?

Posted by: li at February 27, 2007 10:53 PM

This is a good resource for how to do it.

This is for specifically one router, but I think the idea is the same. I got it to work like this no problems. 2 different routers, different brands.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101496.asp

Posted by: n00b at June 13, 2007 12:54 AM

I am not a tech expert but I do have 2 wireless routers on my home network + 1 wired (a Vonage router). Cable modem is connected to wired router and two wireless routers connected to wired router - did not have to do anything to DHCP settings - works like a charm.

Posted by: BV at July 12, 2007 4:14 PM

Well if you have multiple WiFi simple follow this network cabling.

Modem ----> WiFiRouter 1 (WAN Port)

WiFiRouter 1(Gateway) ---- > WiFiRouter 2 (Lan Port)

Say you have network which extends linear in lenght

WiFiRouter 2 ---- > WiFiRouter 3 (Lan Port)

Note* For Router 2 & 3 no need to use WAN port since you want all the pc connected to it in the same network, so use it as a simple switch.

Even if your connected to ROuter 2 or 3 you gateway will still be router 1.

www.vTalk2.com

Posted by: JBL at October 28, 2007 9:43 PM

Just want to chime in about the Airport Express. an Airport Express can only "EXTEND" a network if the other device is an Airport Base Station or another Airport Express. You can not "EXTEND" a network router that is not one of those to Apple products. You can however JOIN a network but that doesn't extend the network.
Hope that helps. :)

Posted by: Fish at April 3, 2008 10:19 PM

OKAY, i came to this site looking for an answer to the question and i didn't get one. So i played around a little bit and figured out two things.

Some Routers have an option to work as an access point instead of a router.

This is what i did:
I have two wireless routers on one wired network in my house
I have my original G router and my new N1 router.
I left the G in place and pluged in the N1 to the wired network...

I went into the setup info for the new N1 and set it's gateway, ip, and dns info to talk to my G router just like if i was setting up a new computer on my network.
It works great...

so, YES you can have multiple wireless routers on a network... but just save yourself the trouble and look up wireless access points.... much easier.

Posted by: What Can Brown Do For You at June 30, 2008 9:46 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!