Extend my ethernet/

Status
Not open for further replies.
hbiss said:
I think you are confusing router with a WiFi. That's probably because consumer routers often also provide WiFi. They are actually two separate functions. So, a router shouldn't be used to provide WiFi unless it's the DHCP server (first in line after the cable modem or however you get your internet). You can't have multiple routers daisy-chained, each handing out their own IPs. If you can turn off DHCP on a WiFi router then you can use it. But you would probably be better off with a WiFi access point that could be expanded.

-Hal
Click to expand...
I don't think I'm confused. My modem, which I own, not rented from ISP, is an Arris T25. My main router, which also makes everything on my network VPN protected is an ASUS RT-AC88U. It also doubles as my media server sharing out videos I have from a connected external HD. My second router is a Nighthawk R7000.
I've played around with them a lot, configuring them multiple ways. I've set up three completely different networks by incorporating a third router, it's my old use to be top of the line, now retired spare.
It is absolutely possible to have two DHCP servers on a network if they have defined parameters so they can't assign the same up address to two different items. Or you can set the second one up with DHCP disabled so there is only one DHCP server.
There are many great how to guides, one I would recommend would be Richard Lloyd on YouTube. Recommend you watch at 2x speed because it takes him forever to get to the point.
 
tthh said:
modem - something that is taking the incoming signal and turning it into Ethernet. Now, that signal may be DOCIS over CATV cable or DSL over old telephone cable. Typically when there is fiber, that will be a separately supplied fiber modem, typically called an ONT.

router - this term is somewhat loosely applied, but in this case it means that the device is able to do NAT and DHCP. The service provider is only giving out one IP address and your house needs more than one because you have several computers and TV's and other devices. So there is the concept of NAT which allows a private IP network of several devices behind one public IP address. DHCP is seperate from this and is the function that dynamically hands out the private IP address to new devices when they boot up. You could, theoretically, hard code private IP addresses in all your home devices and not use DHCP at all, but that is more work. Often times the NAT and DHCP functions are tied to the same configuration entry because they are rarely used separately. You don't want DHCP behind DHCP and you don't want NAT behind NAT -- often referred to as double-NAT.

access point (can also be called the WiFi part of a WiFi router) - the is the WiFi function within the device.

These devices exist:
- modem
- modem + router
- modem + router + access point
- router + access point (commonly called a WiFi router)
- access point (less common in consumer space, but most routers can turn off NAT and DHCP to become this, possibly with caveats)

One finer point on access points. Mixing and matching consumer type routers and turning off NAT and DHCP in a downstream device to get wider WiFi coverage won't necessarily be as clean as you would expect. Ideally, you want all the devices to cooperate and hand off the WiFi signal from one access point to another seamlessly rather than having the access point fighting each other or existing as seperate WiFi SSIDs. This is where the consumer space mesh products come in or going to something more sophisticated like Ubiquiti or Cisco.
Click to expand...
Your definitions will useful for most people, but technically a router is characterized by its abiltiy to move packets from one port (network segment) to another based on their Level 3 (IP) Addresses which can be outside the local subnet address space of any particular port. Without a router in the system somewhere, only devices whose IP addresses are part of the same (either public or private) IP address subnet could communicate. It is not necessary to provide either NAT or DHCP to perform that function.
NAT allows devices using private network addresses to communicate over the public Internet. But even if all of your devices were assigned individual public IP addresses they still could not communicate through your broadband provider to the public Internet without the services of a router.
 
Yes, it is can be a lot more complicated than my explanation, but unless you are doing something commercial most of that isn't important.
 
Hub - retransmits all received packets back out to every device connected to its ports (hubs are a 1980's thing).

Switch - knows each device connected to it by their hardware MAC addresses (each device unique id's). Retransmits received packets to the device only if the packet target MAC address matches the device MAC address. If the switch knows your MAC address, you are in its subnet and it will connect your packets. It learns your MAC address's when you plug in.

If the target MAC address is not in your subnet, the switch cannot see it, that's when you need a router and an IP address. The switch will connect you to the router, and the router will try to find your target device (target MAC id) using the IP address you tell it to look for.

The typical home LAN device has a WAN port for the connnection to the utility supplied internet connection. That's internally a router that connects the utility internet to your switch, which is also in the same device. Typically you will see five ports on the back of the home device, one port out to the utility which is the router. Four other ports are from the internal switch. The switch would have five ports internally, one more connecting the switch to the router.

So once you have one router connected to the internet, everything after that would be a switch it you want it to work economically. You can add a second router connection to the internet, router to switch, but if you try to do it router to router when it should all be in the same subnet, you're doing it the hard way.
 
hbiss said:
I think you are confusing router with a WiFi. That's probably because consumer routers often also provide WiFi. They are actually two separate functions. So, a router shouldn't be used to provide WiFi unless it's the DHCP server (first in line after the cable modem or however you get your internet). You can't have multiple routers daisy-chained, each handing out their own IPs. If you can turn off DHCP on a WiFi router then you can use it. But you would probably be better off with a WiFi access point that could be expanded.

-Hal
Click to expand...

I’ve found wireless routers to be more readily available and lower cost than a wireless access point with comparable WiFi specs. I just turn off DHCP, hard-code its IP address, and never plug anything into the WAN port. Currently running two of them this way in my house.
 
retirede said:
I’ve found wireless routers to be more readily available and lower cost than a wireless access point with comparable WiFi specs. I just turn off DHCP, hard-code its IP address, and never plug anything into the WAN port. Currently running two of them this way in my house.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I did,. But I also experimented with other configurations because I like to know what is possible. And just because something is possible doesn't mean it's practical.
 
GoldDigger said:
And just because it is practical it does not necessariliy mean that it is desireable. :)
Click to expand...
The Jurassic Park Principle. Just because you can make a T. Rex from prehistoric DNA grafted into frog DNA doesn't mean that it's a particularly good idea.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top