Wireless modem/router ports - bidirectional and equal?
 

On each of our wireless modem/routers there is a port labelled ADSL which is connected to the land line phone point via a filter. There is also a bank of 4 ethernet sockets.

Can I plug a cable between one of the four sockets on one router and one of the sockets on the other router so that I end up with 6 ethernet connections and a second wireless, all able to see the internet via the ADSL connection of one of them. I presume that anything hard wired to the router does not need any setting up in terms of security or passwords?

I ask because we have been sent a new wireless router which has wireless security options which some of our old computers can't work with, ie WPA2. The oldest wireless equipped computers can work WEP at the best. It may be possible to get newer drivers ....... once connectivity has been established.

If all else fails, I can go back to our first wireless router which used a separate modem and had a dedicated "input connector" for that link. I don't know if the "modem input" is a special port (hardware wise) or whether it is just the same hardware but on the other side of a firewall internally.

Somewhere I have an ethernet cable with the pairs swapped over if that is needed.

Ta. Andrew.

Yes you can - I have this setup at home, one upstairs one downstairs.
Caveat though, the second one (not directly connected to the Internet) either needs to be put in "wireless access point" mode, if possible, or will need some settings changed for the whole thing to work:
The second router will need DHCP disabling, its IP address setting to one far enough up the scale so it doesn't cause issues (e.g. 192.168.0.200) and its default gateway setting to the IP address of the first one (e.g. 192.168.0.1). If you don't disable DHCP then you get two routers trying to hand out network settings and nothing will work, and if you don't set the gateway then the 2nd router won't know where to send Internet traffic.
If the 2nd router has an "access point" setting you just use that and everything is done for you.
Very handy for keeping the kids connection separate and disableable at will (automatically on ours)!

Yes, probably. I say "probably" because some (many/most?) of the "free" broadband routers bundled with ISP deals have locked-down firmware that won't allow it to be used as a pure router/switch without the ADSL modem bit - you'll just have to try it to see.

Failing that you can easily get a thing called a "broadband range extender" which can be used as a seperate wifi access point. They're intended to be used as "repeaters" that receive a wifi network and "extend" it, but there are some which have a "Wireless Access Point" (WAP) mode which uses an ethernet cable to your main router. This is obviously more useful because you can have completely different wifi settings on the WAP, which could solve your problem.

In its simplest form it could just be one of these things. That's the cheapest one which is single-band and 300mbs, but they come in a range of speeds and also have dual-band versions depending on what you want to pay...

My house is what's called a "staggered bungalow" (ie it's on the side of a hill and is partly single story, but has a two-storey part as well) which was originally two 200-year-old cottages that were combined and extended under a single roof. The original walls were flint, and this includes some of what are now internal walls. Flint is completely opaque to microwaves, so getting decent wifi coverage for my teenage daughters (who consider wifi a fundamental human right, obviously) presents a challenge. I have used a number of the dual-band versions of the above WAP - one in each of the girls' bedrooms, one in their "den", one in our bedroom and one in the kitchen, all connected to the main router with ethernet cables (run through the loft). They are configured as WAPs rather than repeaters (aka "range extenders") have seperate names and crypto keys, and they are all registered on everyone's phones, laptops, tablets etc. As you walk around the house these devices seemlessly switch to a good signal whenever the one they are currently connected to gets too week. They're inteded to just sit in a mains socket, but a useful tip is to make a short extension lead so they can be sited on a higher shelf (they work much better if they aren'ty at floor level).

€0.03 supplied,

HTH,

PDR

I better have a play. There is one more issue, apart from the security incompatibility, I can't log into one of the combined modem/routers but do have the passwords for the other one and the stand alone router. On the upside, I can site the second router to give better signal strength in my exterior man-cave without messing up the signal to the indoor computer use areas. Thanks for your help.