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I have two expensive routers that both have issues and I think I can use them together to fix all of them.

Why

  1. I have a Belkin Play router, that starts to slow down my Internet after some time (this seems to be a known issue Router slows dramatically, needs restart (Belkin N+ Wireless Router)), and
  2. I have a Netgear N300 router that drops its connections from time to time (also a known issue http://wafflesatnoon.com/2012/05/27/netgear-router-dropping-connection-try-this/)

Some fixes have been proposed for these issues, but none of them work well for me. The Belkin router has to be constantly restarted and the Netgear router I have was given to me by my ISP, so I'm locked in to some crappy firmware version.

All this is to say: please assume my need is valid.

What I've done

I've connected the two router together to form a single network. Currently, the Netgear (which drops the WiFi) is handling my Internet connection and my Belkin (which slows down my Internet) is handling my WiFi. Except that my Wifi connection is still dropping when the Netgear router is in the loop. The only reason I can see is that there must be something wrong with the Netgear's DHCP server.

What I want to do

So what I would like your help in doing now is to have the Netgear handle the Internet connection and the Belkin handle the DHCP and WiFi services. Could you please help me to do this. The issue is to configure the Belkin's DHCP server to say that my Netgear router is the default gateway. My Netgear is 10.0.0.2, my Belkin is 10.0.0.1.

Community
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John Gilmore
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1 Answers1

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You have a double NAT which causes billions of problems.

With 2 routers, one of them will need to be bridged allowing the 2nd router to provide NAT and DHCP services for your network.

So for your config, put your Netgear router in Bridge mode and place it in front of your Belkin which will connect to your modem and NAT the incoming and outgoing connections. Be sure to use the WAN interface on the Belkin to connect to your modem and the LAN interface on the Netgear to connect to your Belkin.

Feel free to google both NAT and Network Bridge if you do not understand these technologies.

EDIT: You cant have your Belkin function as a router and allow your Netgear to handle the connection. This creates the double NAT I mentioned earlier. Whichever router you want to handle the internet connection is the router that will also need to serve DHCP addresses and wifi.

Another solution is to put one of your routers in Access point mode and allow the other to handle the internet connection and DHCP.

Scandalist
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  • Errr, if it's Modem -> Netgear -> belkin, then he would want to put the belkin into bridge mode, not the netgear. He wants the Netgear functionaing as a NAT gateway, not a bridge. – Darth Android Jun 20 '13 at 19:10
  • He said he wants the Belkin to handle WIFI and DHCP. Both are services a bridge can't provide. A bridge is basically a switch at this point so you can really put it anywhere you like with no problems - It will just forward the connections. – Scandalist Jun 20 '13 at 19:14
  • He also said he wants the Netgear connected to the modem, and a router in bridge mode can provide WiFi and DHCP just fine (I've specifically done this before for Wifi, though haven't tested DHCP, but it should work just fine). A router in bridge mode is will much more powerful than a switch because it's still a router. – Darth Android Jun 20 '13 at 19:59
  • There's a problem with that setup though - You can't have two routing devices on the network. This is how he currently has things configured and its not working. A layer 2 bridge AFAIK cannot provide DHCP or WIFI because these are layer 3 functions. The best course here is to bridge one router completely and allow the second router to provide NAT, DHCP and WIFI. What you are suggesting is possible but instead of a bridging the Belkin you'd put it in AP mode - Allowing the Netgear to handle the Internet and DHCP while leaving the wifi to the Belkin. Either way would work. – Scandalist Jun 20 '13 at 20:15
  • So are we saying it's impossible to do what I want to do? Modem <-> Netgear <-> Belkin. Where the Belkin handles DHCP and WiFi? – John Gilmore Jun 22 '13 at 06:21
  • @JohnGilmore It's perfectly possible, you just have to turn off DHCP on the netgear, and configure the Belkin to hand out the Netgear's LAN IP as the gateway. Leave the Belkin in Router mode, and just don't use the WAN port (only the LAN ports). You might have to look into custom firmwares (such as DD-WRT) for the belkin if you can't configure the gateway IP in the DHCP options. – Darth Android Jun 24 '13 at 14:31