Help with setting up network with two routers + Ethernet wall outlet

[shubunchu]

Hi,

I need to modify my network since I'm having relatives moving over into the basement. My current setup is all within my room on the second floor;

ISP coax (basement cable box) -> bedroom wall outlet -> modem -> router

To explain, I've activated the wall outlet within my bedroom by connecting the corresponding coaxial cables in the cable box located in the basement. From my wall outlet, I connect a coax cable to my modem, and connect my modem to my router. This setup works fine, since my current router's (NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900) range is wide enough to cover both the first and second floor. However, the connectivity from the basement with this setup is quite poor.

Picture of bedroom wall outlet

I plan to place my current router on the living room, so the range covers the whole house, but I also need to connect my PC to my bedroom's wall outlet (Ethernet jack). I have an extra router that I don't use, and believe that it can be of use for this setup, but I'm not sure on how to approach this - do I set up my old router as a switch? Or do I set up my current router as a repeater?

Picture of my two routers and modem

An issue I've found is that the cable splitter found in the cable box room only has three coax outputs, and I need to reserve two for the living room TV and bedroom TV. The third one is currently connected to my bedroom outlet - this is tough since I believe that I will need to move the modem there, which requires a cox connection.

Picture of my cable box + connections (labeled)

What are some ways I can successfully set up this network?

Thanks.

 

[Ralston18]

Your bedroom has, as I understand the image and your post, a Cat5e port.

The cable box picture shows green (telephone) and blue cables. Are the blue cables unterminated Ethernet cables to the rooms?

Is your home already pre-wired for Ethernet? Or partially so? (Meaning terminated only in the rooms.....)

 

[Solandri]

The plugs on the green cables are RJ45. To wide for telephone (RJ11). So more than likely they connect to the ethernet outlets in various rooms (including his bedroom in the first pic).

Confirm this is the case. Leave all your equipment as-is. Take a spare ethernet cable, and plug it from a LAN port on your Netgear router into the ethernet port of your wall outlet. Then go downstairs to the cable box room. Plug the green ethernet cables into a computer (probably will have to be a laptop) one by one until you get a network connection. That cable goes to your bedroom. Label it or mark it with a piece of masking tape. Edit: Looks like the green cables plug into a patch panel near the bottom. Untangle them to insure they're all plugged into the patch panel. One of those patch panel ports should to your bedroom. Though I'm unsure what the blue unterminated cables up top are for.

If it works, this confirms that your in-wall ethernet is wired correctly and works. If so, then you'll be able to accomplish what you want without moving any existing equipment around. Just by adding new equipment. It's tough to tell from the picture, but it looks like you have at least 6 green ethernet cables? Buy yourself an 8-port switch. Either of these will work and are priced very competitively.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Ethernet-Replacement-Unmanaged-TL-SG108/dp/B00A121WN6
https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-GREENnet-Switching-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA

Go to the cable box room, and plug all the green ethernet cables into the switch. You may want to label the one cable from your bedroom, since that's the one which will be feeding Internet to the rest of the house. Eventually you'll want to label them all (I hate it when people don't label these cables), but right now it'll be less work just to plug everything in. Ideally your cable modem/main router should also be located in your cable box room, but that's a project for later if you want. Since you have a configuration which already works for you, let's not mess with it.

Once that's done, you can plug a device into any ethernet wall port in your house and get Internet. Plugging the green cables into a switch made them all "live". If you want, you can go around to the different rooms with a laptop and Ethernet cable, and test this by plugging it into each wall ethernet port.

To use the second router as a WiFi hotspot, you need to:

• 
  ■Login to your main router. Write down its IP address and subnet mask. Under its DHCP settings, set the IP address range to exclude at least 10 IP addresses. e.g. If the router is 192.168.1.1, then set DHCP to use only 192.168.1.100-255. Thus preventing 192.168.1.1-99 from being used.
  ■Power up the second router and cover up its WAN port with a piece of tape. Plug a computer into it's LAN port and access its configuration page. Set its LAN IP address to the main router's plus 1 (e.g. 192.168.1.2). Set its subnet mask to be the same as the main router's. Reboot the second router to confirm everything worked and the new settings are active.
  ■VERY IMPORTANT - disable DHCP on the second router. Once you do this, you will be unable to access the second router automatically (simply by plugging a cable into it). That's why you do this step last.
  ■Use an Ethernet cable to plug a LAN port on the second router into a wall ethernet outlet. Remember, the WAN port should be covered with tape and not used. Hopefully there's an ethernet wall outlet in your basement so you can locate it right next to your guests. Go back to the cable box room and look at the switch lights. An extra set of lights should have lit up - this is the second router. You can label that cable if you like (since you now know which room it goes to). If no extra lights lit up, then you have a connection problem somewhere.

At this point, you should be able to access the second router from anywhere on your network via its IP address - 192.168.1.2 in this example. That'll allow you to configure or modify its wireless settings. Your guest should be able to get Internet either by connecting to the second router's WiFi, or plugging in directly to one of the second router's LAN ports.

 

[shubunchu]

The plugs on the green cables are RJ45. To wide for telephone (RJ11). So more than likely they connect to the ethernet outlets in various rooms (including his bedroom in the first pic).

Confirm this is the case. Leave all your equipment as-is. Take a spare ethernet cable, and plug it from a LAN port on your Netgear router into the ethernet port of your wall outlet. Then go downstairs to the cable box room. Plug the green ethernet cables into a computer (probably will have to be a laptop) one by one until you get a network connection. That cable goes to your bedroom. Label it or mark it with a piece of masking tape. Edit: Looks like the green cables plug into a patch panel near the bottom. Untangle them to insure they're all plugged into the patch panel. One of those patch panel ports should to your bedroom. Though I'm unsure what the blue unterminated cables up top are for.

If it works, this confirms that your in-wall ethernet is wired correctly and works. If so, then you'll be able to accomplish what you want without moving any existing equipment around. Just by adding new equipment. It's tough to tell from the picture, but it looks like you have at least 6 green ethernet cables? Buy yourself an 8-port switch. Either of these will work and are priced very competitively.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Ethernet-Replacement-Unmanaged-TL-SG108/dp/B00A121WN6
https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-GREENnet-Switching-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA

Go to the cable box room, and plug all the green ethernet cables into the switch. You may want to label the one cable from your bedroom, since that's the one which will be feeding Internet to the rest of the house. Eventually you'll want to label them all (I hate it when people don't label these cables), but right now it'll be less work just to plug everything in. Ideally your cable modem/main router should also be located in your cable box room, but that's a project for later if you want. Since you have a configuration which already works for you, let's not mess with it.

Once that's done, you can plug a device into any ethernet wall port in your house and get Internet. Plugging the green cables into a switch made them all "live". If you want, you can go around to the different rooms with a laptop and Ethernet cable, and test this by plugging it into each wall ethernet port.

To use the second router as a WiFi hotspot, you need to:

• 
  ■Login to your main router. Write down its IP address and subnet mask. Under its DHCP settings, set the IP address range to exclude at least 10 IP addresses. e.g. If the router is 192.168.1.1, then set DHCP to use only 192.168.1.100-255. Thus preventing 192.168.1.1-99 from being used.
  ■Power up the second router and cover up its WAN port with a piece of tape. Plug a computer into it's LAN port and access its configuration page. Set its LAN IP address to the main router's plus 1 (e.g. 192.168.1.2). Set its subnet mask to be the same as the main router's. Reboot the second router to confirm everything worked and the new settings are active.
  ■VERY IMPORTANT - disable DHCP on the second router. Once you do this, you will be unable to access the second router automatically (simply by plugging a cable into it). That's why you do this step last.
  ■Use an Ethernet cable to plug a LAN port on the second router into a wall ethernet outlet. Remember, the WAN port should be covered with tape and not used. Hopefully there's an ethernet wall outlet in your basement so you can locate it right next to your guests. Go back to the cable box room and look at the switch lights. An extra set of lights should have lit up - this is the second router. You can label that cable if you like (since you now know which room it goes to). If no extra lights lit up, then you have a connection problem somewhere.

At this point, you should be able to access the second router from anywhere on your network via its IP address - 192.168.1.2 in this example. That'll allow you to configure or modify its wireless settings. Your guest should be able to get Internet either by connecting to the second router's WiFi, or plugging in directly to one of the second router's LAN ports.

Wow, thanks for the in-depth and complete explanation; you've answered all of my questions and thoughts towards the issue in one response. I really appreciate it - I'll be purchasing a switch within the near future, and I'm sure that things will work out well.

Thanks again.