Converting cascaded routers to switches

[Orcrone]

I have my cable modem set to bridge mode, connected to the WAN terminal on a Linksys EA6500 router. Of the four LAN ports on the router one is unused. Two of the three remaining LAN ports connect to a networked printer and a WD Backup drive. All of this lives in an equipment closet. The last LAN port is connected to a router (Linksys EA3500) in my Home Theater cabinet. The two routers are cascaded together.

I'm considering purchasing a three node Linksys Velop system. Each Velop node has only two ethernet ports. I could just replace each router with a switch. I'd connect a Velop node to Switch 1 (in the equipment closet). Switch 1 would connect all equipment in the equipment closet to the network. One port of switch 1 would connect to a port on switch 2 (in the home theater cabinet), connecting all home theater equipment to the network.

Since I already own two extra routers is it possible to turn the two cascaded routers into switches and use them as described in the previous paragraph?

 

[nigelivey]

Yes it is no different from turning them in APs, they should be connected via LAN ports not WAN, Only one DHCP server on the entire network. For management purposes you have to assign a fixed IP to each device (the routers) in side the same subnet and outside the scope of your DHCP.