Does connecting a router to a router works?

[fufs]

Hi guys,

I have a Tp-link router (not sure about the model number) connected to an old wirless router (d-link dl-624). I can't make them work together. I think that the problem is either in the way I connected them (Lan port with 30m cable to Wan) or the setup (setting up the static IP for Wan. Can you guys help me with that.

 

Thanks,

Fufs

[Oshino Shinobu]

It depends what you want them to do. If you want them both to be routing, then you're likely going to have issues unless you put them on different subnets. 

If you just want one of them to act as a wireless access point, then you need to enable the access point mode if it has one, or disable DHCP, NAT and routing functions on the router being used as an access point. You'd also need to set the default gateway to the routing router if you can. 

Does your ISP give you a static WAN IP? If not, then assigning a static WAN IP won't work. You'd need to check you connection type (DHCP, Static, PPPoE etc.)  

EDIT: If you want them both on the same network, then you'd be connecting them LAN to LAN, not LAN to WAN. Doing that latter requires them to be on different subnets I believe. Having them set up like that can cause any number of issues with things like port-forwarding, manually assigned DNS servers, NAT and so on. Hosting a server that's connected to the second router in a LAN to WAN setup is a massive pain. 

[fufs]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It depends what you want them to do. If you want them both to be routing, then you're likely going to have issues unless you put them on different subnets. 

If you just want one of them to act as a wireless access point, then you need to enable the access point mode if it has one, or disable DHCP, NAT and routing functions on the router being used as an access point. You'd also need to set the default gateway to the routing router if you can. 

Does your ISP give you a static WAN IP? If not, then assigning a static WAN IP won't work. You'd need to check you connection type (DHCP, Static, PPPoE etc.)  

I want my tp-link as my main router and the d-link as a access point with switch build in. I turned off the DHCP in the d-link. The mode was static but you said to change it. Change it to what? DHCP? PPPoE?

[Oshino Shinobu]

5 minutes ago, fufs said:

I want my tp-link as my main router and the d-link as a access point with switch build in. I turned off the DHCP in the d-link. The mode was static but you said to change it. Change it to what? DHCP? PPPoE?

The D-link router won't have a WAN IP as an access point. Connect them LAN to LAN. Set the D-link LAN IP address manually to something you can remember. If your TP-Link router is using 192.168.1.x as its network, then set the D-link to something like 192.168.1.100 so it's easy to remember (useful if you need to configure settings at some point). It's important that you just change the host, not the network segment of the IP address to keep things simple and working. 

 

 

[fufs]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

The D-link router won't have a WAN IP as an access point. Connect them LAN to LAN. Set the D-link LAN IP address manually to something you can remember. If your TP-Link router is using 192.168.1.x as its network, then set the D-link to something like 192.168.1.100 so it's easy to remember. It's important that you just change the host, not the network segment of the IP address to keep things simple and working. 

 

 

What do you mean lan to lan? It won't work. D-link has 5 ports: 1*Wan and 4*lan. In the manual it says to connect modem to wan. I have modem built in to my tp-link wireless router.

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, fufs said:

What do you mean lan to lan? It won't work. D-link has 5 ports: 1*Wan and 4*lan. In the manual it says to connect modem to wan. I have modem built in to my tp-link wireless router.

So the TP-Link has the line in, right? If so, you then need to connect the LAN port from the TP-Link to the LAN port of the D-Link if you want it as an access point. The WAN input is if you're using the D-Link as a router, which you're not. If you plug the TP-Link into the WAN port of the D-Link router, it will take it as a connection from a modem, which will either cause conflicts on the same subnet, or you will need to have them on different subnets to get them working, but then you're going to have issues with using it as an access point. 

[fufs]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

So the TP-Link has the line in, right? If so, you then need to connect the LAN port from the TP-Link to the LAN port of the D-Link if you want it as an access point. The WAN input is if you're using the D-Link as a router, which you're not. If you plug the TP-Link into the WAN port of the D-Link router, it will take it as a connection from a modem, which will either cause conflicts on the same subnet, or you will need to have them on different subnets to get them working, but then you're going to have issues with using it as an access point. 

But the d-link won't detect it as input, but output.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, fufs said:

But the d-link won't detect it as input, but output.

The ports aren't directional. If it's connected, then it can communicate both ways. 

Can you find any settings in the D-Link to set it up as an access point? In access point mode, it should be a simple matter of connecting it, setting the IP then it should just work. 

 

What model is the D-Link router? I can have a look through the manual to see if there's any settings that would help. 

[fufs]

11 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

The ports aren't directional. If it's connected, then it can communicate both ways. 

Can you find any settings in the D-Link to set it up as an access point? In access point mode, it should be a simple matter of connecting it, setting the IP then it should just work. 

 

What model is the D-Link router? I can have a look through the manual to see if there's any settings that would help. 

 

DI_624_manual_v104_en_uk.pdf

[Oshino Shinobu]

4 minutes ago, fufs said:

 

DI_624_manual_v104_en_uk.pdf

Looks like it doesn't have an access point mode. NAT, DHCP and DNS relay should be disabled on the D-Link, and WAN should be static, but the values don't matter as it's not going to be used. 

[mcraftax]

 

this will explain it, but you will have to find it in there

or his older one:

 

And this is how tcp/ip works:

 

 

[Salty]

What is the model of the TP-Link? Sounds like you want to put it in bridge mode so it functions solely as a modem. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

7 minutes ago, Salty said:

What is the model of the TP-Link? Sounds like you want to put it in bridge mode so it functions solely as a modem. 

That's not what bridge mode does. Bridge mode disables routing functions, so the entire network wouldn't be able to connect to the internet at that point. 

EDIT: It would work if you have the D-Link router actually set up as a router, but there's not really any point in doing that as far as I can see. Typically, you have it going router > bridge. Not bridge > router.

[Salty]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

That's not what bridge mode does. Bridge mode disables routing functions, so the entire network wouldn't be able to connect to the internet at that point. 

Just connect it to the WAN port on the D-Link router then

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just now, Salty said:

Just connect it to the WAN port on the D-Link router then

But why? It's not adding any functionality to the network then, so you may as well just use the newer (from the sounds of things) TP-Link router.