[SOLVED] Use router as extender at home

[vickey97]

So, I have three story house and want to cover every corner of my house with wifi. I currently have fiber optic connection connected to ONT. ONT then has two ethernet cables going on two respective floors. I researched and came to conclusion that Tenda AC10 router fits my budget and has everything I need. It got delivered today and I tried to plug ethernet(came from ONT to 1st floor) to WAN of my router and thought it should work. But it doesn't. On its login UI, it has three options to choose from.

1. PPPoE
2. Dynamic IP
3. Static IP

I really dont know which of this suits my scenario and need help setting my wifi. Any help is really appreciated

 

[Ralston18]

Not sure that I understand the network connectivity.

One router or two routers: Tenda AC10 and/or "my router"? If two routers what is the make and model of "my router"?

ONT : make and model information?

Does the following line diagram represent your connection paths?

ISP ----fiber ---> ONT ---Ethernet 1 ---> to [WAN] my router and Ethernet 2 [ ?] Tenda AC10 [LAN} --- Ethernet ---> to wired pcs and ~wireless ~> wireless devices.

Please feel free to edit and correct my diagram.

= = = =

Do you have User Guides listed in the following link:

https://www.tendacn.com/en/product/download/AC10U v2.html

 

[vickey97]

Thanks for quick reply. I see that you need more information regarding my network connectivity.
Two Routers in total: For 1st Floor - Tenda AC10 and for Ground Floor - Tenda F6.
One ONT: ZTE ZXHN F660

Corrected line diagram represent of my connection paths.

ISP ----fiber ---> ONT ---Ethernet 1 ---> to [LAN] Tenda F6 --- Ethernet ---> to wired pcs and wireless devices on Ground Floor

From the same ONT ---Ethernet 2 ---> to [LAN] Tenda AC10 --- Ethernet ---> to wired pcs and wireless devices on First Floor


From this connection diagram, ground floor router is already set up(by IT guy) and running. I need help to set the first floor router (Tenda AC10).

Yes, I have all user guides listed.

 

[bill001g]

In general if the device you call a ONT is a media converter or modem type of device you can't connect mulitple devices to it. Most only have one ethernet port.

So the first thing to determine is what that box is. if it is actually a router then what you want to do will be simple.

Now very technically you can hook multiple devices to a simple ONT. The ISP chooses to not allow that. The problem is not that the device can't support multiple devices but the ISP only will give you a single IP address no matter how many device you connect.

This is the reason people need routers in their house. The router is the device that allows you to share the one IP you are given.

So in your case you either need a router at the ONT or you need to plug the ac10 into the F6. Depending on what your goal is you might want to run the AC10 as a AP if you plug it into the F6.

 

[bill001g]

So I noticed after the above post you provided the device number of the ONT.

That device is actually a router. You should be able to just plug both your tenda routers into the ethernet ports.

This may or may not be the optimum design depending on what your goals are. Having mulitple routers in the path can make some things like port forwarding and file sharing hard.

 

[vickey97]

This may or may not be the optimum design depending on what your goals are.

My goal is simple, extend the range of ZTE ZXHN F660 (currently outside my house) to my two story house both having their own routers for better connectivity and no signal loss. As I explained above, F6 is already up and running but need help setting AC10.

While trying to set it up, I saw that it has three options to choose from:

1. PPPoE
2. Dynamic IP
3. Static IP

What suits my application? I think i have to set AC10 as an AP but I am not sure. Anyone can help?

Having mulitple routers in the path can make some things like port forwarding and file sharing hard.

What do you mean by multiple router in path?

 

[bill001g]

Yes you want to run it as a AP. It might has a AP mode or you can search how to make a router into a AP there are even youtube videos but it is fairly trivial.

There are 2 problems.

Lets take the simple case where you have ONT---F6---user

The problem is both the ONT and the F6 are doing NAT. This is not a issue if do not need to do port forwarding and you do not have a game console that needs a function called UPnP to play some online games. This can be "fixed" but you must do configurations in 2 routers rather than 1.

The other more difficult case is where you have the 2 routers hooked to the ONT. In this case both routers think they are directly connected to the internet. So the network between the second router and the ONT is considered internet. The problem again is the NAT. A user connected to the the F6 router can not talk to the a user connected to the F10 router. This is for the same reason someone on the internet an not just access your machine directly.

Now even if you were to put the F10 in AP mode anything you connect to the F10 can still not access devices on the F6. There still is a NAT function between.

Unless you need some function in the other router I would just use the router function in the ONT box. I would set both the F6 and the F10 to be AP. That way all the devices in your house are on the same network and there is only 1 NAT to deal with. Things like UPnP will function correctly again because there is only 1 router rather than multiple routers in a chain.