Member Avatar for james_hartt

This might seem a bit stupid, but i was wondering if daisy chained routers be in the same network?

My current setup involves a D-link four port wireless router (DI-624) connected to a cable modem serving three wired computers two that are in my room (a normal computer and an XBOX connected to live) and one that is in the office which has a 30m long cable put through the attic and down into the office the connect it, the problem is my family want another computer in the office and it is not practical to lay another cable to fill up the last port on my router.

I was wondering what setup could i use to make use of the that attic cable to connect these two office PCs to my network and the internet, is this an impossible task, can i daisy chain another router into my existing one to serve those two office computers? Probably a really easy answer so dont patronise :) performance is not needed for the two office computers btw. Any further questions just post and i'll answer soon as possible.

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Short answer: a small unmanaged switch at the office end of that attic cable is the cleanest fix — but if you already have a spare router you can repurpose it as a switch / wireless access point. As , and noted, a switch is simplest; below are safe, practical steps if you want to reuse a router instead.

  1. Give the secondary router a static LAN IP on the same subnet as your DI-624 but outside the DI-624’s DHCP pool (for example, if the DI-624 is 192.168.0.1 and hands out .100–.199, set the spare to 192.168.0.2).
  2. Disable the DHCP server on the spare router.
  3. If you need wireless in the office, set SSID/security on the spare; use a different channel than the main AP (e.g., 1, 6 or 11) or the same SSID for seamless roaming.
  4. Physically connect the attic cable to a LAN port on the main router and to a LAN port on the spare router — do NOT use the spare’s WAN port if you want a single network.
  5. Test: the office machines should receive IPs from the DI-624 and be able to ping the DI-624 and reach the Internet.

Quick pitfalls and checks: using the spare’s WAN port creates a separate NATed subnet (double NAT) which breaks simple LAN discovery and inbound port forwarding (important for some games/servers). If devices don’t get IPs, check for IP conflicts and verify the spare’s DHCP is off. Link lights will tell you if the cable/ports are physically OK. Your 30m run is fine for Ethernet; if you ever need high local transfer speeds, choose a gigabit switch instead of an old 10/100 hub.

If you want absolute zero configuration, buy a small unmanaged switch — otherwise repurposing a router following the steps above will give you the extra ports you need.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Dogtree

$60 will get you a four port switch. Even less for a hub. You don't need a full blown router to do the job.

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

We can find 5 port hubs and switches here in the $30 - $60 range. You do not need the router either.

Christian

Member Avatar for DMR

As the others have said- get a small switch. Although you can use a router as a switch, routers are made to do more than simple switching functions; a router would be overkill both cost-wise and complexity-wise in your case.

As Christian said, you should (depending on your location) be able to get a 4 or 5 port switch for around $30 USD.

Member Avatar for james_hartt

Ok thanks cool i'll go get another switch and try and get it to work thanks :)

Member Avatar for DMR

Alright; let us know if you have any further questions. The switch won't need any software or configuration, so it should just be plug 'n go.

Member Avatar for DMR

Hi brucejackson,

Our forum rules specify that members should not "tag" their questions on to a thread previously started by another member (regardless of how similar your problem might seem). Not only does it divert the focus of the thread away from the original poster's problem, but it also makes it less likely that you yourself will get the individual attention that you need.

Given that- I've split your post (and Christian's response) into a new thread of its own, which you can find here.

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