Adding a secondary router with Wi-Fi and staying on the same subnet

Scenario:

  • Broadband modem and primary router located on 1st floor.
  • PC and network printer on 1st floor connected to primary router.
  • Ethernet cable from LAN port 4 of primary router laid from 1st floor to 2nd floor and connected to a Mac on the 2nd floor.
  • Additional cable needed on 2nd floor for a new network printer.
  • Wi-Fi needed on 2nd floor for mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and phones.
  • All devices need to be on the same subnet, e.g. 192.168.1.x.
  • Gateway for primary router: 192.168.1.1

Solution: Add secondary router on 2nd floor

  • LAN-to-LAN: Connect laid Ethernet cable from LAN port 4 of primary router to LAN (not WAN so as to be on same subnet) port 1 of secondary router on 2nd floor.
  • Disable DHCP on secondary router – all IP addresses to be assigned by primary router.
  • Setup Wi-Fi networks (e.g. 2.4GHz, 5GHz) on secondary router.
  • Devices connected to the secondary router (via LAN or Wi-Fi) will be on same subnet as devices connected to the primary router.
  • When connected to the Wi-Fi networks on the secondary router, going to 192.168.1.1 will bring up the admin page for the primary router, not the secondary router.
  • To get to the admin page for the secondary router, do a network scan and determine which IP address is allocated to the secondary router.
  • Assuming the IP address allocated to the secondary router is 192.168.1.254, going to this address will bring up the admin page for the secondary router.