I have two linksys router I would like to be able to share files across both routers.

The network is set up like this:

Cable modem connects to the Linksys (RT31P2)

out of the Linksys (RT31P2) on port# 1 to a Linksys (WRT54G) into the WAN port.
I have two computers hard wired to the Linksys (WRT54G) and one is wireless.

Is it possible to share files across the two Linksys routers?

Yes, but the real issue comes down to sharing files across two networks, because that is what routers do- they manage traffic between two or more different networks.

Please give us details of the logical configuration of your routers and computers, such as the WAN and LAN IP addresses of each router, the IP addresses assigned to the computers connected to each router, whether or not the routers are supplying the computer IPs via DHCP, etc.

Linksys RT31P2


Local IP 192.168.15.1
Subnet 255.255.255.0

Local DHCP 192.168.15.100


Port 1 is ran to the second floor to Linksys WRT64G WAN Port

Linksys WRT54G

Local IP 192.168.1.1
Sunbnet 255.255.255.0

Local DHCP 192.168.1.100

WAN port IP address 192.168.15.100
Default Gateway 192.168.15.1


There are two Pc’s off of the WRT54G set for DHCP IP address 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101

There are a number of different solutions for your problem.

The easiest solution is to replace the RT31P2 with a switch and connect the cable modem to the WRT54G. This would create one LAN rather than the two LANs that you currently have. This isn't a very good solution though since you would have to replace a component.

Your computers may be able to share files across the different LANs currently, but they just don't see eachother in Network Neighborhood. To test this, use one of the computers to try to access the shares on a computer that is connected to the other router. Rather than going through Network Neighborhood, type in the location of the other computer in the form of "\\ipAddress" such as "\\192.168.1.101". See if you can see across to the other router's systems this way. If this set up works for you, you could actually make links on each machine to point to the systems on the other router. It's not the most elegant solution, but I have seen it work.


Now for a solution that is both elegant and inexpensive (free) but is also more technically involved. This is the best solution I can come up with in your situation. Basically, we will turn your wireless router into nothing more than a switch with a wireless access point. In effect, this will bypass all the router functions -- NAT, firewall, DHCP server, etc -- on the wireless router. This will create one LAN using two routers. The following are the details to implement this.

The first step is to not use the WAN port on the wireless router. All traffic that goes through the WAN port will be firewalled and NATed, which we don't want. We want the wired router to handle all that. Take the cable that is plugged into the WAN port on the wireless router and connect it to one of the standard LAN ports.

Since the wireless router is now just a regular device attached to the wired router, we need to configure it to use the same subnet as the wired router. Use a computer that is directly connected to the wireless router to access its configuration page. Change the wireless router's IP address to one that matches the LAN addressing for the wired router, for example: 192.168.15.2. You should not use an IP address that has a last number greater than 99 since the wired router hands out IP addresses in that range, and you don't want your wireless router to be unable to connect because a computer on the wired router got its designated IP address.

The next step is to turn off the wireless router's DHCP server. You should have the ability to set this in the configuration. You don't want the wireless router to serve as the DHCP server since you want your wired one to handle all of this. After this configuration is made, the wired router will assign IP addresses for every machine, thus connecting every machine to the same LAN.

After you have made all these changes, turn off all the machines that connect to the wireless router, reboot the router, let the router fully boot, and then turn your machines back on. After they have all come back up, make sure that they have a good network connection and can connect to the net. The last thing to check is to see if all the computers can now see themselves.

It's very possible that you will run into trouble if you try to do this. If you do, let us know what you are having a problem with, and we will help you figure out the problem.

your using the standard/default mask of 255.255.255.0 - which, in a nutshell, means that the first three groups (or, quads) of the ip must match one another exactly in order for the two devices to communicate (at least as far as a small home/office network, w/o an admin, is concerned), so the easiest thing to do is to configure the ip's accordingly: set the ip of one router to 192.168.15.1 & the other to 192.168.15.2 (or ...15.3, ...15.4, etc), or configure one as 192.168.1.1 & the other as 192.168.1.2 (or ...1.3, ...1.4, etc). this way both routers would be in the same segment/network.

Hello, I am new, just signed up to reply here.. not sure of protocol, but.. wouldn't this be perfect for bittorrent?