Can I set my router as expander/bridge for different router?

[Mr.Humble]

Hi,

 

We have a TP-Link Archer C5 (the old model) as our primary router at home, and then I have an ASUS DSL-AC55U connected after the TP-Link in my room because 5GHz reception at my side of the house from the TP-Link is poor at best.

 

The setup is therefore Internet - TP-Link - ASUS - My PC (ethernet), my phone.

 

However, multiple other important things are connected exclusively to the TP-link, including the smart TV, printer, dad's PC (soon to be a NAS) etc. All connected via Ethernet.

 

Is there a way how to combine the 2 wireless routers to work as a single SSID network, and have access to the wired devices from both routers at once?

[msknight]

You can't really set up a single SSID easily as they won't work in tandem. Best to have two separate wifi networks.

 

On the Asus, turn its DHCP server off and give it an IP address one higher than the TP-Link (or lower if the TP-Link is .254) so that it doesn't clash but you can still talk to it. (you might want to talk to it to manage its wifi access list or something)

 

What then happens is that your PC and phone connect to the Asus, but it just passes through the DHCP requests. The TP-Link responds with IP addresses and advertises itself as the next hop to the outside world.

[Mr.Humble]

3 hours ago, msknight said:

You can't really set up a single SSID easily as they won't work in tandem. Best to have two separate wifi networks.

 

On the Asus, turn its DHCP server off and give it an IP address one higher than the TP-Link (or lower if the TP-Link is .254) so that it doesn't clash but you can still talk to it. (you might want to talk to it to manage its wifi access list or something)

 

What then happens is that your PC and phone connect to the Asus, but it just passes through the DHCP requests. The TP-Link responds with IP addresses and advertises itself as the next hop to the outside world.

Hi!

Thanks so much for your quick tip! However, there's a bit of an issue.

 

Although the DHCP on ASUS is disabled and it has a static IP from the TP-link, the ASUS still forms it's own subnet.

 

What ends up happening is all devices connected to the ASUS show up in the TP-Link console with IP addresses from the TP-Link, and my Windows PC even detects and prints to the network printer on the TP-Link subnet, but the PC will not find the devices connected to the TP-Link, and my Sonos speaker connected to the ASUS won't show up on my phone.

 

There's 3 main objectives I'm trying to accomplish:

1: Access the storage on my father's PC
2: Access the network printer from my PC, connected to the TP-Link

3: Have good Wi-Fi in my part of the house.

 

1 and 2 could be accomplished by plugging the upstream cable to the ASUS to a LAN port and using it as a switch.

Number 3 is more tricky.

 

Also both routers support WDS Bridge and Static routing, could that be useful in this situation?

 

I'm also thinking of swapping the ASUS for the TP-Link - it's realy a lot newer, although still WiFi 5, and has an extra 5GHz antenna. Will investigate tomorrow.

[msknight]

You've got the trick here that you're physically connecting the units by cable, so I'm not sure whether trying to engage WDS bridge might cause an issue unless you pull the cable. I've never used it personally.

 

The Sonos not showing up on the phone would make me investigate whether there is a DMZ at play. Particularly when using a guest network, routers automatically forbid wi-fi devices from seeing anything other than the internet. You say that the Asus has a static IP from the TP-Link? Static is programmed directly into the unit itself... unless you've made a DHCP reservation for the Asus via MAC address or something. It sounds as if the Asus is still not configured quite right.

 

Ideally, the aim is to get the Asus to be as dumb as possible, with its own SSID, so as far as the TP-Link is concerned, any device connected via the Asus appears to be a LAN device.

 

Try the usual ping and traceroute to see what's happening to the packets.

 

Apologies, but it sounds like there's a configuration issue going on, that I'd only be able to work out if I was there with you. Otherwise I'm reduced to rough guessing.

[msknight]

Quick note ... I presume you are connecting the TP-Link to one of the yellow network ports?

 

If the TP-Link is connected to the blue port, then that will be a problem as the blue port on the Asus is a WAN port, and the Asus will treat the TPLink as a WAN device and attempt to/require to route.

 

Your PC and the TP-Link should be in the yellow network ports on the Asus.

[msknight]

Apologies... a little further explanation of the port and WAN issue.

 

If the TP-Link is connected to the blue WAN port, then the Asus will be acting as a firewall between the points... it will think that the TP-Link is the internet. That firewalling will cause you problems.

 

With the TP-Link on the yellow port, then it is a flat network and the Asus will just be a, "dumb switch," and everything should be able to talk to everything else, without the Asus WAN firewall getting in the way.

[theflyingteapot]

Let me understand the topology here:

 

Internet -(wired)-> TP-Link -(wireless)-> ASUS -(wired)-> PC

 

If this is the case WDS would let you use the same SSID throughout the network and should allow your devices to see and talk to another. While you are setup without WDS I would look up your Sonos and phone IP and try to see if you can get your computer to ping them.

[Alex Atkin UK]

As the ASUS is wired, you shouldn't need WDS.  WDS is to bridge two WiFi connections when they AREN'T connected by a wire.

The ASUS shouldn't be able to make its own network if you have the DHCP Server disabled.  Did you perhaps just disable the DHCP Client?

As mentioned above, disable DHCP Server and make sure the link to the main router is on an ASUS LAN port, and it should just work.  Keep the ASUS WiFi on its own SSID so you know which one your devices are connecting to, as most devices do a terrible job of roaming and will get stuck on whichever they "thought" was the strongest signal when you initially connected.

[theflyingteapot]

I don't see anywhere in the OP about the two routers being connected via ethernet, hence the need for clarification on the topology. In order for the ASUS router to not form it's own network it needs to be in a bridge mode. I don't know if turning off DHCP puts it on this bridge mode. Also if it isn't in a bridge mode it may not forward DHCP requests correctly meaning that new devices connected to the ASUS will not get an IP address.

 

Also to ensure the ASUS is on the same network segment as the TP-link, make sure that you can either set a static IP address per port or you can let the TP-Link hand out a DHCP address then add it to the reservations. 

 

Having the two seperate SSID for ensuring your connecting to the right device is a good idea.

[Mr.Humble]

Thanks everyone for your input, I really appreciate all your ideas. 

 

21 hours ago, theflyingteapot said:

Let me understand the topology here:

 

Internet -(wired)-> TP-Link -(wireless)-> ASUS -(wired)-> PC

The setup was Internet -(wired)-> TP-Link -(wired)-> ASUS WAN -(wired) PC

 

22 hours ago, msknight said:

you've made a DHCP reservation for the Asus via MAC address

Yes that's exactly what I did, and I disabled DHCP server

 

6 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

WDS is to bridge two WiFi connections when they AREN'T connected by a wire.

I was under the impression that I could make the ASUS act as a WiFi expander by putting it into WDS mode.

 

However my impression was obviously not based on understanding 

 

I thought that the WDS setting would work with the ASUS connected to the TP-Link via Ethernet into ASUS WAN port, but apparently (again limited understanding) I would need to set up a static route on the TP-Link, and, as @msknight mentioned, probably disable ASUS firewall...?

 

Also While I was trying to put the ASUS into WDS mode and it was detecting the SSID of the TP-Link as "to be bridged", both wireless networks had WPA2 enabled, which, at least according to the ASUS GUI, doesn't work.

 

What I ended up doing for now is trying to see if the actual WiFi usability in my bedroom is better with the ASUS compared to the TP-Link

 

My setup now is thus:

 

Internet -(wired)-> ASUS -(wired)-> TP-Link LAN -(wired)-> PC

 

The TP-Link's WiFi and DHCP server are completely disabled (DHCP server because it wouldn't work as a switch with it on...)

 

No guest networks are set up and 2.4 and 5GHz bands are discrete.

 

All 5GHz capable devices are connected specifically to 5GHz band network (Laptops and phones), and pretty much everything with a LAN port is wired (so my and my dad's PC, TVs, printer, Sonos speaker) with a little help from an actual dumb TP-Link 8-port switch.

 

Also pretty much every device I could find has a DHCP reservation for a specific IP.

 

Possibly this will be enough to solve all my networking needs, but if it isn't, the most likely issue is the 5GHz reception in my bedroom. If it's still bad I suspect the TP-Link WiFi won't work if it's connected to the ASUS (now upstream) via a LAN port.

 

But if I connect the TP-Link as it's own router, I might be able to still print when connected to my private WiFi, but I suspect accessing the network storage of a PC connected to the ASUS won't be possible.

 

I was kinda hoping to have it set up as how (I think) a mesh WiFi would work. But between factory resetting both routers and setting all clients up so that "it just works", and Windows 10 being the OS it is and not displaying my dad's PC in my PC's network view, much less allowing me to actually connect to the test share I set up... it's been a long day.

 

Anyone knows how to remove and add Microsoft accounts from a PC? Apparently my dad wasn't using his to log in, but it was used on the machine as part of our family group to access O365, so now, even after removing the account from the family and removing it in Windows settings I can't "Log in with Microsoft account instead" on top of the local account. If I try to log in with the Microsoft account it drops me on a new desktop.

 

I really appreciate all the things you mentioned and tips you gave, but I'm really hoping I won't have to dig deeper, and with two very functional Wifi 5 routers I kinda don't want to buy an AP, especially since the way our house works I wouldn't be able to put it physically somewhere more useful without power tools.