Can I use two routers; one for DSL connection & the other to admin my network?

Question

This topic has come up extensively when it comes to interconnecting two wireless routers. My question is quite different. Here is my current setup;

1. Main Router is a Siemens DSL modem/Router to which the internet is connected.
2. Secondary Router is a DLINK DIR-655

I like the network control and configuration on the DLink better than Siemens, so I want to make the Siemens act as DSL modem only and then have my DLink handle the DHCP and Wireless SSID and Guest account control on the internal/internet connection.

Really my focus is to have the DLink do all the network admin as it has way better control compared to the Siemens router.

Can it be done? How?
Any obstacles or potential gotchas?
Suggestions for improved setup?

Answer 1

Should be possible, just have the Siemens pass the WAN-adress directly to connected clients, connect the D-Link via wire and do as usual with the D-Link. If you can provide the model of the Siemens router I might be able to give you a more detailed description.

Answer 2

Looks like the DLINK DIR-655 is a cable router so that's good. Configure the siemans lan side to a different network than your internal LAN (172.16.0.x for example), plug a cable from the siemans lan side into the wan port of dlink, configure external port of dlink to be on the same network (172.16.0.x) as the siemans, use the normal internal setup on the dlink. Tell the Dlink it's default gateway is the lan of the Siemens.

That should work...