Join WIFI network with connected client LAN network

2

2

Here is the home network plan:

  1. Router/modem, provided by ISP. Set on: 192.168.1.1. Connected to my ISP, provides internet.

  2. WIFI router (Linksys E900). Connected to (1) with LAN cable (plugged in WAN port), set on 192.168.0.11. It creates WIFI network and all my devices are connected to it. DHCP is turned on, starting from 192.168.0.100 for max 50 devices. It is also a default gateway for all connected devices.

  3. Client AP (TPLink TL-WR743ND), works in 'AP Client Router Mode'. Set on 192.168.2.11. Has 4 LAN ports for various devices (that can not connect to wifi, so must be connected via wire). All connected devices get address from 192.168.2.100.

Client [3] is connected to WIFI network of router [2] on static address: 192.168.0.201 (outside of DHCP range). Default gateway is set to 192.168.0.11 (i.e. device [2]). DNS is 192.168.1.1 (i.e. device [1]).

Every network (192.168.0.* and 192.168.2.*) works fine with connected devices. However, I would like to be able to see devices between these networks. Even one directional access would be fine (from [2] to [3]).

How to join these two networks?

I tried various things, mostly by adding static routes. For example, I've added a static route on router [2] with the following params:

  • destination ip/mask: 192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0
  • gateway: 192.168.0.201 (the address of [3] in wifi network of [2])

But that didn't work.

Any ideas (without just existing devices)?

EDIT: I must have device [3] as I don't want to run wires through the whole house.

Igor Spasic

Posted 2013-10-13T19:13:57.980

Reputation: 199

Seriously overcomplicating what should be simple. If at all feasible, skip device (3) entirely and just run wires to LAN ports on device (1) or (2). And as suggested in the answers already provided, don't make another network with device (2) [or (3) if you can't manage to run wires for the things on 3.] The advantage to direct wires will be less congestion on your wireless network for the devices that really need to be wireless... – Ecnerwal – 2013-10-13T23:57:32.870

1Cant do that - the whole point of [3] is to NOT put wires through the whole house. – Igor Spasic – 2013-10-14T05:08:25.457

Answers

1

Or, even more simply, turn off the DHCP server of router 2. This way, all DHCP requests will be directly forwarded to router 1, and all client will belong to same subnet.

MariusMatutiae

Posted 2013-10-13T19:13:57.980

Reputation: 41 321

This worked. Actually, I turned off the DHCP on router [3] and it starts to get addresses from router [2], and that did the trick. – Igor Spasic – 2013-10-15T19:08:28.777

2

You should configure your router (2) as a network bridge. That way, it performs wifi authentication, but all traffic on the network is moved upstream to the modem's network (1). That is, all network-layer traffic is shuttled between the two networks, transparently. I'm unfamiliar with (3), but you should probably configure it as a bridge to (2), as well.

The upshot is that every client device is assigned IPs from (1)'s DHCP pool, and they all "think" the network they are on has a flat topology.

thirtythreeforty

Posted 2013-10-13T19:13:57.980

Reputation: 946

Thank you for the hint - after reading some more manuals, it seems that the correct configuration for router [3] is to be in the 'Client' mode. Anyhow, I was not able to configure [3] to be part of the 192.168.0.* network - device didn't allow its IP to be in the WAN range. – Igor Spasic – 2013-10-15T19:07:44.380