Hello, I'm having a few problems sorting an internet connection out. I am moving in to an outbuilding which is way to the garden from the main house which is where our bt router is set up. I will have is a standard phone line cable coming in underground from the main house which is great, but I have no idea if it is possible to set up a second router as I was told by a representative at pc world that I would not be able to run two routers on the same phone line. Power line internet extenders is out of the questions as the power comes in separately which is a shame. The bloke in store told me my best option was a Belkin long range router for around £129 for extended signal which was on special offer with Mcaffee for just £10 which sounded like a scam? I'm just hoping you guys can shed some light on some simple options as although i have built my own pc's and love computers i am sadly still far from an expert! Regards, Josh
Is there any chance of laying an Ethernet cable? How far out is the outhouse from your house? He is correct. You can only use one router as far as I know as you're only allocated one external IP address. However, that's not to say that you can't wire a second router in using Ethernet of as a wireless booster if it supports that feature.
The outhouse is not to far for me to lay an Ethernet cable and i have some 50ft long laying in garage barely used. I thought that a router would only be able to distribute an internet connection whilst plugged in via cat5 phone line. Or would I need a specific type of router in the outbuilding? also will there be a loss in speed as this is primarily what I am trying to avoid? Cheers for the reply!
I believe what The DutchDude is saying is that you can use the 2nd router as an extender if you connect it to the first router via a Ethernet cable
Correct. If you disable DHCP on the second router, and used it as an access hub rather than for its routing purposes, you should be okay. Leave the DHCP duties up to the main router and the second one will get its IP addresses distributed from there. Although, if you have the Ethernet cable laying around, I'd opt for a much easier to configure switch and running the Ethernet cable. Unless Wi-Fi is needed, that would be my chosen choice due to its simplicity. I've done the same with my router being downstairs and wanting hard-wired connections upstairs.
If i use a wireless access point with built in Ethernet ports do you think will suffer any loss of speed as my internet is terrible enough as it is
For the scenario you're describing, you're best of with an ethernet cable from your existing router, to a switch in your outbuilding. Adding anything other than a switch is just more expense and setting up you don't need. You'd be able to do this for literally a tenner and there is no config required. Edit: and there is no loss in speed whatsoever.
It's been mentioned by the dutchy, if you buy a second (cheap) wireless router, disabled DHCP. Then just run an ethernet cable between the two routers. If you configure the wireless name and key to be the same, but on a channel + or - 3, you should get seamless wifi with a slight gap in coverage. Ask on the marketplace if anyone has a wireless N router you can have for cheap/postage. If you give them your IP range, they could set it up so all you have left to do is configure the wireless portion.
Thx guys! Gnna run cat 7 out there and get another router from maplins! Will my current talk talk router be slower than a more expensive variant? Bare I mind I nly get 7mbs anyway lol
The second router isn't going to affect the broadband speed, it's mearly going to act as a wireless point and network switch. Maplins is a bit expensive, any old router should do the trick, you just need to be aware of the wireless speed you're after (I'd go for N) and the wired Ethernet speed, 100mbps wired should be fine if you're mostly using the wireless and the internet as your broadband is only 7mbps.
Well, depends on your connection, but your ethernet is almost always going to be significantly faster than your broadband connection to the outside world, so no, you're not creating a bottleneck.
Just remember to do the following on your new router: 1. Set the LAN IP address to be different than your current router. Your current router is probably 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 - so set your new one to be .2 or .254. 2. Disable DHCP on your new router, as others have said. 3. Connect your new router to your existing using the LAN ports not the WAN port.
