How to set up second wireless router as a switch?
Question: I have a main router, a D-Link DIR-625 wireless-N router for my home network. I have it set up with WPA-2 and mac addressing. I have a D-Link DSM-320 MediaLounge I want to connect to my WinXP PC to access multimedia files and streaming content from the Internet, but it can only use WEP security. I don't want to drop the DIR-625 down to WEP, because I'd lose the benefits of wireless-N. Now, I have a second wireless router, a D-Link DI-624, that I've learned I can set up as a 'switch', so the MediaLounge can access the DI-624 using WEP security. Say the DIR-625, connected to the PC, is 192.168.0.1, while the DI-624, connected to the DIR-625 (LAN port #2 <--> LAN port #2), is 192.168.0.2. DHCP is also disabled on the DI-624. Now, I can access 192.168.0.1 (DIR-625), but not the DI-624 through 192.168.0.2. What am I missing here, and how can I get the MediaLounge to work with this second router? Does the DIR-625 need the Mac address of the DI-624 to acknowledge it? Thanks for any help, Mark
Answer:
I think what you mean is how to set up the 2nd Wireless router as an Access Point (AP). It's very easy.
Wireless Router #1
- set this router up with a static IP address of 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0
- set the DHCP server for as many clients as you will have. I usually go with 1 more PC than I have encase a friend comes over, etc.
so the DHCP range would be 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.4/255.25...
- run a segment of CAT 5 from the a LAN port on #1 to a LAN port on Router #2.
Router #2 (as Access Point)
- use one of the LAN ports on the built in HUB. DO NOT USE THE WAN PORT! The WAN port is not used at all when using a wireless router as and AP.
Log into the router set this router up with a static IP address out of the range of the DHCP server from #1. So anything higher than 192.168.0.5 is good. Turn off the DHCP server, you only want one DHCP server per network to avoid any potential IP addressing conflicts. Turn on the wireless radio and configure the SSID and security settings.
that's it.
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