One router, two access points in a daisy chain - is that possible?

[lovegr]

Big old house with currently one router connected to one access point. The top floor needs better wifi and it would be a whole lot easier to connect another access point to the first access point (with wire) than to cable it all the way down to the router. Is that possible at all? With special kit?

Thanks. Stephen

 

[bill001g]

It will work fine there likely is some limit on how many times you can do this but the AP is acting as a simple switch in this case. The main risk would be if there was too much traffic from both AP and they overloaded the cable to the main router. That is highly in a home environment.

 

[lovegr]

Thanks Bill. Thinking about it, I guess I would have to use a router configured as an access point in the middle of the chain, as there isn't a port on the existing "pure" access point to lead a cable from to go to the last router in the chain.

If that is the case, two further quick questions:

1. The router in the middle: what kind of settings do you need for that? Can it act as a switch and an access point at the same time - i.e. receive a cabled signal from the primary router, broadcast it to that part of the house and send it on to the last AP in the chain all at the same time?

2. I guess that last link in the chain between the middle router/AP and the last AP goes via Ethernet cable from one of the four ports on the back of the middle router/AP?

I recognise these are probably really basic questions! Very grateful for your help.

Stephen

 

[lovegr]

It will work fine there likely is some limit on how many times you can do this but the AP is acting as a simple switch in this case. The main risk would be if there was too much traffic from both AP and they overloaded the cable to the main router. That is highly in a home environment.

 

[bill001g]

You use the router like any other router used as a ap, The key thing is to use the LAN ports and disable the dhcp. If the device has a AP mode all that does is turn off the dhcp for you and convert the wan port to lan so you get a extra port out of it.

The extra "ap" in the middle will have almost no effect. What is inside most routers is small switch chip that runs the 4 lan ports so traffic will pass between the lan ports without being affected by other things in the device.