Help with Home Setup with Two Routers with DHCP

johnnybravo on 10/04/2020 - 10:12
Last edited 10/04/2020 - 10:13

Hi All,

Happy Easter (or happy holidays) !!

I am having a small confusion in how to set up my home network and I'm hoping someone shed some light on how to configure it. Currently I have my set up like the one below.

NBN - UNI-D 2 (ISP 2) —- Router 2 (192.168.2.1) —- Work Laptop
||||
BOX - UNI-D 1 (ISP 1) === Router 1 (192.168.1.1) === Internal Network (including WiFi devices)

We have 2 ISPs at home. Both the routers are currently connected to the UNI-D ports via their respective WAN ports and both of them have their own DHCPs and so far everything is working ok. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, I was forced to temporarily set it up this way as the Work Laptop only seems to work with Router 2. So all WiFi has been disabled on Router 2 and only the bare minimum settings are enabled to ensure that the Work Laptop can connect to the net.

What I would like to do is eliminate the use of ISP 2 and connect Router 1 to Router 2 similar to the picture below while at the same time retaining their respective DHCPs. Sorry - I did not know how to format it by putting spaces in the two lines. The Work Laptop should be connected to Router 2 in the picture below. (Mods please help).

NBN ————— Work Laptop
|||| |
BOX - UNI-D 1 (ISP 1) —- Router 2 (192.168.2.1) —- Router 1 (192.168.1.1) === Internal Network (including WiFi devices)

So Router 2 technically will only have 2 wired devices connected to it - Work Laptop and Router 1. And Router 1 will have the rest of the internal network associated with it so that way I don't have to make any major changes to Router 1.

Unfortunately I seem to have hit a snag and cannot get Router 1 to get the signal from Router 2. I connected the Router 2 LAN 2 to Router 1 WAN but still does not work.

Can any network experts advise what would I need to do to get this set up working. I do want to keep the DHCPs on both as Work Laptop does not allow me to hard code an IP.

Cheers.

TL, DR - Need help with config on how to set up network with 2 routers - one connected externally and both routers having their own DHCPs.

Computing

closed Comments

  • o53djz7qTPY4der on 10/04/2020 - 10:42

    You can reserve ip addresses on the router directly rather than on your work laptop.

    Connect router one to router two's Lan port not wan. You might need to choose bridge mode on router 2.

    DHCP on both devices will cause issues. Choose one to handout IPs.

  • hoey888 on 10/04/2020 - 12:42

    Consider swapping router 1 and router two. Test if it works correctly (laptop and wireless devices). If it doesn't, your work network administrator may have put a restriction on IP Address or applied VPN functionality within router 2. You might be out of luck then.

    NBN - UNI-D 2 (ISP 2) —- Router 2 (192.168.2.1) —- Work Laptop
    ||||
    BOX - UNI-D 1 (ISP 1) === Router 1 (192.168.1.1) === Internal Network (including WiFi devices)

    If swapping the routers works, it might be easier to do the following

    NBN
    ||||
    BOX - UNI-D 1 (ISP 1) === Router 2 (192.168.2.1) === Router 1 (DHCP turned off)
    laptop internal network including wifi devices

    Just remember to log into router 1 and turn off DHCP and configure your WAN to enable DHCP address resolution. Bear in mind though you might be routing ALL your data into the office. So bear that mind.

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