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I'm using an XR300 as my primary router and an R7000 as my secondary router. They're bridged together with a long ethernet cable so that I can extend my internet connection to a nearby building. I've been using that setup for 3 years with little or no issues. A month or two ago, my secondary router stopped providing an internet connection. The internet indicator light on that router didn't light up. I tried some troubleshooting, but after a couple hours with no progress, I swapped that router out for my old primary router, which is also an R7000. That worked fine up until about a week ago, when it started doing the same thing as the previous router. It did work again a few days later, but now it stopped again. These are the settings I changed to set up the routers:
Primary Router (XR300):
- IP Address set to 192.168.1.1
- DHCP On, assigning IP addresses between 192.168.1.34 and 192.168.1.254
Secondary Router (R7000):
- IP Address set to 192.168.1.2
- DHCP Off
They're connected with a CAT 5 cable from a LAN port on the primary router to a LAN port on the secondary router. I brought the secondary router close to the primary router so that I could run a short cable between them to test, but that didn't help.
Any ideas on what might be wrong and how I can fix it?
The LAN IP Address. I didn't think you could change the other one anyway.
>RTFM Failure?
I tried the method in the manual, but that's quite a bit different. It didn't end up working for me. I ended up just factory resetting both routers and then changing the settings to what I had them as before, and that worked for whatever reason.
Anyway, thanks for the insight and I think I'm all set at least for now.
_Which_ IP address? A router like this normally has two IP addreses: one for its WAN/Internet interface, and one for its LAN interface.
> Any ideas on what might be wrong [...]
RTFM failure?
> [...] and how I can fix it?
RTFM?
Visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number (R7000), and look for Documentation. Get the User Manual (at least). Read. Look for "Set Up the Router as a WiFi Access Point".
Because you've been fiddling with it, it might be a good idea to do a settings reset on the R7000 before configuring it as a WAP. After that, you might need to lie to it a little to get it past its set-up wizard, so that it'll let you do what you want with it.
The LAN IP Address. I didn't think you could change the other one anyway.
>RTFM Failure?
I tried the method in the manual, but that's quite a bit different. It didn't end up working for me. I ended up just factory resetting both routers and then changing the settings to what I had them as before, and that worked for whatever reason.
Anyway, thanks for the insight and I think I'm all set at least for now.
> I tried the method in the manual, but that's quite a bit different. > [...]
The right way and some other way are often different.
> [...] It didn't end up working for me. [...]
With that detailed description of what you did, and what happened when you did it, there's not much that I could add.
> [...] I think I'm all set at least for now.
Time will tell. (Especially if you try to do something like "Set Up a WiFi Schedule" on your ad-hoc WAP, and that device can't find a time server from which to set its clock.)
Alright, what the manual said to do was enable AP mode on the second router, so that's what I did. After that, I couldn't get internet access through that router whether I plugged my laptop directly in or connected by WiFi. I couldn't configure it through routerlogin.net, either, even with a direct ethernet connection. After that, I factory reset the router, enabled AP mode, and it still acted the same way. The manual wasn't any too specific on what else to change, so that's all I did.
My method:
Set the first router's LAN IP Address to 192.168.1.1 (if it isn't already for some reason)
Make sure DHCP is enabled on the first router.
Set it to assign addresses between 192.168.1.50 and 192.168.1.254
Set the channel for the 2.4 GHz connection to channel 1.
Set the channel for the 5 GHz connection to channel 149.
Turn off DCHP on the second router.
Set the second router's LAN IP Address to 192.168.1.2
Set the channel for the 2.4GHz connection to channel 11.
Set the channel for the 5GHz connection to channel 161.
Do you see anything wrong with that? It's the same setup I've been using since December of 2017. The reason I'm using two routers in the first place is because I need two separate WiFi connections for two separate buildings. I know that feeding a router off of another router isn't the same as having two separate networks, but it works fine for my application.
> [...] what the manual said to do was enable AP mode on the second > router, [...]
The manual _also_ said how to connect the cable between the main router and the router-as-WAP.
> They're connected with a CAT 5 cable from a LAN port on the primary > router to a LAN port on the secondary router. [...]
And that's _not_ the way to do it for the supported, by-the-book scheme.
> [...] I couldn't configure it through routerlogin.net, [...]
"couldn't" is not a useful problem description. It does not say what you did. It does not say what happened when you did it. As usual, showing actual actions (commands) with their actual results (error messages, LED indicators, ...) can be more helpful than vague descriptions or interpretations.
Those "routerlogin" names depend on some router (or router-like device) intercepting the DNS look-up request, and returning its own LAN IP address, instead of sending it to a real-world DNS server. If you use the by-the-book scheme, then they might work for a client which is connected to the router-as-WAP, but, in general, using the LAN IP address of the router-as-WAP would be more reliable (and should work from anyplace on the LAN).
> Do you see anything wrong with that? [...]
What I already suggested. (Does your router-as-WAP know what time it is?) And I wouldn't bet on features like automatic (or semi-auto) firmware update, or anything else for which the router-as-WAP would have used its WAN port to communicate with the outside world if it were still a full-function router. Also, the by-the-book scheme allows the router-as-WAP to get its new LAN IP address using DHCP, instead of using a static address, avoiding the need for the DHCP pool adjustment on the main router. I'm not claiming that the ad-hoc router-as-WAP scheme does _not_ work, only that the by-the-book scheme works, and has some advantages.
This wheel had already been invented (repeatedly), by the way. Compare, for example:
That's written for a Netgear C6300-as-WAP, but the steps are about the same for any other router (any make/model) which lacks a one-step WAP option. If the router which you're reconfiguring has a WAN/Internet Ethernet port (unlike a Cxxxx), then leave it unconnected.
--------
But there may be no reason to avoid the by-the-book scheme, _if_ you actually read and follow the instructions. And it frees a LAN port on the router-as-WAP.
Somehow I missed where it said how to connect the cable in the manual when I read it the first time. As you pointed out, I plugged the cable into a LAN port on the secondary router insead of the WAN port. I hooked it up the correct way this time, and it works. That's definitely a simpler way of doing it.
Thanks for the help and all the detailed responses.
> Somehow I missed where it said how to connect the cable [...]
And that's why "I followed the instructions" is often disbelieved, and a (tedious, but character-building) recitation of actual actions is almost always preferable.
Glad to hear that you got it to work (both ways).
For the basic functionality, either scheme should work, but some of the frillier features (scheduling/time-keeping, for example) might depend on configuration details which are tough to manage in the ad-hoc scheme. There have also been some reports that involving the WAN/Internet port can reduce speeds. Everything's complicated.
