# connecting router to router



## network_newb (Dec 15, 2004)

I feel fairly comfortable with computers, but never done networking before, so I'm a newbie in this. Here's my problem:
I live in a house with 3 college buddies. We share a cable internet connection. The cable modem is on the 1st floor, connected to Linksys wired router and has 4 cables running to 4 rooms connecting 4 desktop computers.
I bought a new laptop computer and would like to connect both my desktop (Windows 2000) and laptop (Windows XP). One option would be to replace the router downstairs with my new wireless D-Link wireless router, but there would be a lot of walls, floors, doors between my laptop and the router, so I'd rather have it upstairs in my room.

Would it be possible to connect BOTH the desktop and laptop through this second router?

What I've done so far? Read a thread in this forum about connecting router to router. Changed the settings of the D-Link router (the IP address and disabled this server thingie, connected cable to LAN port) and voila - my laptop is wirelessly connected (patting myself on the back). But my desktop is getting a whole lotta nothing. The port on the router has a light and the NIC card has a ligth (if that matters). So, I'm stuck. Any help greatly appreciated.


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## DERALAAND (Mar 28, 2003)

Simple fix would be to put a wireless network card in the desktop.
Otherwise get a switch D-link makes one $25.00 truly plug and play. I have 4 port router and a 4 port switch and all works great.

"D"


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## ITGUY225 (Dec 18, 2004)

Try connectin your cable from downstairs into on of the ports on the router... not the one that says internet and then plug your desktop into another one of the ports and this should give you connectivity (using the router like a switch) 

hope this helps 
let us know if it worked


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## Beavis+B.hed (Sep 6, 2004)

Here's a few ideas:
We know the upstairs router is configured ok cuz the laptop connects. 
Can you ping the upstairs and/or downstairs router from your desktop? 
Did you connect with a crossover instead of a patch cable? 
You could try manually inputting the IP address, btw I'm assuming you don't have BOTH routers with dhcp enabled.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Connecting two SOHO broadband routers together.

Configure the IP address of the secondary router to be in the same subnet as the primary router, but out of the range of the DHCP server in the primary router. For instance DHCP server addresses 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.100, I'd assign the secondary router 192.168.0.254 as it's IP address.

Disable the DHCP server in the secondary router.

Setup the wireless section just the way you would if it was the primary router.

Connect from the primary router's LAN port to one of the LAN ports on the secondary router. If there is no uplink port and neither of the routers have auto-sensing ports, use a cross-over cable. Leave the WAN port unconnected!


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## Jack Horner (Jan 16, 2004)

If you turn off the laptop, connect the desktop, and reboot the desktop, does it connect? Can you access the Linksys's setup pages from your room?


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