How To Connect 2 Routers On 1 Home Network

Welcome to How To Connect 2 Routers On 1 Home Network. The end result here will be 2 routers connected on the same network via a LAN cable. Both routers will be able to access the same resources. You’ll have your “main” WiFi network(s) and the second router will have its own WiFi network(s) that you will connect to separately.

How To Connect 2 Routers On 1 Home Network

Configure your “MAIN” router

1. Log in to your “main” router administrator interface. This is your router that is plugged directly into your modem or other internet connection.
2. In your router’s administrator interface, locate the DHCP settings.
3. Change your STARTING IP Address in your DHCP pool to something other than x.x.x.1 for example your starting IP address could be x.x.x.10 and the ending IP address could be left at x.x.x.254. This will prevent your router from assigning any IP addresses below .10 to any clients, so you can use those IPs for servers, other routers, etc.
4. Make a note of this router’s IP address and subnet mask. The IP address should be something similar to 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1 or something similar to that. Write it down or memorize it. The subnet mask will most likely be something similar to 255.255.255.0. Whatever it is, make a note of it. We need these to configure the secondary router.

Configure Your “SECONDARY” Router

1. Login to your secondary router administration interface (you may have to disconnect from your Main router’s WiFi and temporarily connect to your Secondary router’s WiFi).
2. Locate the DHCP settings in the administrator interface.
3. DISABLE DHCP ON YOUR SECONDARY ROUTER. TURN IT OFF! UNCHECK THE BOX! This will prevent your secondary router from assigning the same IP addresses as your Main router. This would cause an IP conflict and connectivity issues.
4. Change your secondary router’s IP address to x.x.x.2 (use the same 3 octets as your Main router. So your Main router may be 192.168.1.1 so your secondary router would be 192.168.1.2. The subnet mask on this secondary router needs to be EXACTLY the same as the subnet mask from the first router. Again, most likely 255.255.255.0.

Connect The 2 Routers With A LAN Cable

This connection requires your 2 routers be connected via a LAN cable (or use one of those power adapter connectors).

The Ethernet cable should be plugged into one of the 4 LAN ports on both routers. DO NOT PLUG IT INTO THE WAN OR INTERNET PORTS. Only your main router should have a cable plugged into its WAN or INTERNET port. The secondary router will be pulling the internet from your Main router.

How To Connect 2 Routers On 1 Home Network Video!

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