Add Second WiFi Router to Extend WiFi

If you have a large home or office network, you may encounter issues with WiFi Range and can not connecting to your WiFi network from certain points in your home or office. Commonly, this issue is happening due to leakage of wireless signal coverage.

I have explained how to boost ( Extend ) your WiFi network coverage by a few steps in This Post. But if you couldn’t solve your problem with these steps, it’s time to buy a second WiFi router and add to your network. Please read Best WiFi Router For Home and How to choose Home WiFi Router Posts.

Can Two Routers Be Used on the Same Home Network?

Yes, it is possible to use more than one WiFi Router on the same home or office wifi network, and you will have more benefits:

• Improved wireless Coverage: Adding a second wireless router to an existing WiFi network can extend your overall signal coverage (WiFi Range ) to reach to the far away devices.

•  Support for more wired devices: Typically, each WiFi router supports a limited number of ports for wired stations. By adding a new wifi router , you will have more open ports for connecting new computers and other wired stations.

• Optimizing networks structure: if you transfer huge large file between certain computers or if you have wired game console , it’s better to add a new router and connect such bandwidth-hungry devices to that and use another router for other types of activities.

How to configure the second Router:

Configuring a wifi router to work as the second router requires a few steps :

• Use a same network name (SSID) for your first and second routers. How to Open WiF Router’s Configuration Page?
• Use a new WiFi channel for your new router. How to find the best WiFi channel?
• It’s better that both router to have the same channel-width, what is channel-width?
• Set both routers transmit power option to “Auto”.
• Disable the second router’s DHCP server service.
• Change the second router’s IP Address , So that it doesn’t conflict with first router’s IP address. ( It’s better to set it to “Auto” to obtain an IP address from first router’s DHCP server).
• Don’t configure any internet connection in your second router, it is configured already on the first router.

Consider in mind, the second router is working in slave-state, it means the internet connection is establishing and managing by the first router, and the second router only acts as a “Extender” .

How to connect routers to each other?

There are a few ways for connection two (or more) routers. You can connect routers wirelessly by the Mesh technology and WDS bridging systems. But it’s better to connect your routers by Ethernet (Rj45) cable because the wired connection is more reliable and stable than wireless connection. All you have to do is connect the first router to second router by a Rj45 Ethernet cable from router’s LAN ports.