Correction: In AP mode, the WAN port usually works like a LAN port, and some models have a faster WAN port (for example, Archer AX6000 has a 2.5gbps WAN port, but 1gbps LAN ports) It's common practice to connect the WAN port of a router in AP mode to a LAN port on the gateway of the network.
One of my routers (now retired, but still works), a Belkin from around 2007, also works exactly this way, though that one only has 10/100 capability. AP mode basically turns the router into a switch. What I mean by this is that pretty much even really old routers work this way, so there should be no issue doing that.
The only difference is that, when using the WAN port instead of LAN, you need to disable NAT (if consumer grade routers automatically do that in AP mode, that's great)
@@vitorao That’s what AP mode is meant for. It goes from acting as a gateway and dhcp server, to being a layer 3 switch and wifi access point. I’d be more concerned of a router’s AP mode *didn’t* do this.
@@barneybarney3982That's weird. My upgraded router (a TP-Link Archer C80 I bought to replace the aging Belkin) lets me use the WAN port just like the LAN ports in AP mode.
When my Asus RT-AC88U started getting bogged down, I upgraded to the Asus RT-AX88U. Rather than toss the AC88U, I tried the AiMesh feature that Asus offers through the router interface. It worked awesome and was able to enhance my wifi network by incorporating the AC88U into the Mesh network. The setup was easy and assume behind the scenes it was doing everything you discussed your video (DHCP turned off, etc) automatically. Great feature on Asus routers!
I was actually going to mention this. Some have the feature to put them in an AP mode so it's used as a simple access point. I'm running the exact same setup as you actually haha.
you also can flash openwrt on other brand router and mesh them ivebeen using very cheap router called mi4a, even use them for load balance last for years
AP choice is up to client, AiMesh or not likely had nothing to do with it. (unless ofc they share encryption secrets, which would make reconnecting slightly faster)
I like Asus routers. I have two 68Us for the same reason. Also, built in VPN etc. I know they're not the only ones with this functionality, but I'm a happy customer.
Never set a second router/AP's IP that is within the main router's DHCP range. Rather move or reduce the DHCP pool as you don't want a device to get an IP that is the AP's IP. Rather make the AP IP a high number, I typically use .250 for AP's
Most home routers DHCP automatic addresses are between .100 to .200 or .254. Good to just look at the setting though and pick one outside the DHCP range.
@@akshaymathur136 that is a DHCP reservation and while good, some home routers' configuration software either don't allow it or have some obtuse rules about it. On top of that they likely wanted to keep this video short and as uncomplicated as possible, so trying to explain a MAC address and how to apply it might have been a bit much for a "techquickie." Compound that with the fact that this isn't even the best solution for this kind of problem, it's just the cheapest and easiest to implement, and you might see why they left a lot of helpful things out.
That is best practice, yes. Though if your AP responds to ping, the DHCP server should mark it as BAD_ADDRESS and not assign it to any clients, as a safeguard against this exact scenario.
Best to do both - APs should have the highest IPs, and the DHCP pool should be configured to exclude the high end of the IP range - however many individual IPs required to be static. IP reservations are possible too, but then you might as well do it properly and set static IPs with DHCP pool exclusions.
This is the video I needed for a long time. Have three routers at home but didn't quite know how to make all three act as one. Most of the videos I found on YT were long and kinda tricky to understand for a person like me who has a limited tech knowledge. Thank you for explaining the steps so simply. It's nice to see the channel that you love make a video addressing the thing u wanted to do for a long time.
You really would be better off going with a 3 base T-Link Deco X20 mesh router setup at this point as each of the bases has 2 lan ports, plus along with the app it's very simple to setup, keep the firmwares updated, diagnose any issues, and as long as you have a stable data connection on your phone you can even do remote speed test if someone in your home calls/txt you while you're away that the internet is not working, and you can tell if it's the mesh routers or the ISP, and if it the routers restart them remotely, and only have them restart the modem/gateway if necessary. Also having a mesh setup all from the same company using the same WiFi tech is more secure, and will reduce WiFi interference, channel overlap, and overall giving you less headaches.
@@MegaZeta O yes your might holy master, anything you say. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I was just giving him an much easier solution that cost about the same amount of money as this one, so seriously cool your jets, and go sit in the corner, because you're not anyone's master, and overlord!!
Since it is unlikely the secondary access point will be off long enough for a new DHCP request to receive the APs previous IP address, it is probably fine and they probably skipped it in order to make this video short and relatively uncomplicated. However yeah, setting a DHCP reservation on the primary router would have been a good step, but there are plenty of other things they left out because this is a big topic. On top of that, some cheaper and older routers don't even allow a DHCP reservation, or have some obtuse rules about it.
@@vitorao depends on the primary router. Some will reject a request outside of the range or some will use the full subnet as the range (minus the address for router and the WAN). However, some will ONLY allow a reservation or a specific IP request outside of the DHCP range, PFsense is like this.
Helpful tip: configure DHCP to give out addresses over .100. That way it is easy to set static IPs safely, perhaps manually, and give them numbers from 2 to 99. And if you see an IP you can easily deduce whether it got it via DHCP
Can confirm this is great. Had a similar setup at my parent's house so we get proper signal everywhere, including a detached kitchen and a garden. One other thing to note is that if a cable is impractical, you can get similar results by connecting the second router to the wireless network of the first one. Not everything supports this wifi repeater mode, but it's worth checking. The downside is that it will have lower speed and higher latency copmpared to using a cable,, but it's better than nothing.
For things like TVs and other mostly stationary devices this is a good idea and will work great. roaming part is the part that doesn't work well. The device will lock on and not let go until it loses connection. Even business grade access points struggle with this because its often more the device connecting vs the access points issue.
Fast roaming feature does wonder, as it allows you to move between routers seamlessly, without interruption. Because when you do this setup, the devices would tend to stay at the same network, no matter the signal strength. And the transition between your wifi will interrup the connection. Marcfiftyone has a great video discussing this.
I have a 4 base Deco X20 setup, but I still have a cheap T-Link Archer C54 router in range extender mode attached to my Blu-Ray player, and media/family gaming PC in my game room that don't have built in WiFi, as they don't need anything faster
You actually have to configure your first router so that it doesn't give the IP address you assigned to the second router to any other client. If you don't do it, such a setup may break in a mysterious way. When the second router is in AP mode, WAN port is bridged to LAN ports, so you can use it; that's what I'm actually using: the Ethernet cable from my main router is connected to the WAN port of my second router.
Hi I have ethernet cBle connected to my existing router , the cable is connected to lan4 , then cable is goin to the garage and I have second router there connected to lan4 to and is workin perfect but only problem is next to existing router there is some small box and Is biping every 2 minutes Any idea what is wrong , should I connect cable to different port in the second router maby in to wan ? My existing interenet is fibre is that mak any different
I use to do this several years ago. It worked reasonably well enough, but I eventually upgraded to dedicated access points. I removed the second router and disabled the WiFi on the main. The APs work SOOOOO much better. Since I don't need a router with built in WiFI, I switched to a mini PC with pfSense and a separate gigabit switch when the old router started acting up.
Thank you so much! I was already going crazy, because I could not get it to work using other tutorials. The KEY point: connect the second router via LAN port, not WAN port. Some routers maybe automatically switch WAn port to LAN port when in AP mode, but my Edimax does not and it would not work when cable was in WAN port. You saved me, thank you very very much!
had to do this in a small flat because of the awkward placing of the signal box. Bought a second router with gigabit ports and did what you described in the video. But that problem with staying connected to one AP was too annoying. So it was easiest to disable wifi on the first (main) router, because the second one was placed in the middle, so good coverage. Also removed the antennae from the first one and now it looks quite clean. Two routers like that are also simply useful as mini switches. I have gigabit ports here on the main side, letting me connect my PC to a PC hooked to ethernet on one of the remaining gigabit ports on the second router.
It's called VLAN on most routers that are provided by ISPs. Just add another router as VLAN2 and assign the lan port 1 (first being 0) as VLAN2. If your routers are really close by decrease the transmit power on those, saves a lil bit of power too - likewise u can increase the transmit power too but it's a two way thingy so depends on the device And yes, remember lan wire is always cheaper and better than most "cheaper" routers. You can get cheap routers off of 2nd hand places I got extra 2.4ghz for cheap, I use them for covering the outer areas where speed isn't a priority.
2:22 Never yolo-set a device IP like that. It MUST be outside the DHCP IP range or reserved in the DHCP server. The DHCP server will gladly assign devices your IP unless you tell it not to and then the traffic breaks down.
Here in Germany there are routers from a German company called Fritz!Box and they make it really comfortable to reuse their old routers. The routers can mesh with each other, so you don't need to configure the wifi ssid and password on the second router and if you change some wifi settings, like password or enabling the guest wifi, it will automatically be adopted by the second router, which makes it pretty convenient.
I just installed a Deco XE75/75 Pro system in my house. So now I have excellent coverage in every room of the house. It was super easy to set up. I didn't have to go through all this jargon they discussed. The router and app did all the work. 🙂
Use 2.4Gz routers if you have lots of walls in the area of coverage and 5Gz for routers that will stay within line-of-sight. Higher frequencies have higher speeds but less penetration and spread. Make sure the channels don't overlap for each router and neighboring ones as much as possible.
I don't know if this is the case with all wifi networks, but I tend to get the best of both worlds with my wifi setup: devices will auto-switch between them after being given the password for one (though they will stay on the weaker one for a little too long), but they are also named differently, so you can connect to them manually if you want. I just connected my second router to the first via a very long ethernet cable, then when I went into its settings I was able to select an access point/repeater mode. No messing with hard-set local IP addresses.
This a good quick and dirty solution, especially if you have wireless devices that are unlikely to travel around the house. However, if you do have devices that travel across the house, most are typically very bad at disconnecting from their original access point with bad signal strength to the new access point (with the same access credentials) with much better signal strength. Often times you have to disconnect and reconnect from the network on the device yourself. A better solution is some kind of mesh setup. Many newer routers have this capability, but have it disabled unless you connect mesh nodes (compliant access points.) This starts to get really complicated if you didn't just get an all in one mesh system, so I understand why it wasn't gone over in this video. Essentially, the mesh network handles switching the devices connection to the correct access point so your device doesn't have to and is typically way better at doing it and provides a better experience.
0:20 The router in your home sends your video to your intended screen. The *little chromecast button* on your phone's video player sends that video to the least intended screen 😂❤
2:55 this is not always the case if the second router has a dedicated AP mode as when the router is configured in that made specifically, it does expect to receive its ethernet through the WAN port, or at least my TP Link AX73 does (we have two of that same router on the same network)
This is soooo helpful. I have little to no understanding of routers until now. Now I realize why our tiny organization are having problems because we have 2 routers like 10 years ago and we have no technical know-how whatsoever. Thank you!!
I’ve done this so many times, but I always use the WAN port on the secondary router. This makes the secondary router act as a subnet and imo is a simpler set up and I’ve found it to be plug and play (almost)
For less experienced users doing this, realize that devices won't be able to access devices that may be setup on either side of the local networks, like a printer/backup/NAS/server/casting. You may want to cast to a TV or wifi speaker, and unless they are on the exact same subnet, you won't be able to see it. This also creates "double NAT'ing" scenarios and all data packets will be a bit slower and more likely to loose packets/data because it has to make extra local hops out and back from the interwebs. This is great in a pinch, but things won't work as smoothly or reliably.
it mostly depends on the router in question, one old router i have will not work if plugged over WAN, but it works fine if connected via LAN, the newer one has in its settings for AP mode to connect it via the WAN port
In other words, an extended wifi. I did this years ago art an apartment I lived in with some people, and it worked wonders. I did this exactly as you described it.
I thought that I already knew how to do it, but wake on LAN stopped working with my PC, and after that rewatching that video and following the steps, wake on LAN started working again perfectly, thank you so much for this tip.
i added a 2nd router like 8 years ago. i had the modem with the main router upstairs in my room and the 2nd router downstairs on the main floor. both routers worked flawlessly. it's actually pretty simple if you know what you're doing.
My first ISP-supplied router is managing 192.168.1.x, and I just gleefully plugged in a second router that happens to default to 192.168.0.x (2nd's WAN to 1st's LAN). Both have DHCP turned on. In fact, both are using their default settings (except passwords of course). This approach has been working perfectly for many years, even with new routers at both ends over the years. It's not possible to access network resources (NAS, printer) across the gap, but that's a feature not a bug in my case (2nd network is IOT-heavy and just simple Internet media consumers). Both sections access the 'net perfectly fine. YMMV.
Telecom is very complicated. There is some on paper explanation but you're going to struggle to see real implementations because that is the secret sauce from the big MNOs. youtube.com/@Mpirical
Here in my house I'm using something called Seamless Roaming, controlled via an OC200 from TP link (hardware model), that way the controller makes sure you're on the best wifi signal, and I've installed 4 AP's in the house, 3 in and one outside, so no matter where I am, I'm always connected to the best signal point at any given time. Anyhow, Routers: A lot of people are not aware that, if you have a smart home with only one router, and you even if you have switches, that once your router is down, your smart home, or any device for that matter (so everything that is not connected directly to your router), is dead in the water. That is why I installed a second router, as a fail safe, for when the ISP one is going down for whatever reason, the other router (NON wifi to be clear here) will still handle and manage all of your devices, as a router should do. Important add on for the video as well: You can leave DHCP on, if you have the option to change your subnet (192.168.1.x to 192.168.0.x fe), however, it's still suggested to not do that, unless you start giving every device a static IP or if you work with a DHCP reservation list, making sure you never give an ip from one to another, howver, that if very unlikely to happen. As a suggestion: Explain the above comment, in a much nicer, and better understanding kind of way! Great vid, keep it up team!
I don't know what smarthome system you use, but all I ever used worked perfectly fine without internet/network. (Obviously no smartphone control, but the local switches all worked)
My router's WAN port died from a power surge. I set that puppy to AP mode and boom! It became the second access point for the opposite side of the house.
I used two routers to cover our 3 storie house for years. It was a mess... since a few years I have one of the cheapest Mesh solutions available from NOVA and it works really well. Still has some hickups once in a while but nothing like what I had with two routers.
I have two D-Link DIR-X5460 Routers but I have set them to Mesh mode. To do this however you need to manually download and install the 1.11 Firmware for them from from the D-Link website. The auto update only downloads the 1.04 firmware last time I tried. To connect them it was as simple as pressing the WPS on the main router, then clicking the WPS on the secondary one and it configured itself to be a Mesh Extender. I have one at each end of my house and get good WiFi the entire length of my house. I used to get dead spots at the far end. Both apparently have two 5 Ghz transmission radios and one 2.5GhZ radio. It uses the second 5Ghz radio for the backhaull.
I had good 2.4ghz signal and iffy 5ghz signal from my router. I bought a 35ft ethernet cable and moved the router. Now the whole house gets great signal on both wireless connections!
To combat the "Roaming" issue (RSSI) set the WiFi channels to different but overlapping channels. Especially for 2.4Ghz. Only 2 channels apart. So Router 1 is set to Channel 1 and Router 2 is on Channel 3. So when a device "roams" it detects a drop in RSSI as it gets out of range of Router 1 but sees Router 2 with a stronger signal on Channel 3 and automatically swaps. But you must manually set both to specific channels. And as they both overlap into Channel 2 the move is done with almost no drop in network activity. All routers or Access Points, even corporate or industry grade only use channels 1, 6 and 11 by default. And when they say they "automatically change to compensate for high wireless interference" will almost always still use 1, 6 and 11. Also try not to use channels 12 or 13. Even in the US where these channels can be used, as most devices such as phones will still avoid them. 5ghz or any newer standards like Wifi 6 don't suffer with the RSSI roaming as much but still can be stuck on the same channels such as channel 36, 48 etc.
OMG!!! This video explains something I needed a couple years ago much more simply than what a quick Google search provided. Too many pros go super technical for some of the most basic stuff...
Some routers support a repeater mode. That's much easier than running a wire between your main router and the secondary one. Sadly, not all do, or I wouldn't have just bought a Netgear extender. Should've included that possibility in your video, though.
@merlozzo repeater mode halving the speeds also depends on antennas and frequency. If you use say 5ghz as your backhaul between routers and broadcast to your devices on 2.4ghz, then provided your base internet speeds are supported by the 2.4ghz connection you can still get full speed. Halving comes when you have a single antenna/frequency being used for both backhaul and broadcast. Using a wire for a backhaul tends to eliminate most issues of halved speeds in these cases.
@@merlozzo ethernet over power is terrible, for the noise issue alone. You're also introducing a second potential path for surge into your network hardware.
@@kevingallant8073 Consider an internet of 200Mbps. On a 2.4 GHz network you will max out at max of 50Mbps for normal home gadgets. So a 5GHz backhaul does not help much.
Good job, guys! If you have a "sticky" client that won't roam to your other access point with the same SSID, you can just toggle Wi-Fi off and back on again. Most devices will take a fresh look at what access points are available, and connect to the one that makes the most sense. Its slightly easier than running two SSID's (but only slightly).
Doing this for years. I have an old router that I use for all the smart home devices, so my nice new router of the moment can handle the major devices and streaming.
Good advice. I failed to wirelessly connect 2 different routers, different brands. I always set up a repeater on the other one (with DD-WRT firmware). I easily connected two of the same brands using the buttons on the router. Works great. Thanks for the advice. I will try again to connect the third router this way.
I've been doing this for 6 years now on 4 floors each having one router. It's working perfectly fine and I have full 4 bars of wifi in the whole house.
You can actually link routers with the wan port but it only works one way. I setup a network with an air BNB in the shop and the router/ap in the shop connects through the wan port to the home network so that they are firewalled. Works great
Tp Link EC220-G5 V3 has network roaming you can enable on both the main router and the extended AP router, this will make the router choose if you have to connect to 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz and also automatically switches you between routers. (I do many router drops during the day) Only 1 SSID for the whole house.
Good tip if you implement this solution: If you notice your phone is connected to the same “AP/Router” you can turn off and on your wifi for it to choose the device with the strongest signal.
I did this for a while, but realized that a mesh network was going to work a lot better. So far, thats been the case and couldnt be happier with my wifi performance since installing my mesh netowrk.
A very small but big correction...DHCP does not send to forward any thing. It just gives out a free IP address to the clients. Data is routed by the router from wan to lan and then sent from LAN/WLAN to Device via the switch/AP. So a home router is basically a 3 in 1 or even a 4 in 1 device - Gateway/Router + Switch + WiFi Access point + sometime includes a firewall. DHCP and DNS service is a separate service run on the same device. If you want you can use your PC as a DHCP/DNS by installing dnsmasq in your computer and use its IPfor DNS or DHCP server. Bottom line is that that tiny box is a combination of lot of critical things in a smaller scale.
Good information for the average person. I find that many folks truly have no understanding of how thing work within their home networks. Topics like common router configuration issues, parental controls, and network security setups. The last one is important since human behaviour is often the highest risk for disruption.
Most if not all routers with AP mode are intended to use with WAN port not LAN. Connecting to LAN port is only necessary if you dont have router with AP mode & you need to disable DHCP server for it to work (assigning static IP to router's LAN port is desirable but not necessary for it to work)
i use an tm-ac1900 in bridge mode to connect to an xfinity router and have a switch connected to the ac1900. I connect several devices through a wired connection to the switch. the xfinity router is probably between 40 - 60 feet through several walls. even still, i get 500 Mbps speedtest. letting a router talk to another router and then piecing out the connection is great. they use better antennas than a lot of devices so the performance is very consistent. if the devices still need a wifi connection and stay in that one area, you could connect another simple router to that bridged router with a wired connection, or use the repeated wireless connection. i find the routing on the repeated wireless connection to be pretty bad and have terrible latency or just dropped packets, but that might be the device itself. when it is routed through the switch to the wired ports through the bridged router, it is great. low ping, high speed, and extremely reliable. i believe meshed routers call this the backhaul.
With Mirkotik devices you can just set up capsman on your main router and use whatever other devices you have as capsman antennas, essentially turning them into Wifi APs. Handy. Although setting it up can be a pain.
I use two routers with different name, and to make phone switch the strong network I use an app called swifi. With that you can define "if signal goes below xx, switch to a stronger network in the list". That works very well
I’m surprised you didn’t touch on the air-abridge mode (wireless abridge mode) for some cases where running a Ethernet cable is not feasible/ unpractical. E.g. The router is downstairs but no Ethernet port is upstairs, you can use abridging if the second router supports it. The second router can also be used like a WiFi-adapter for TV-boxes or computes, better than those USB WiFi adapters…
would have been cool if you mentioned routers that have WDS (wireless distribution system), which a fair amount of even cheaper routers do, that will let you use wifi to connect the AP to the main instead of with a long network cable through lan ports, kinda like a mesh system.
Although there are mesh router systems out there than can help/push/steer a device in an attempt to improve roaming performance, in the end it's still up to the device to decide which AP it connects to if the SSID/Password is the same.
@@lthemanl Indeed like my Switch Lite, and Nokia T20 Android tablet, if I go from one end of my house to the other even though I have a 4 base TP-Link Deco X20 setup I have to switch the WiFi off on them, and then back on, so they connect, and get a stronger signal to a nearby base, however my Nokia G50 on Android 13 just does its thing, and when the signal gets weak it reconnects, and I don't have to think about it.
All the APs report back to a central come and and you can cross reference device signal strength on different APs, and then try to "force" a device onto the AP with the better signal. It works better or worse depending on the device - some are just incredibly sticky. Mesh solutions also generally have options to force static devices onto a particular AP as the device may latch on to a worse choice. Basically the mesh options are purpose-built and therefore have a lot more control around how devices are connecting to the mesh network.
in our house we use 2, the one connected to the DSL line and then a Ethernet to another Router as a WIFI reciver, in english for some, one for wifi devices and the other for ethernet devices.
Only other thing I would add is to turn off automatic channels and manually separate them on the spectrum. My neighbors more than likely hate me, I have 3.
I used to have my second router on the same subnet in AP mode but I found better results when I had it in charge of a second subnet but with the same SSID. I should give my network an overhaul as it's a bit janky now
This actually doesn't work in most situations, as most devices don't use the SSID solely as their method of connecting to the AP. They also use the address, which is always different (just like all devices have a unique MAC address). That is why your device will choose to stick with the AP that has the very poor signal instead of just switching to the now better AP. You should actually look into something call WDS is you're trying to do this.
From my experience, 2.4GHz wifi signals tend to lock to one or the other router which makes switching to the other router a pain in the ass. 5GHz signal however, do switch between router more flawlessly. Plus, you get more stability and bandwidth by using the 5GHz signals.
For some time me and the rest of my family had our devices separated between two diferent routers, great if you're a control freak and if your single router cannot handle everyone's traffic simultaneously.
As a techquickie video, it's ok saying there should only be 1 DHCP server to save most people from pain with misconfiguration. However, I think it should be noted that it's a rule of thumb and not necessarily a commandment. The key is to ensure the DHCP server(s) don't give out conflicting IPs, for which the most obvious and simplest solution is to just have 1 DHCP server. You can have more than 1 DHCP server if they are on different subnets, for example. Why? perhaps as a fallover (or "high availability" if that buzzword applies here) or perhaps having 1 only giving out IP for trusted devices in 1 subnet and 1 for guests.
I decided to go with the mesh network route. Far easier to set up and maintain, and this particular system supports the EasyMesh standard so even after it's discontinued I can expand the network.
It's actually way more fun when you can't have a wired connection between them (say the primary mobile connection router doesn't even have any lan wired ports at all) and need to extend purely on the wifi itself ... that's what I was setting up recently and boy was that a great experience 😅
Great video as always! Can you PLEASE do a new video on the different DNS types (IP4, DoH, DoT, DoQ, DNScrypt, etc.) I’ve been playing with all the different types now that I can us them via AdGuard Home and would love to see a quick deep dive 👍
The problem with Wi-Fi repeaters is that they're mostly shoddy garbage frequently limited to 300mbps, have buggy firmwares and you're still stuck with having separate SSIDs in most cases AFAIK. It is an alternative if that's all you can afford but with the price oh mesh routers going down as of the last couple of years, I just don't see the point of investing into that outdated stuff anymore.
@Rogerio Pereira da Silva that's if u get a bad one, most wifi repeaters don't stress with modulation demo demodulation so they tend to come with much more robust features that do repeater work really well, companies like unifi have a good lineup of wifi devices
So, Master James, going with a three node Mesh Net, top, my POS AT&T ‘Hub’ was a good move? My motivation in procuring and installing the Mesh Network was that I wanted to extend the range to cover my whole property, and I want to hand off to be clean, neat and tidy. It did not hurt that the Mesh Network I chose could handle 120 simultaneous connections. So, am I a fool? Or am I fire?
When using more than one routers or access points that are managed individually (not as a mesh), it is important to be careful about the WiFi channels used by each router. They should not overlap between them. If they do, the two router will conflict with each other and WiFi experience will be worse than with a single router. For 2.4GHz, the only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11. Mesh APs usually have a built-in smart allocation of channels that automatically avoid channels overlap.
Some routers allow you to use either the WAN or LAN port to connect to the main router in their access point mode. But from what I have read, it's better to use the LAN port, as using the WAN port apparently stresses the router's CPU, and it might not be powerful enough to handle fast traffic. Using the LAN port pretty much makes the secondary router act as a dumb switch, and the wireless part is also just LAN, but wireless, hence the name WLAN. Using the WAN port on the other hand makes the secondary router's cpu have to work. Correct me if i'm wrong
I just opened a 2nd account with my service provider. I'm now renting 2 Wifi routers from them. Wish this video came out sooner, could have saved myself lots of money. lol
Having two different WiFi's is much easier to be honest. Just have them both saved and put them far apart and only allow the right channels, that way you can limit the range of each router and have the routers at the best distance
You can use two different Wi-Fi identifications, ST1 + ST2 say and select the one of the most strength then don't you don't have to do any with the resignment you can let each one do their own thing it was the thing of the past because of obviously the mobile devices didn't stole very many pre configured connections but you just go to his on your Wi-Fi on your device and select the one that's best for you from the available ones.
What about connecting routers with a cross-over cable rather than a patch cable? I recently did the same thing, facing no coverage until I used cross over cable for connecting both routers.
Connecting two switches together indeed requires a crossover cable. Most routers sold in the last 15 years have the MDI/MDI-X feature on their WAN and LAN port that detects the polarity of the link and crosses it as needed. It seems that your routers do not have this feature. As long as only one the router has MDI/MDI-X, the link between them will work without a crossover cable.
Correction: In AP mode, the WAN port usually works like a LAN port, and some models have a faster WAN port (for example, Archer AX6000 has a 2.5gbps WAN port, but 1gbps LAN ports)
It's common practice to connect the WAN port of a router in AP mode to a LAN port on the gateway of the network.
One of my routers (now retired, but still works), a Belkin from around 2007, also works exactly this way, though that one only has 10/100 capability. AP mode basically turns the router into a switch. What I mean by this is that pretty much even really old routers work this way, so there should be no issue doing that.
The only difference is that, when using the WAN port instead of LAN, you need to disable NAT (if consumer grade routers automatically do that in AP mode, that's great)
@@vitorao That’s what AP mode is meant for. It goes from acting as a gateway and dhcp server, to being a layer 3 switch and wifi access point. I’d be more concerned of a router’s AP mode *didn’t* do this.
Mby on asus, on TP-Link wan is always wan.
@@barneybarney3982That's weird. My upgraded router (a TP-Link Archer C80 I bought to replace the aging Belkin) lets me use the WAN port just like the LAN ports in AP mode.
When my Asus RT-AC88U started getting bogged down, I upgraded to the Asus RT-AX88U. Rather than toss the AC88U, I tried the AiMesh feature that Asus offers through the router interface. It worked awesome and was able to enhance my wifi network by incorporating the AC88U into the Mesh network. The setup was easy and assume behind the scenes it was doing everything you discussed your video (DHCP turned off, etc) automatically. Great feature on Asus routers!
I was actually going to mention this. Some have the feature to put them in an AP mode so it's used as a simple access point.
I'm running the exact same setup as you actually haha.
Came here to mention this. LTT even covered the 86u which has the same feature.
you also can flash openwrt on other brand router and mesh them ivebeen using very cheap router called mi4a, even use them for load balance last for years
AP choice is up to client, AiMesh or not likely had nothing to do with it. (unless ofc they share encryption secrets, which would make reconnecting slightly faster)
I like Asus routers. I have two 68Us for the same reason. Also, built in VPN etc. I know they're not the only ones with this functionality, but I'm a happy customer.
Never set a second router/AP's IP that is within the main router's DHCP range. Rather move or reduce the DHCP pool as you don't want a device to get an IP that is the AP's IP. Rather make the AP IP a high number, I typically use .250 for AP's
Most home routers DHCP automatic addresses are between .100 to .200 or .254. Good to just look at the setting though and pick one outside the DHCP range.
Or simply use mac address binding to bind that address to a particular machine. This way you can have the DHCP range address without any conflicts.
@@akshaymathur136 that is a DHCP reservation and while good, some home routers' configuration software either don't allow it or have some obtuse rules about it. On top of that they likely wanted to keep this video short and as uncomplicated as possible, so trying to explain a MAC address and how to apply it might have been a bit much for a "techquickie." Compound that with the fact that this isn't even the best solution for this kind of problem, it's just the cheapest and easiest to implement, and you might see why they left a lot of helpful things out.
That is best practice, yes.
Though if your AP responds to ping, the DHCP server should mark it as BAD_ADDRESS and not assign it to any clients, as a safeguard against this exact scenario.
Best to do both - APs should have the highest IPs, and the DHCP pool should be configured to exclude the high end of the IP range - however many individual IPs required to be static. IP reservations are possible too, but then you might as well do it properly and set static IPs with DHCP pool exclusions.
This is the video I needed for a long time. Have three routers at home but didn't quite know how to make all three act as one. Most of the videos I found on YT were long and kinda tricky to understand for a person like me who has a limited tech knowledge. Thank you for explaining the steps so simply. It's nice to see the channel that you love make a video addressing the thing u wanted to do for a long time.
You really would be better off going with a 3 base T-Link Deco X20 mesh router setup at this point as each of the bases has 2 lan ports, plus along with the app it's very simple to setup, keep the firmwares updated, diagnose any issues, and as long as you have a stable data connection on your phone you can even do remote speed test if someone in your home calls/txt you while you're away that the internet is not working, and you can tell if it's the mesh routers or the ISP, and if it the routers restart them remotely, and only have them restart the modem/gateway if necessary.
Also having a mesh setup all from the same company using the same WiFi tech is more secure, and will reduce WiFi interference, channel overlap, and overall giving you less headaches.
@@CommodoreFan64 You really would be better off learning the difference between gratitude and someone asking for your opinion
@@MegaZeta O yes your might holy master, anything you say. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was just giving him an much easier solution that cost about the same amount of money as this one, so seriously cool your jets, and go sit in the corner, because you're not anyone's master, and overlord!!
You need to make it clear that the 2nd router should either use a static IP out of the dhcp range of the first or reserve that IP on the first router.
Since it is unlikely the secondary access point will be off long enough for a new DHCP request to receive the APs previous IP address, it is probably fine and they probably skipped it in order to make this video short and relatively uncomplicated.
However yeah, setting a DHCP reservation on the primary router would have been a good step, but there are plenty of other things they left out because this is a big topic. On top of that, some cheaper and older routers don't even allow a DHCP reservation, or have some obtuse rules about it.
He says it in the video
@@monsterhunter445, nope. He only said not to use an IP address that is currently being used by another device. That's pretty different.
@@CreativityNull, no need to set an IP reservation. You only need to use an IP out of the DHCP range.
@@vitorao depends on the primary router. Some will reject a request outside of the range or some will use the full subnet as the range (minus the address for router and the WAN). However, some will ONLY allow a reservation or a specific IP request outside of the DHCP range, PFsense is like this.
Helpful tip: configure DHCP to give out addresses over .100. That way it is easy to set static IPs safely, perhaps manually, and give them numbers from 2 to 99. And if you see an IP you can easily deduce whether it got it via DHCP
So for infrastructure like routers and servers, give them static IPs, but any clients will have DHCP assigned addresses
Can confirm this is great. Had a similar setup at my parent's house so we get proper signal everywhere, including a detached kitchen and a garden.
One other thing to note is that if a cable is impractical, you can get similar results by connecting the second router to the wireless network of the first one. Not everything supports this wifi repeater mode, but it's worth checking. The downside is that it will have lower speed and higher latency copmpared to using a cable,, but it's better than nothing.
For things like TVs and other mostly stationary devices this is a good idea and will work great. roaming part is the part that doesn't work well. The device will lock on and not let go until it loses connection. Even business grade access points struggle with this because its often more the device connecting vs the access points issue.
Fast roaming feature does wonder, as it allows you to move between routers seamlessly, without interruption. Because when you do this setup, the devices would tend to stay at the same network, no matter the signal strength. And the transition between your wifi will interrup the connection.
Marcfiftyone has a great video discussing this.
I love my deco X55, but I used to do this years ago before mesh was as available and affordable.
I have a 4 base Deco X20 setup, but I still have a cheap T-Link Archer C54 router in range extender mode attached to my Blu-Ray player, and media/family gaming PC in my game room that don't have built in WiFi, as they don't need anything faster
Mesh is still pretty expensive imo
You actually have to configure your first router so that it doesn't give the IP address you assigned to the second router to any other client. If you don't do it, such a setup may break in a mysterious way. When the second router is in AP mode, WAN port is bridged to LAN ports, so you can use it; that's what I'm actually using: the Ethernet cable from my main router is connected to the WAN port of my second router.
Hi I have ethernet cBle connected to my existing router , the cable is connected to lan4 , then cable is goin to the garage and I have second router there connected to lan4 to and is workin perfect but only problem is next to existing router there is some small box and Is biping every 2 minutes Any idea what is wrong , should I connect cable to different port in the second router maby in to wan ? My existing interenet is fibre is that mak any different
I use to do this several years ago. It worked reasonably well enough, but I eventually upgraded to dedicated access points. I removed the second router and disabled the WiFi on the main. The APs work SOOOOO much better. Since I don't need a router with built in WiFI, I switched to a mini PC with pfSense and a separate gigabit switch when the old router started acting up.
Thank you so much! I was already going crazy, because I could not get it to work using other tutorials. The KEY point: connect the second router via LAN port, not WAN port. Some routers maybe automatically switch WAn port to LAN port when in AP mode, but my Edimax does not and it would not work when cable was in WAN port. You saved me, thank you very very much!
had to do this in a small flat because of the awkward placing of the signal box. Bought a second router with gigabit ports and did what you described in the video. But that problem with staying connected to one AP was too annoying. So it was easiest to disable wifi on the first (main) router, because the second one was placed in the middle, so good coverage. Also removed the antennae from the first one and now it looks quite clean.
Two routers like that are also simply useful as mini switches. I have gigabit ports here on the main side, letting me connect my PC to a PC hooked to ethernet on one of the remaining gigabit ports on the second router.
Video starts at 2:00
😂😂😂
It's called VLAN on most routers that are provided by ISPs. Just add another router as VLAN2 and assign the lan port 1 (first being 0) as VLAN2.
If your routers are really close by decrease the transmit power on those, saves a lil bit of power too - likewise u can increase the transmit power too but it's a two way thingy so depends on the device
And yes, remember lan wire is always cheaper and better than most "cheaper" routers.
You can get cheap routers off of 2nd hand places I got extra 2.4ghz for cheap, I use them for covering the outer areas where speed isn't a priority.
2:22 Never yolo-set a device IP like that. It MUST be outside the DHCP IP range or reserved in the DHCP server. The DHCP server will gladly assign devices your IP unless you tell it not to and then the traffic breaks down.
Here in Germany there are routers from a German company called Fritz!Box and they make it really comfortable to reuse their old routers. The routers can mesh with each other, so you don't need to configure the wifi ssid and password on the second router and if you change some wifi settings, like password or enabling the guest wifi, it will automatically be adopted by the second router, which makes it pretty convenient.
It's actually rather typical for routers of the same company. Dlink, asus, kinetic all do this and many others.
Yup, FritzBox is doing a great job there.
I just installed a Deco XE75/75 Pro system in my house. So now I have excellent coverage in every room of the house. It was super easy to set up. I didn't have to go through all this jargon they discussed. The router and app did all the work. 🙂
Use 2.4Gz routers if you have lots of walls in the area of coverage and 5Gz for routers that will stay within line-of-sight. Higher frequencies have higher speeds but less penetration and spread. Make sure the channels don't overlap for each router and neighboring ones as much as possible.
I don't know if this is the case with all wifi networks, but I tend to get the best of both worlds with my wifi setup: devices will auto-switch between them after being given the password for one (though they will stay on the weaker one for a little too long), but they are also named differently, so you can connect to them manually if you want. I just connected my second router to the first via a very long ethernet cable, then when I went into its settings I was able to select an access point/repeater mode. No messing with hard-set local IP addresses.
This a good quick and dirty solution, especially if you have wireless devices that are unlikely to travel around the house. However, if you do have devices that travel across the house, most are typically very bad at disconnecting from their original access point with bad signal strength to the new access point (with the same access credentials) with much better signal strength. Often times you have to disconnect and reconnect from the network on the device yourself.
A better solution is some kind of mesh setup. Many newer routers have this capability, but have it disabled unless you connect mesh nodes (compliant access points.) This starts to get really complicated if you didn't just get an all in one mesh system, so I understand why it wasn't gone over in this video. Essentially, the mesh network handles switching the devices connection to the correct access point so your device doesn't have to and is typically way better at doing it and provides a better experience.
0:20 The router in your home sends your video to your intended screen. The *little chromecast button* on your phone's video player sends that video to the least intended screen 😂❤
Yeah I still haven't found something to disable it easily
2:55 this is not always the case if the second router has a dedicated AP mode as when the router is configured in that made specifically, it does expect to receive its ethernet through the WAN port, or at least my TP Link AX73 does (we have two of that same router on the same network)
This is soooo helpful. I have little to no understanding of routers until now. Now I realize why our tiny organization are having problems because we have 2 routers like 10 years ago and we have no technical know-how whatsoever. Thank you!!
I’ve done this so many times, but I always use the WAN port on the secondary router. This makes the secondary router act as a subnet and imo is a simpler set up and I’ve found it to be plug and play (almost)
Can you hardwire devices to the second one, or is it only a signal boost at that point? Or do you need to use a certain port for that?
Yes! I primarily used it to be able to hardwire my desktop(s) and provide a stronger WiFi signal upstairs
For less experienced users doing this, realize that devices won't be able to access devices that may be setup on either side of the local networks, like a printer/backup/NAS/server/casting. You may want to cast to a TV or wifi speaker, and unless they are on the exact same subnet, you won't be able to see it. This also creates "double NAT'ing" scenarios and all data packets will be a bit slower and more likely to loose packets/data because it has to make extra local hops out and back from the interwebs. This is great in a pinch, but things won't work as smoothly or reliably.
it mostly depends on the router in question, one old router i have will not work if plugged over WAN, but it works fine if connected via LAN, the newer one has in its settings for AP mode to connect it via the WAN port
You can also turn your old router in to a switch, just change the router IP to different one and then deactivate DHCP on the router.
In other words, an extended wifi. I did this years ago art an apartment I lived in with some people, and it worked wonders. I did this exactly as you described it.
I thought that I already knew how to do it, but wake on LAN stopped working with my PC, and after that rewatching that video and following the steps, wake on LAN started working again perfectly, thank you so much for this tip.
i added a 2nd router like 8 years ago. i had the modem with the main router upstairs in my room and the 2nd router downstairs on the main floor. both routers worked flawlessly.
it's actually pretty simple if you know what you're doing.
My first ISP-supplied router is managing 192.168.1.x, and I just gleefully plugged in a second router that happens to default to 192.168.0.x (2nd's WAN to 1st's LAN). Both have DHCP turned on. In fact, both are using their default settings (except passwords of course). This approach has been working perfectly for many years, even with new routers at both ends over the years. It's not possible to access network resources (NAS, printer) across the gap, but that's a feature not a bug in my case (2nd network is IOT-heavy and just simple Internet media consumers). Both sections access the 'net perfectly fine. YMMV.
I'd love to see a video about how IPs get allocated on cellular data, and networking on LTE etc. in general :)
Telecom is very complicated. There is some on paper explanation but you're going to struggle to see real implementations because that is the secret sauce from the big MNOs.
youtube.com/@Mpirical
Here in my house I'm using something called Seamless Roaming, controlled via an OC200 from TP link (hardware model), that way the controller makes sure you're on the best wifi signal, and I've installed 4 AP's in the house, 3 in and one outside, so no matter where I am, I'm always connected to the best signal point at any given time.
Anyhow, Routers: A lot of people are not aware that, if you have a smart home with only one router, and you even if you have switches, that once your router is down, your smart home, or any device for that matter (so everything that is not connected directly to your router), is dead in the water. That is why I installed a second router, as a fail safe, for when the ISP one is going down for whatever reason, the other router (NON wifi to be clear here) will still handle and manage all of your devices, as a router should do.
Important add on for the video as well: You can leave DHCP on, if you have the option to change your subnet (192.168.1.x to 192.168.0.x fe), however, it's still suggested to not do that, unless you start giving every device a static IP or if you work with a DHCP reservation list, making sure you never give an ip from one to another, howver, that if very unlikely to happen.
As a suggestion: Explain the above comment, in a much nicer, and better understanding kind of way! Great vid, keep it up team!
I don't know what smarthome system you use, but all I ever used worked perfectly fine without internet/network. (Obviously no smartphone control, but the local switches all worked)
My router's WAN port died from a power surge. I set that puppy to AP mode and boom! It became the second access point for the opposite side of the house.
Took me quite some time to get the "ItHurtsWhenIP". I almost died laughing
I feel so very very old now.
I used two routers to cover our 3 storie house for years. It was a mess... since a few years I have one of the cheapest Mesh solutions available from NOVA and it works really well. Still has some hickups once in a while but nothing like what I had with two routers.
I have two D-Link DIR-X5460 Routers but I have set them to Mesh mode. To do this however you need to manually download and install the 1.11 Firmware for them from from the D-Link website. The auto update only downloads the 1.04 firmware last time I tried. To connect them it was as simple as pressing the WPS on the main router, then clicking the WPS on the secondary one and it configured itself to be a Mesh Extender. I have one at each end of my house and get good WiFi the entire length of my house. I used to get dead spots at the far end. Both apparently have two 5 Ghz transmission radios and one 2.5GhZ radio. It uses the second 5Ghz radio for the backhaull.
Asus routers auto do this all you got to do is when setting up set up 2nd router as an extension. Super easy.
I had good 2.4ghz signal and iffy 5ghz signal from my router. I bought a 35ft ethernet cable and moved the router. Now the whole house gets great signal on both wireless connections!
I have 2 old modem/routers from my ISP. They support being set up as a mesh access point or even repeater. I'm happy.
To combat the "Roaming" issue (RSSI) set the WiFi channels to different but overlapping channels. Especially for 2.4Ghz. Only 2 channels apart. So Router 1 is set to Channel 1 and Router 2 is on Channel 3. So when a device "roams" it detects a drop in RSSI as it gets out of range of Router 1 but sees Router 2 with a stronger signal on Channel 3 and automatically swaps. But you must manually set both to specific channels. And as they both overlap into Channel 2 the move is done with almost no drop in network activity. All routers or Access Points, even corporate or industry grade only use channels 1, 6 and 11 by default. And when they say they "automatically change to compensate for high wireless interference" will almost always still use 1, 6 and 11. Also try not to use channels 12 or 13. Even in the US where these channels can be used, as most devices such as phones will still avoid them. 5ghz or any newer standards like Wifi 6 don't suffer with the RSSI roaming as much but still can be stuck on the same channels such as channel 36, 48 etc.
OMG!!! This video explains something I needed a couple years ago much more simply than what a quick Google search provided. Too many pros go super technical for some of the most basic stuff...
Some routers support a repeater mode. That's much easier than running a wire between your main router and the secondary one. Sadly, not all do, or I wouldn't have just bought a Netgear extender. Should've included that possibility in your video, though.
much easier, but it usually halves your wifi speed - and often you get way less. Consider a powerline, also
powerlines are terrible, they literally do the opposite of what you want - introduce noise into your power grid
@merlozzo repeater mode halving the speeds also depends on antennas and frequency. If you use say 5ghz as your backhaul between routers and broadcast to your devices on 2.4ghz, then provided your base internet speeds are supported by the 2.4ghz connection you can still get full speed.
Halving comes when you have a single antenna/frequency being used for both backhaul and broadcast. Using a wire for a backhaul tends to eliminate most issues of halved speeds in these cases.
@@merlozzo ethernet over power is terrible, for the noise issue alone. You're also introducing a second potential path for surge into your network hardware.
@@kevingallant8073 Consider an internet of 200Mbps. On a 2.4 GHz network you will max out at max of 50Mbps for normal home gadgets. So a 5GHz backhaul does not help much.
I have this set up at home and it was a bit fiddly to set up, but it's been working wonderfully for years.
Just curious if you have covered the use of powerline adapters, I find them useful.
Good job, guys! If you have a "sticky" client that won't roam to your other access point with the same SSID, you can just toggle Wi-Fi off and back on again. Most devices will take a fresh look at what access points are available, and connect to the one that makes the most sense. Its slightly easier than running two SSID's (but only slightly).
Doing this for years. I have an old router that I use for all the smart home devices, so my nice new router of the moment can handle the major devices and streaming.
Good advice. I failed to wirelessly connect 2 different routers, different brands. I always set up a repeater on the other one (with DD-WRT firmware). I easily connected two of the same brands using the buttons on the router. Works great. Thanks for the advice. I will try again to connect the third router this way.
I've been doing this for 6 years now on 4 floors each having one router. It's working perfectly fine and I have full 4 bars of wifi in the whole house.
You can actually link routers with the wan port but it only works one way. I setup a network with an air BNB in the shop and the router/ap in the shop connects through the wan port to the home network so that they are firewalled. Works great
Tp Link EC220-G5 V3 has network roaming you can enable on both the main router and the extended AP router, this will make the router choose if you have to connect to 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz and also automatically switches you between routers. (I do many router drops during the day) Only 1 SSID for the whole house.
Good tip if you implement this solution: If you notice your phone is connected to the same “AP/Router” you can turn off and on your wifi for it to choose the device with the strongest signal.
I've been using a multi router setup for years - I typically give them different SSIDs though - having a separate SSID for Amazon devices is useful 👍
I did this for a while, but realized that a mesh network was going to work a lot better. So far, thats been the case and couldnt be happier with my wifi performance since installing my mesh netowrk.
A very small but big correction...DHCP does not send to forward any thing. It just gives out a free IP address to the clients. Data is routed by the router from wan to lan and then sent from LAN/WLAN to Device via the switch/AP. So a home router is basically a 3 in 1 or even a 4 in 1 device - Gateway/Router + Switch + WiFi Access point + sometime includes a firewall. DHCP and DNS service is a separate service run on the same device. If you want you can use your PC as a DHCP/DNS by installing dnsmasq in your computer and use its IPfor DNS or DHCP server. Bottom line is that that tiny box is a combination of lot of critical things in a smaller scale.
Correct. NAT is what is responsible for doing that, not DHCP.
Very useful video. I'm actually doing this for decades now.
Good information for the average person. I find that many folks truly have no understanding of how thing work within their home networks. Topics like common router configuration issues, parental controls, and network security setups. The last one is important since human behaviour is often the highest risk for disruption.
Most if not all routers with AP mode are intended to use with WAN port not LAN. Connecting to LAN port is only necessary if you dont have router with AP mode & you need to disable DHCP server for it to work (assigning static IP to router's LAN port is desirable but not necessary for it to work)
nice to see the inline 'sponsorship' has evolved into actual, impressionable adverts
i use an tm-ac1900 in bridge mode to connect to an xfinity router and have a switch connected to the ac1900. I connect several devices through a wired connection to the switch. the xfinity router is probably between 40 - 60 feet through several walls. even still, i get 500 Mbps speedtest. letting a router talk to another router and then piecing out the connection is great. they use better antennas than a lot of devices so the performance is very consistent. if the devices still need a wifi connection and stay in that one area, you could connect another simple router to that bridged router with a wired connection, or use the repeated wireless connection. i find the routing on the repeated wireless connection to be pretty bad and have terrible latency or just dropped packets, but that might be the device itself. when it is routed through the switch to the wired ports through the bridged router, it is great. low ping, high speed, and extremely reliable. i believe meshed routers call this the backhaul.
With Mirkotik devices you can just set up capsman on your main router and use whatever other devices you have as capsman antennas, essentially turning them into Wifi APs. Handy. Although setting it up can be a pain.
It's actually the modem that moves data from internet to home but go on..
I use two routers with different name, and to make phone switch the strong network I use an app called swifi. With that you can define "if signal goes below xx, switch to a stronger network in the list". That works very well
I’m surprised you didn’t touch on the air-abridge mode (wireless abridge mode) for some cases where running a Ethernet cable is not feasible/ unpractical.
E.g. The router is downstairs but no Ethernet port is upstairs, you can use abridging if the second router supports it. The second router can also be used like a WiFi-adapter for TV-boxes or computes, better than those USB WiFi adapters…
No one in their right mind would recommend a wireless backhaul over wired backhaul when you can use Mesh WiFi to get better performance
Thanks @Techquickie... I really wanted to know about dual routers... even I had one extra "ADSL" with IPOE...
would have been cool if you mentioned routers that have WDS (wireless distribution system), which a fair amount of even cheaper routers do, that will let you use wifi to connect the AP to the main instead of with a long network cable through lan ports, kinda like a mesh system.
And it is virtually useless, in fact you could well end up with a worse situation than you had before.
Please cover how a mesh router is able to achieve seamless roaming
They did, 4 years ago
Although there are mesh router systems out there than can help/push/steer a device in an attempt to improve roaming performance, in the end it's still up to the device to decide which AP it connects to if the SSID/Password is the same.
IEEE 802.11r
@@lthemanl Indeed like my Switch Lite, and Nokia T20 Android tablet, if I go from one end of my house to the other even though I have a 4 base TP-Link Deco X20 setup I have to switch the WiFi off on them, and then back on, so they connect, and get a stronger signal to a nearby base, however my Nokia G50 on Android 13 just does its thing, and when the signal gets weak it reconnects, and I don't have to think about it.
All the APs report back to a central come and and you can cross reference device signal strength on different APs, and then try to "force" a device onto the AP with the better signal. It works better or worse depending on the device - some are just incredibly sticky.
Mesh solutions also generally have options to force static devices onto a particular AP as the device may latch on to a worse choice.
Basically the mesh options are purpose-built and therefore have a lot more control around how devices are connecting to the mesh network.
in our house we use 2, the one connected to the DSL line and then a Ethernet to another Router as a WIFI reciver, in english for some, one for wifi devices and the other for ethernet devices.
Only other thing I would add is to turn off automatic channels and manually separate them on the spectrum. My neighbors more than likely hate me, I have 3.
THANK YOU!
Just used this to setup a router upstairs, I was this 👌 close to buying a $300 mesh
Oh my god… that last comment reminded me of building a little aluminum Wi-Fi catcher for my usb Wi-Fi dongle like 15 years ago. What a throwback.
I used to have my second router on the same subnet in AP mode but I found better results when I had it in charge of a second subnet but with the same SSID. I should give my network an overhaul as it's a bit janky now
This actually doesn't work in most situations, as most devices don't use the SSID solely as their method of connecting to the AP. They also use the address, which is always different (just like all devices have a unique MAC address). That is why your device will choose to stick with the AP that has the very poor signal instead of just switching to the now better AP. You should actually look into something call WDS is you're trying to do this.
WDS is a wireless alternative to wired backhaul and has nothing to do with roaming of clients.
From my experience, 2.4GHz wifi signals tend to lock to one or the other router which makes switching to the other router a pain in the ass. 5GHz signal however, do switch between router more flawlessly. Plus, you get more stability and bandwidth by using the 5GHz signals.
I really needed it to set up wifi at my parents home thanks 👍😅
I added an extra AP to my network with a powerline backhaul. It’s very useful.
Ap mode + asus ai mesh is much easier. It makes the second router into a mesh node.
It also helps to create static IP's for usual devices.
For some time me and the rest of my family had our devices separated between two diferent routers, great if you're a control freak and if your single router cannot handle everyone's traffic simultaneously.
As a techquickie video, it's ok saying there should only be 1 DHCP server to save most people from pain with misconfiguration. However, I think it should be noted that it's a rule of thumb and not necessarily a commandment. The key is to ensure the DHCP server(s) don't give out conflicting IPs, for which the most obvious and simplest solution is to just have 1 DHCP server.
You can have more than 1 DHCP server if they are on different subnets, for example. Why? perhaps as a fallover (or "high availability" if that buzzword applies here) or perhaps having 1 only giving out IP for trusted devices in 1 subnet and 1 for guests.
So make my second router the same IP as my Nintendo Switch. Got it, thank you!
I decided to go with the mesh network route. Far easier to set up and maintain, and this particular system supports the EasyMesh standard so even after it's discontinued I can expand the network.
Asus?
@@darkkforest Netgear Blackhawk
Go to Router Setting and make the device to disconnect when it falls under certain radio signal strength. Your device will roam properly.
It's actually way more fun when you can't have a wired connection between them (say the primary mobile connection router doesn't even have any lan wired ports at all) and need to extend purely on the wifi itself ... that's what I was setting up recently and boy was that a great experience 😅
Shout out to the editors.. Nicely done.
Great video as always!
Can you PLEASE do a new video on the different DNS types (IP4, DoH, DoT, DoQ, DNScrypt, etc.) I’ve been playing with all the different types now that I can us them via AdGuard Home and would love to see a quick deep dive 👍
you can use additional routers as mesh access points (connected via lan or wlan) like asus routers. or get (mesh) repeaters.
2:15 close but not quite. Must check the DHCP Range.
Tbh wifi mesh system is too pricey in my place, and my coverage needs isn't something like a huge warehouse, so this video is really a huge help
Or get a wifi repeater
They are usually cheaper than a whole new router, and they usually have wifi repeat features set as default
The problem with Wi-Fi repeaters is that they're mostly shoddy garbage frequently limited to 300mbps, have buggy firmwares and you're still stuck with having separate SSIDs in most cases AFAIK. It is an alternative if that's all you can afford but with the price oh mesh routers going down as of the last couple of years, I just don't see the point of investing into that outdated stuff anymore.
@Rogerio Pereira da Silva that's if u get a bad one, most wifi repeaters don't stress with modulation demo demodulation so they tend to come with much more robust features that do repeater work really well, companies like unifi have a good lineup of wifi devices
@Rogerio Pereira da Silva its just a simple case of you buy cheap stuff you get cheap stuff
So, Master James, going with a three node Mesh Net, top, my POS AT&T ‘Hub’ was a good move?
My motivation in procuring and installing the Mesh Network was that I wanted to extend the range to cover my whole property, and I want to hand off to be clean, neat and tidy. It did not hurt that the Mesh Network I chose could handle 120 simultaneous connections.
So, am I a fool? Or am I fire?
When using more than one routers or access points that are managed individually (not as a mesh), it is important to be careful about the WiFi channels used by each router. They should not overlap between them. If they do, the two router will conflict with each other and WiFi experience will be worse than with a single router. For 2.4GHz, the only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11. Mesh APs usually have a built-in smart allocation of channels that automatically avoid channels overlap.
Thanks this video helped me setting up my router. Massive thumbs up
You guys always create awesome content, keep up the good work 👍
Some routers allow you to use either the WAN or LAN port to connect to the main router in their access point mode. But from what I have read, it's better to use the LAN port, as using the WAN port apparently stresses the router's CPU, and it might not be powerful enough to handle fast traffic. Using the LAN port pretty much makes the secondary router act as a dumb switch, and the wireless part is also just LAN, but wireless, hence the name WLAN. Using the WAN port on the other hand makes the secondary router's cpu have to work. Correct me if i'm wrong
I just opened a 2nd account with my service provider. I'm now renting 2 Wifi routers from them. Wish this video came out sooner, could have saved myself lots of money. lol
Having two different WiFi's is much easier to be honest. Just have them both saved and put them far apart and only allow the right channels, that way you can limit the range of each router and have the routers at the best distance
You can use two different Wi-Fi identifications, ST1 + ST2 say and select the one of the most strength then don't you don't have to do any with the resignment you can let each one do their own thing it was the thing of the past because of obviously the mobile devices didn't stole very many pre configured connections but you just go to his on your Wi-Fi on your device and select the one that's best for you from the available ones.
Could you do a video on audio mixing devices, not for streaming, mainly for just adjusting audio of programs with a slider/knob on a hardware device.
Exactly what i wanted to do for a long time. It works. Thanks
What about connecting routers with a cross-over cable rather than a patch cable? I recently did the same thing, facing no coverage until I used cross over cable for connecting both routers.
Connecting two switches together indeed requires a crossover cable. Most routers sold in the last 15 years have the MDI/MDI-X feature on their WAN and LAN port that detects the polarity of the link and crosses it as needed. It seems that your routers do not have this feature. As long as only one the router has MDI/MDI-X, the link between them will work without a crossover cable.
@@viaujoc may be true. I was using quite the latest high-end routers though of TP-Link. Thanks :)