Connect two routers to a switch to create one network

[pepo]

Hello, i've been reading a lot about this so far inconclusive, perhaps you could finally help me:
I need to connect two routers to a switch and have all connected clients to either router see each other. Cannot connect wired the routers (too far away), cannot have a router behind a switch (all behind wall). Thats just how it is. Internet access is secondary although my ISP gives me multiple public IP's. Just need all to communicate freely.

Is there any possible way to make this happen? Any whatsoever? Currently my switch is managed and VLAN capable.

Thank you for your help.

 

[ronintexas]

What is the purpose of having two routers? Usually they provide DNS, DHCP and routing services from the local LAN to the internet. They would also be isolated from each other....unless all these features are disabled, which makes them a switch....

 

[pepo]

What is the purpose of having two routers? Usually they provide DNS, DHCP and routing services from the local LAN to the internet. They would also be isolated from each other....unless all these features are disabled, which makes them a switch....

Hi, the two routers are needed because one does not cover all the space with it wifi signal, and wires were already installed throughout.

 

[ronintexas]

If your switch can handle DHCP, DNS and routing capabilities - you can use both routers as access points only (they are "dumb switches" that offer wi-fi connections).

 

[ronintexas]

This is an old article - but gives you the basics on how to do it. You would just do this 2 times (one for each router): http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/1575/using_an_old_router_as_a_diy_wireless_access_point/index.html

 

[pepo]

If your switch can handle DHCP, DNS and routing capabilities - you can use both routers as access points only (they are "dumb switches" that offer wi-fi connections).

That would seem a proper solution, although I dont think my switch is that smart. It does handles VLAN's and such, but I dont think it routes like that.

 

[pepo]

This is an old article - but gives you the basics on how to do it. You would just do this 2 times (one for each router): http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/1575/using_an_old_router_as_a_diy_wireless_access_point/index.html

in the example you propose the routers are connected wired to each other cascading. That's not something I can do. I was hoping the switch to do the connecting work through a Trunk VLAN or something like that i kind of read around.

 

[pepo]

Regardless of a WANIP or internet access on the clients, isn't the switch supposed to allow me to see al clients connected to it? Why can't the routers communicate with each other???

 

[bill001g]

Because you have the rare case that the ISP gives you multiple public you can actually get it to work as you have setup. The main problem you now have because you have more than one public IP is the NAT. This is the same reason you can not see the machine in your neighbors house.

It is actually much harder to share between machine that are in different networks than to just make it one big network. You can do this but you are going to need actual routers not the device you buy in the consumer store they call routers. Almost all these device can only accept a single lan subnet and translate it to a single wan ip.

The more common solution to your problem is to place a router where your switch is and router the other 2 routers are wireless AP letting the main router control all the IP addresses.

 

[pepo]

Thank you bill001g, a think the "actual router" explanation helps me a bit. I am convinced now that the setup might me more difficult if not farfetched and hence the lack of positive results with that layout. I was certain a VLAN with trunking capabilities would works but i guess not. I've looking at some routers online but it gets confusing, when I try to look for something other than standard consumer all i get are Firewalls, do these also work as routers to replace my switch. Or should I better get a Layer 3 switch, there are a few not so expensive that might work more efficiently I hope.

 

[bill001g]

You can use consumer router with firmware like dd-wrt. You would have to configure the 2 routers to know the network behind the other router and not translate traffic going between the 2 networks with nat.
A layer 3 switch can not do nat so you need a router someplace.

Unless you have a really good reason to it is going to be much simpler and stable to run it all as 1 network.

 

[pepo]

What about a nifty device like this one

http://routerboard.com/RB2011UiAS-2HnD-IN

price is not so bad if you look around and seems to do a pretty stable (slightly complicated for the less savvy) job.