Can we configure 2 routers work side-by-side, as equals?

[jc1742]

We got our Netgear RBR750 to replace our old Apple Airport Supreme, and while installing the new gadget (which is now not communicating with the orbi app), the question came up:  Why do both want to be hooked up between the ISP's modem and the local internet?

We have a Netgear FS605 switch.  It would seem to make more sense to connect that to the modem, and plug both the FBF and AAS gadgets into it.  They have different IP addresses; our AAS uses 10.0.1.*, while the RBR comes to life using 192.168.1.*, so they wouldn't conflict with each other.  The switch doesn't know or care about the addresses; it just passes packets to everything plugged in and lets them pick out the ones with its address in the headers.

Does anyone know if this is feasible, and maybe even documented somewhere?  It would make life a lot easier.  My wife is into the IoT thing, has Elexa and lots of cute little electronic gadgets (some wired, some not).  She's a bit annoyed at the sudden need to change all their adddresses.  She likes the RBR's responsiveness, but would feel better if she could take her time at converting them all to a new address, which is a bit of a pain due to the gadgets' inconsistent terminologies and so on.  Then we could phase out the old AAS wifi at out leisure.

And competing wifi setups shouldn't be (much of) a problem.  Most of our neighbors have wifi, and it doesn't seem to cause an problems.  Having 2 of wifi base stations in the same house would seem to be no problem, either. Similarly, lots of businesses have multiple wired "internets" that are mostly running through the same wires in a building. The IP-address system was designed to handle this.

Anyone know about this?

(I thought it might be discussed here already, but searching with the obvious keywords didn't turn up anything.)

[CrimpOn]

This all depends on what the ISP device is.

• Simple "only a modem" will connect to only one device.
  • Combination modem/router/wifi devices can have multiple WiFi systems connected to them.
    Be aware that they will be entirely separate.  A device on one WiFi system will be totally unaware of, and unable to commmunicate with devices on the other system.

[plemans]

Like @CrimpOn says, what modem is it? That's kind of key. 

also, for next time, setup a custom ssid/password. That way, whenever you switch routers/upgrade, you can use that ssid/password and devices will just auto-connect. There won't be a hassle of having to reconnect them all. 

You can do it now by using the apple's old ssid/password on the orbi

[jc1742]

I neglected to post our modem's info; it's a WebStar DPC2100R2. A quick check found several online descriptions, and none mentioned a routing capability.  (But several did mention hooking them up to a router.;-)  So I guess that's a bit more evidence that our Orbi thingie is getting a plain single-public-address IP packet stream.  

Actually, one diagram shows hooking it up to a splitter, with one going to a TV set and the other going to a "router".  Some people do still have analog TVs, I guess.  My wife, who has a gang of old-movie-fanatic friends over occasionally, has a big-screen Roku, but it's a digital tv.  Yesterday she got it working with the Orbi's wifi, and says it works better than it did with the old Apple Airport Extreme, which occasionally lost the connection, and had to turned off and back on to get it working again. She says that doesn't happen now.

But that's not related to my problem, of getting my web server(s) back online.  The main one is a little linux box, which the Orbi finds in its Wired list and calls "Asus".  But the Orbi still won't pass any incoming connections to it.

I also have web servers running on 2 Macbooks, used for testing new stuff. They and the Linux server are talking to each other via the Orbi, and can see each other's web servers.  But nobody in the outside world can connect to any of them.  The Orbi shows all 3 in its device list, with correct names and addresses, but the web servers only connect if I type their IP addresses rather than their names.  I wonder if that has anything to do with the problem with connections from the outside world?  

One of my next tests is to tell the Orbi to forward port 80 to one of the Macbooks, and see if my "outsider" cellphone can reach it.

[plemans]

Wowsa that modem needs to be retired. You are correct that its a modem only device. but its a docsis 2.0 device. I didn't know any ISP supported docsis 2.0 devices anymore. they're working on phasing out docsis 3.0 devices right now. 

Regardless of what you do, that modem needs to be upgraded. It maxed out (and probably couldn't hit anyway) speeds of a massive 43mbps! Whoop whoop! 

Not sure who your ISP is but I'm surprised they haven't forced you to upgrade yet. 

but you will need to go->

modem--->router---->router in access point mode   if you want to use more than 1 router and not be in a double nat.