Correction: In AP mode, the WAN port usually works like a LAN port, and some models have a faster WAN port (for example, Archer AX6000 has a 2.5gbps WAN port, but 1gbps LAN ports) It's common practice to connect the WAN port of a router in AP mode to a LAN port on the gateway of the network.

When my Asus RT-AC88U started getting bogged down, I upgraded to the Asus RT-AX88U. Rather than toss the AC88U, I tried the AiMesh feature that Asus offers through the router interface. It worked awesome and was able to enhance my wifi network by incorporating the AC88U into the Mesh network. The setup was easy and assume behind the scenes it was doing everything you discussed your video (DHCP turned off, etc) automatically. Great feature on Asus routers!

Never set a second router/AP's IP that is within the main router's DHCP range. Rather move or reduce the DHCP pool as you don't want a device to get an IP that is the AP's IP. Rather make the AP IP a high number, I typically use .250 for AP's

This is the video I needed for a long time. Have three routers at home but didn't quite know how to make all three act as one. Most of the videos I found on YT were long and kinda tricky to understand for a person like me who has a limited tech knowledge. Thank you for explaining the steps so simply. It's nice to see the channel that you love make a video addressing the thing u wanted to do for a long time.

Fast roaming feature does wonder, as it allows you to move between routers seamlessly, without interruption. Because when you do this setup, the devices would tend to stay at the same network, no matter the signal strength. And the transition between your wifi will interrup the connection. Marcfiftyone has a great video discussing this.

had to do this in a small flat because of the awkward placing of the signal box. Bought a second router with gigabit ports and did what you described in the video. But that problem with staying connected to one AP was too annoying. So it was easiest to disable wifi on the first (main) router, because the second one was placed in the middle, so good coverage. Also removed the antennae from the first one and now it looks quite clean. Two routers like that are also simply useful as mini switches. I have gigabit ports here on the main side, letting me connect my PC to a PC hooked to ethernet on one of the remaining gigabit ports on the second router.

I'd love to see a video about how IPs get allocated on cellular data, and networking on LTE etc. in general :)

I use to do this several years ago. It worked reasonably well enough, but I eventually upgraded to dedicated access points. I removed the second router and disabled the WiFi on the main. The APs work SOOOOO much better. Since I don't need a router with built in WiFI, I switched to a mini PC with pfSense and a separate gigabit switch when the old router started acting up.

I love my deco X55, but I used to do this years ago before mesh was as available and affordable.

For things like TVs and other mostly stationary devices this is a good idea and will work great. roaming part is the part that doesn't work well. The device will lock on and not let go until it loses connection. Even business grade access points struggle with this because its often more the device connecting vs the access points issue.

I just installed a Deco XE75/75 Pro system in my house. So now I have excellent coverage in every room of the house. It was super easy to set up. I didn't have to go through all this jargon they discussed. The router and app did all the work. 🙂

Thank you so much! I was already going crazy, because I could not get it to work using other tutorials. The KEY point: connect the second router via LAN port, not WAN port. Some routers maybe automatically switch WAn port to LAN port when in AP mode, but my Edimax does not and it would not work when cable was in WAN port. You saved me, thank you very very much!

Here in Germany there are routers from a German company called Fritz!Box and they make it really comfortable to reuse their old routers. The routers can mesh with each other, so you don't need to configure the wifi ssid and password on the second router and if you change some wifi settings, like password or enabling the guest wifi, it will automatically be adopted by the second router, which makes it pretty convenient.

I don't know if this is the case with all wifi networks, but I tend to get the best of both worlds with my wifi setup: devices will auto-switch between them after being given the password for one (though they will stay on the weaker one for a little too long), but they are also named differently, so you can connect to them manually if you want. I just connected my second router to the first via a very long ethernet cable, then when I went into its settings I was able to select an access point/repeater mode. No messing with hard-set local IP addresses.

This is soooo helpful. I have little to no understanding of routers until now. Now I realize why our tiny organization are having problems because we have 2 routers like 10 years ago and we have no technical know-how whatsoever. Thank you!!

OMG!!! This video explains something I needed a couple years ago much more simply than what a quick Google search provided. Too many pros go super technical for some of the most basic stuff...

You need to make it clear that the 2nd router should either use a static IP out of the dhcp range of the first or reserve that IP on the first router.

Can confirm this is great. Had a similar setup at my parent's house so we get proper signal everywhere, including a detached kitchen and a garden. One other thing to note is that if a cable is impractical, you can get similar results by connecting the second router to the wireless network of the first one. Not everything supports this wifi repeater mode, but it's worth checking. The downside is that it will have lower speed and higher latency copmpared to using a cable,, but it's better than nothing.

2:55 this is not always the case if the second router has a dedicated AP mode as when the router is configured in that made specifically, it does expect to receive its ethernet through the WAN port, or at least my TP Link AX73 does (we have two of that same router on the same network)

0:20 The router in your home sends your video to your intended screen. The *little chromecast button* on your phone's video player sends that video to the least intended screen 😂❤

Helpful tip: configure DHCP to give out addresses over .100. That way it is easy to set static IPs safely, perhaps manually, and give them numbers from 2 to 99. And if you see an IP you can easily deduce whether it got it via DHCP

Use 2.4Gz routers if you have lots of walls in the area of coverage and 5Gz for routers that will stay within line-of-sight. Higher frequencies have higher speeds but less penetration and spread. Make sure the channels don't overlap for each router and neighboring ones as much as possible.

This a good quick and dirty solution, especially if you have wireless devices that are unlikely to travel around the house. However, if you do have devices that travel across the house, most are typically very bad at disconnecting from their original access point with bad signal strength to the new access point (with the same access credentials) with much better signal strength. Often times you have to disconnect and reconnect from the network on the device yourself. A better solution is some kind of mesh setup. Many newer routers have this capability, but have it disabled unless you connect mesh nodes (compliant access points.) This starts to get really complicated if you didn't just get an all in one mesh system, so I understand why it wasn't gone over in this video. Essentially, the mesh network handles switching the devices connection to the correct access point so your device doesn't have to and is typically way better at doing it and provides a better experience.

Good advice. I failed to wirelessly connect 2 different routers, different brands. I always set up a repeater on the other one (with DD-WRT firmware). I easily connected two of the same brands using the buttons on the router. Works great. Thanks for the advice. I will try again to connect the third router this way.

I've been using a multi router setup for years - I typically give them different SSIDs though - having a separate SSID for Amazon devices is useful 👍

I thought that I already knew how to do it, but wake on LAN stopped working with my PC, and after that rewatching that video and following the steps, wake on LAN started working again perfectly, thank you so much for this tip.

i added a 2nd router like 8 years ago. i had the modem with the main router upstairs in my room and the 2nd router downstairs on the main floor. both routers worked flawlessly. it's actually pretty simple if you know what you're doing.

Took me quite some time to get the "ItHurtsWhenIP". I almost died laughing

I have this set up at home and it was a bit fiddly to set up, but it's been working wonderfully for years.

Thanks this video helped me setting up my router. Massive thumbs up

I have 2 old modem/routers from my ISP. They support being set up as a mesh access point or even repeater. I'm happy.

My router's WAN port died from a power surge. I set that puppy to AP mode and boom! It became the second access point for the opposite side of the house.

You actually have to configure your first router so that it doesn't give the IP address you assigned to the second router to any other client. If you don't do it, such a setup may break in a mysterious way. When the second router is in AP mode, WAN port is bridged to LAN ports, so you can use it; that's what I'm actually using: the Ethernet cable from my main router is connected to the WAN port of my second router.

My first ISP-supplied router is managing 192.168.1.x, and I just gleefully plugged in a second router that happens to default to 192.168.0.x (2nd's WAN to 1st's LAN). Both have DHCP turned on. In fact, both are using their default settings (except passwords of course). This approach has been working perfectly for many years, even with new routers at both ends over the years. It's not possible to access network resources (NAS, printer) across the gap, but that's a feature not a bug in my case (2nd network is IOT-heavy and just simple Internet media consumers). Both sections access the 'net perfectly fine. YMMV.

Thanks @Techquickie... I really wanted to know about dual routers... even I had one extra "ADSL" with IPOE...

Exactly what i wanted to do for a long time. It works. Thanks

Very useful video. I'm actually doing this for decades now.

I really needed it to set up wifi at my parents home thanks 👍😅

You can actually link routers with the wan port but it only works one way. I setup a network with an air BNB in the shop and the router/ap in the shop connects through the wan port to the home network so that they are firewalled. Works great

I did this for a while, but realized that a mesh network was going to work a lot better. So far, thats been the case and couldnt be happier with my wifi performance since installing my mesh netowrk.

I have two D-Link DIR-X5460 Routers but I have set them to Mesh mode. To do this however you need to manually download and install the 1.11 Firmware for them from from the D-Link website. The auto update only downloads the 1.04 firmware last time I tried. To connect them it was as simple as pressing the WPS on the main router, then clicking the WPS on the secondary one and it configured itself to be a Mesh Extender. I have one at each end of my house and get good WiFi the entire length of my house. I used to get dead spots at the far end. Both apparently have two 5 Ghz transmission radios and one 2.5GhZ radio. It uses the second 5Ghz radio for the backhaull.

2:22 Never yolo-set a device IP like that. It MUST be outside the DHCP IP range or reserved in the DHCP server. The DHCP server will gladly assign devices your IP unless you tell it not to and then the traffic breaks down.

This video was incredibly helpful, thank you.

In other words, an extended wifi. I did this years ago art an apartment I lived in with some people, and it worked wonders. I did this exactly as you described it.

I've actually wondered that. Thanks.

Great video as always! Can you PLEASE do a new video on the different DNS types (IP4, DoH, DoT, DoQ, DNScrypt, etc.) I’ve been playing with all the different types now that I can us them via AdGuard Home and would love to see a quick deep dive 👍

I used two routers to cover our 3 storie house for years. It was a mess... since a few years I have one of the cheapest Mesh solutions available from NOVA and it works really well. Still has some hickups once in a while but nothing like what I had with two routers.

Doing this for years. I have an old router that I use for all the smart home devices, so my nice new router of the moment can handle the major devices and streaming.

Tp Link EC220-G5 V3 has network roaming you can enable on both the main router and the extended AP router, this will make the router choose if you have to connect to 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz and also automatically switches you between routers. (I do many router drops during the day) Only 1 SSID for the whole house.

Thank you! I have two asus routers and was wondering what was I doing wrong when trying to make the second one the only with wifi spot. Now it all makes sense 😂

Just curious if you have covered the use of powerline adapters, I find them useful.

I was exactly looking for these infos. 😮

Here in my house I'm using something called Seamless Roaming, controlled via an OC200 from TP link (hardware model), that way the controller makes sure you're on the best wifi signal, and I've installed 4 AP's in the house, 3 in and one outside, so no matter where I am, I'm always connected to the best signal point at any given time. Anyhow, Routers: A lot of people are not aware that, if you have a smart home with only one router, and you even if you have switches, that once your router is down, your smart home, or any device for that matter (so everything that is not connected directly to your router), is dead in the water. That is why I installed a second router, as a fail safe, for when the ISP one is going down for whatever reason, the other router (NON wifi to be clear here) will still handle and manage all of your devices, as a router should do. Important add on for the video as well: You can leave DHCP on, if you have the option to change your subnet (192.168.1.x to 192.168.0.x fe), however, it's still suggested to not do that, unless you start giving every device a static IP or if you work with a DHCP reservation list, making sure you never give an ip from one to another, howver, that if very unlikely to happen. As a suggestion: Explain the above comment, in a much nicer, and better understanding kind of way! Great vid, keep it up team!

It's actually way more fun when you can't have a wired connection between them (say the primary mobile connection router doesn't even have any lan wired ports at all) and need to extend purely on the wifi itself ... that's what I was setting up recently and boy was that a great experience 😅

THANK YOU! Just used this to setup a router upstairs, I was this 👌 close to buying a $300 mesh

To combat the "Roaming" issue (RSSI) set the WiFi channels to different but overlapping channels. Especially for 2.4Ghz. Only 2 channels apart. So Router 1 is set to Channel 1 and Router 2 is on Channel 3. So when a device "roams" it detects a drop in RSSI as it gets out of range of Router 1 but sees Router 2 with a stronger signal on Channel 3 and automatically swaps. But you must manually set both to specific channels. And as they both overlap into Channel 2 the move is done with almost no drop in network activity. All routers or Access Points, even corporate or industry grade only use channels 1, 6 and 11 by default. And when they say they "automatically change to compensate for high wireless interference" will almost always still use 1, 6 and 11. Also try not to use channels 12 or 13. Even in the US where these channels can be used, as most devices such as phones will still avoid them. 5ghz or any newer standards like Wifi 6 don't suffer with the RSSI roaming as much but still can be stuck on the same channels such as channel 36, 48 etc.

you can use additional routers as mesh access points (connected via lan or wlan) like asus routers. or get (mesh) repeaters.

Good information for the average person. I find that many folks truly have no understanding of how thing work within their home networks. Topics like common router configuration issues, parental controls, and network security setups. The last one is important since human behaviour is often the highest risk for disruption.

I had good 2.4ghz signal and iffy 5ghz signal from my router. I bought a 35ft ethernet cable and moved the router. Now the whole house gets great signal on both wireless connections!

I use two routers with different name, and to make phone switch the strong network I use an app called swifi. With that you can define "if signal goes below xx, switch to a stronger network in the list". That works very well

Oh my god… that last comment reminded me of building a little aluminum Wi-Fi catcher for my usb Wi-Fi dongle like 15 years ago. What a throwback.

in our house we use 2, the one connected to the DSL line and then a Ethernet to another Router as a WIFI reciver, in english for some, one for wifi devices and the other for ethernet devices.

Some routers allow you to use either the WAN or LAN port to connect to the main router in their access point mode. But from what I have read, it's better to use the LAN port, as using the WAN port apparently stresses the router's CPU, and it might not be powerful enough to handle fast traffic. Using the LAN port pretty much makes the secondary router act as a dumb switch, and the wireless part is also just LAN, but wireless, hence the name WLAN. Using the WAN port on the other hand makes the secondary router's cpu have to work. Correct me if i'm wrong

nice to see the inline 'sponsorship' has evolved into actual, impressionable adverts

I added an extra AP to my network with a powerline backhaul. It’s very useful.

Tbh wifi mesh system is too pricey in my place, and my coverage needs isn't something like a huge warehouse, so this video is really a huge help

Nice! I am going to try this, since I just have 2 WiFi networks.

Some routers support a repeater mode. That's much easier than running a wire between your main router and the secondary one. Sadly, not all do, or I wouldn't have just bought a Netgear extender. Should've included that possibility in your video, though.

very useful ty

I used to have my second router on the same subnet in AP mode but I found better results when I had it in charge of a second subnet but with the same SSID. I should give my network an overhaul as it's a bit janky now

Actually I just did this exact same thing while setting up router in my house. It is too big for one router to cover bt not too too big to get a mesh, so I just bought 2 of the same routers and set 1 in ap mode.

It also helps to create static IP's for usual devices.

Shout out to the editors.. Nicely done.

Just use a WiFi mesh router and this is very easy to setup with one button mesh sync. This is much better than using WiFi extenders, etc.

ItHurtsWhenIP made my day - thanks! :)

This is the first good value video of seeing in a while 😁 thanks. I think you need a few more details

would have been cool if you mentioned routers that have WDS (wireless distribution system), which a fair amount of even cheaper routers do, that will let you use wifi to connect the AP to the main instead of with a long network cable through lan ports, kinda like a mesh system.

This actually doesn't work in most situations, as most devices don't use the SSID solely as their method of connecting to the AP. They also use the address, which is always different (just like all devices have a unique MAC address). That is why your device will choose to stick with the AP that has the very poor signal instead of just switching to the now better AP. You should actually look into something call WDS is you're trying to do this.

i use an tm-ac1900 in bridge mode to connect to an xfinity router and have a switch connected to the ac1900. I connect several devices through a wired connection to the switch. the xfinity router is probably between 40 - 60 feet through several walls. even still, i get 500 Mbps speedtest. letting a router talk to another router and then piecing out the connection is great. they use better antennas than a lot of devices so the performance is very consistent. if the devices still need a wifi connection and stay in that one area, you could connect another simple router to that bridged router with a wired connection, or use the repeated wireless connection. i find the routing on the repeated wireless connection to be pretty bad and have terrible latency or just dropped packets, but that might be the device itself. when it is routed through the switch to the wired ports through the bridged router, it is great. low ping, high speed, and extremely reliable. i believe meshed routers call this the backhaul.

With Mirkotik devices you can just set up capsman on your main router and use whatever other devices you have as capsman antennas, essentially turning them into Wifi APs. Handy. Although setting it up can be a pain.

I've been doing this for 6 years now on 4 floors each having one router. It's working perfectly fine and I have full 4 bars of wifi in the whole house.

I just opened a 2nd account with my service provider. I'm now renting 2 Wifi routers from them. Wish this video came out sooner, could have saved myself lots of money. lol

when you connect the router2 to the pc should the pc be connected to the internet (through router 1)? Because in my current setup i can't. I have 1 ethernet port and no wifi

You guys always create awesome content, keep up the good work 👍

As a techquickie video, it's ok saying there should only be 1 DHCP server to save most people from pain with misconfiguration. However, I think it should be noted that it's a rule of thumb and not necessarily a commandment. The key is to ensure the DHCP server(s) don't give out conflicting IPs, for which the most obvious and simplest solution is to just have 1 DHCP server. You can have more than 1 DHCP server if they are on different subnets, for example. Why? perhaps as a fallover (or "high availability" if that buzzword applies here) or perhaps having 1 only giving out IP for trusted devices in 1 subnet and 1 for guests.

DHCP doesn't direct traffic, that's ARPs job to map MACs into IPs for routing. DHCP is just a network service that can do this automatically. It doesn't even have to be on the router, and in larger networks it's not, instead DHCP forwarding is done to the DHCP server.

Good tip if you implement this solution: If you notice your phone is connected to the same “AP/Router” you can turn off and on your wifi for it to choose the device with the strongest signal.

Fantastic tutorial.

Takes me back to the days when i had a power booster and a access point, So good the house across the street could use my internet and share $.. Not that I ever did that.. lol

Ap mode + asus ai mesh is much easier. It makes the second router into a mesh node.

Only other thing I would add is to turn off automatic channels and manually separate them on the spectrum. My neighbors more than likely hate me, I have 3.

I remember the days of DD-WRT firmware upgrades for my spare routers turned it into a Bridge for playing xbox 360 without having to buy the 360s wifi adapter.

Most if not all routers with AP mode are intended to use with WAN port not LAN. Connecting to LAN port is only necessary if you dont have router with AP mode & you need to disable DHCP server for it to work (assigning static IP to router's LAN port is desirable but not necessary for it to work)

I’m surprised you didn’t touch on the air-abridge mode (wireless abridge mode) for some cases where running a Ethernet cable is not feasible/ unpractical. E.g. The router is downstairs but no Ethernet port is upstairs, you can use abridging if the second router supports it. The second router can also be used like a WiFi-adapter for TV-boxes or computes, better than those USB WiFi adapters…

Could you do a video on audio mixing devices, not for streaming, mainly for just adjusting audio of programs with a slider/knob on a hardware device.

Suggestions of topic for next video: NFC and SIM wallet or HCE wallet also automation solutions from NFC as well as Current vulnerabilities in NFC

I love this explanation.

Asus routers auto do this all you got to do is when setting up set up 2nd router as an extension. Super easy.

Weird, I connected my ISP router to an Belkin in AP and an ASUS in AP using the WAN port of the AP's and LAN ports on the main router. I never had an issue when I configured it this way. I'm wondering if there are some brands out there that don't like using the WAN port in AP mode.

2:15 close but not quite. Must check the DHCP Range.