Member Avatar for fuzzypumpkins

I just got fios installed in my house. It comes with the wireless router...which is setup downstairs on the family pc. All my stuff...xbox, laptop, pc, psp, ps3 are all up stairs where the signal is weak. I have the old wireless router still. Can I set that up somehow so that I can get a better signal upstairs with all of my stuff?

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Short version: the problem is a coverage/placement issue, not a strict device-count limit. has a working Fios router downstairs and an older Netgear spare — both can help, but each approach has tradeoffs. ’s “five devices” limit is incorrect; as noted, the practical ceiling is the network’s addressing and throughput, not an arbitrary five clients.

Options and what to expect: the most reliable fix is a wired backhaul to an access point upstairs — this preserves full speed. A pure wireless repeater or WDS-style bridge can work but usually cuts usable throughput and sometimes forces older gear into slower 802.11g modes. Vendor WDS implementations are hit-or-miss and often require identical encryption and compatible hardware. Third-party firmware (DD-WRT/OpenWrt/Tomato) can add AP/repeater modes on some Netgear models, but check compatibility and risks before flashing.

Practical alternatives and quick tests: try temporarily moving the Fios box to a more central spot or run a short Ethernet to test whether wired extenders solve it. Powerline (Ethernet-over-power) adapters are a convenient middle ground if you don’t want to pull cable — performance varies by house wiring, but they often beat wireless repeaters. Use a Wi‑Fi scanner app to map signal strength and interference (pick non-overlapping 2.4 GHz channels like 1/6/11), and avoid mixing older security modes (WEP/TKIP) with newer ones (WPA2-AES).

Configuration notes and cautions: follow a single logical LAN design so devices can see each other (avoid two separate NAT networks). If using the spare box as an access point, give it a reachable static LAN address and configure only the main router to hand out IPs. Beware that vintage routers can bottleneck an otherwise fast Fios link; upgrading to a modern AP/extender often gives the best user experience.

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Member Avatar for bobbyraw

no???? and you will not be able to connect any more device to the router anyway, base on this>>> 1)family pc. All my stuff...2)xbox, 3)laptop, 4)pc, 5)psp, 6)ps3 six items connected?????? you can only connect 5 to the router.

two wireless devices will only conflict with each other, what you will need is a range expander,

Member Avatar for fuzzypumpkins

psp, laptop, ps3 is wireless

xbox and pc are the only wired items.

I can't just bridge the connection or make it so the old router acts as a repeater not a router?

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

so you have five items connected, you will not be able to connect another device, any combination of wired and wireless totalling 5 is the limit. what is the brand of the router, i doubt you can config it to be a repeater, you could connect it and try the configuration page througt the internet but i doubt it very much.

Member Avatar for fuzzypumpkins

netgear and i dont think there is a limit to wireless devices

Member Avatar for brandonrunyon

Ok, for those who would later go on to read this... it's quite ok to have more than 5 devices on a wireless connection. Your wireless network will support as many hosts as your subnet host octet will hold. On a class C network you can hold a range of 1-254 devices... though I wouldn't recomend 254!... to boost your signal you could try using a cheep hub connected to one of your routers LAN ports and then running a ethernet cable to desired location and then hook the other router to it... that might be the hard way but then again you could just play with the other router for a while and see what happens.

Member Avatar for brandonrunyon

Actually, that hub and the router thing might cause you to have two networks instead of one which may or may not complicate things... good luck

Member Avatar for bjbarnett

I could be off base here and not understand the question but here ya go anyway..

Just connect the routers with an straight through ethernet cable in the respective routers switch ports. for which ever one is the secondary router you will need to disable DHCP. that setup should work fine. Thats what I've done with a belkin router and a Linksys router.

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