[ctviggen]

Hi All,

I have two wireless routers.  One is a mesh system that runs our house.  The second is the old wireless router I just took out to put the mesh system in.  I have an in-law apartment.  I want to put my mother (in the in-law) on her own network separate from ours.  She has one computer. 

Here is the physical configuration:

Router 1's WAN port to Cable Modem
Router 1's LAN port to a hub (16 ports)

Router 2's WAN port to the hub (and consequently to LAN of Router 1)
In-law computer: LAN port connected to LAN port on Router 2.

Right now, Router 1 has DHCP range of 192.168.10.100 to .200.

Router 2 has DHCP range of 192.168.1.1 to something (maybe 192.168.1.XX

If I get Router 2 set up, I can get my mother online, and it does not seem like she can get on our network.  However, when I have both routers set up, our network gets confused and then I can't get onto either network from a computer. 

Questions:

1) How can two DHCP servers coexist on the "same" network?  (Or do they?)

2) Do I have to be concerned about the MAC addresses?  (To get online, I had to have my new Router 1 spook the MAC address of my old Router 2, so I had to change Router 2 to spoof the address of the computer to which it is connected.  I'll call the cable company to get the MAC address issue worked out, but they had me on hold 20+ minutes last night before I hung up.)

I've looked at these websites, but each is different and doesn't seem to work:

https://superuser.com/questions/939362/setting-up-a-second-router-to-be-a-separate-network

https://www.techspot.com/community/topics/i-want-to-connect-2-wi-fi-routers-to-create-2-separate-networks.152424/

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/ConfiguringTwoWirelessRoutersWithOneSSIDNetworkNameAtHomeForFreeRoaming.aspx

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2996823/creating-completely-separate-wifi-networks.html

[mresseguie]

I don't have the answers, but I have a couple thoughts for you.

1. Change your subject line to something like "Help me set up two separate wifi networks". I suggest the change in order to better target wifi/router savvy members. Your original subject line is easy to skip over as uninteresting, and doesn't seem to seek help. [I am here only because I just bought a new dual band wireless router two days ago.]

2. How do restaurants, bars, other businesses set up their wifi such that there is one PW for customers to gain wifi, and one separate wifi for the business. For example "AC1" is accessed by customers; "AC2" is accessed by employees (or the boss) with a different PW. Perhaps this is what you are after?

3. Call a small computer shop. Ask them how to do it.

Michael

[Doublej]

Doesn't seem to work is pretty vague.

First is why are you doing this, what are you trying to achieve?

Second is what equipment do you have to work with?

Then we can all argue about the best way to do this 

This one is all in the details. I quickly scanned the links and they all give similar basic explanations that won't get you live unless you are tech savvy.

[shadowlight]

First thing I would confirm is that you are not using the same wireless/SSID on both routers.  I would do a factory reset on the router that you are planning to use for your mothers network. 

Couple of other comments:

1) If you goal is to prevent your mother's network from communicating with your network, your proposal will not work, since the 2nd router is part your LAN.  All requests from your mother's system will show up as coming from the WAN IP on the 2nd router.  To successfully do what you are trying to do with the connection scheme that you have proposed is to see if your 1st router has something called DMZ configuration.  If yes, connect the 2nd routers WAN port to the LAN port on the 1st router and designate the port as DMZ.

2) If you are ok with having access to your mom's system, I would swap the connection from cable model to 2nd router and connect one of the LAN ports on the 2nd router to the wan port on the 1st router.

3) The simplest way to achieve your goal is to see if your mesh network router allows you to setup a guest network I would leverage that and setup it up so any devices connected to the guest network will not have access to systems on your wireless/LAN network.  On my Netgear router I can configure the guest network so they have options to disable access to my local network and prevent any devices connected to guest network from connecting to each other.  All connection will only have access to the Internet.

[TomS]

I agree on #3 above. If you're using an Eero mesh, just turn on the guest network and text her the ID. It takes a couple minutes and you're done. I use this all the time here and it works well.

[jtwrace]

I agree on #3 above. If you're using an Eero mesh, just turn on the guest network and text her the ID. It takes a couple minutes and you're done. I use this all the time here and it works well.

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