Can you connect your Wi-Fi routers one after another like a necklace?
Can you connect your Wi-Fi routers one after another like a necklace?
I have three buildings on my property. My modem (which is currently using DSL) is in building #1 and connects to building #2 via a Cat6 cable leading to a Netgear Router Model R6400v2. From building #2, I use another Cat6 cable to reach building #3, which is connected to a second Netgear Router Model R6220 set up as an access point. Soon, my service will switch to Fiber at building #1. Once that happens, I plan to connect the fiber modem converter directly into the first router (R6400v2) that sits in building #1. Then, from this new router, I want to run a cable back to the second router (R6220) which is still in building #3 and hopefully install a brand new access point there.
The question is: Can I connect an access point from building #3 to another access point in building #2? If yes, what ports should I use? If I can't just daisy chain those access points, what equipment do I need to get internet into building #3 without running a long cable directly from building #1 to building #3? Thanks!
I am not sure I get what you are saying. If there are already cables running between buildings, why would we move anything? The network speed will only match the slowest thing in the line. I think showing two pictures helps: one picture of where things are now and another picture of how they might look later with new connections. Please take photos or scans of those diagrams and put them up here on imgur.com (www.imgur.com). There are some people online who know all about network layouts and drawing these pictures would be really useful. You don't need the drawings to look fancy, but you must show the distances clearly. The most important thing is just to make sure everything stays consistent and easy to read.
Okay... I'll draw on paper a few ideas and show them off here so it makes sense. Thanks
You are here! Check out this link: https://imgur.com/a/NgbLRdu
There are two pictures in that post—swipe left or right on your phone to see what it looks like now.
Yes you can daisy chain those APs like this. Just remember, every single device on that same LAN will only handle 1Gbit speeds because of the connection limit. Usually, it makes sense for your newest and fastest router to act as the main Gateway router. It has probably got the latest firmware and security patches too. There is a performance issue though. The R6400v2 with its 1GHz ARM CPU might be able to handle routing, even on stock firmware around 700Mbps for WAN-to-LAN in review periods. But this old router isn't getting regular updates anymore so the current stock version is two years out of date. Both FreshTomato and DD-WRT still support it, so you can keep it updated just for security reasons, but third-party software doesn't have access to all hardware speed tricks that stock firmware uses. That means routing drops down to about 300Mbps at full CPU power without any QoS settings enabled. Even if you use QoS to cut latency (which shouldn't really be needed with fiber), it falls even lower under 200Mbps. The R6220 is a bit newer but slower because its 880MHz MIPs are supported by OpenWRT, so you could also keep that running for security reasons too. Both would work great as APs unless you're using VLANs, in which case they wouldn't be needed to route anything since the main router handles it all.
Thanks to everyone... I was talking with a friend and he said there is a product that makes it easy to use one router for all three places. It would be like having just one screen of glass where everything works the same way, so we wouldn't have to log in three different times. Yeah, sure you guys know what's going on here...
Usually when you set up "single pane of glass" networks, UniFI is the best choice -- check out that link here: https://www.ui.com/ I own a whole UniFI network at my house. With the gear you get, you probably don't need different login passwords for each room or building. You can just use one SSID and password everywhere. But yes, you'll definitely need a special admin username/password for every single building with this exact hardware setup.
Hey there! Thanks for asking about UniFL gear for your exact setup. What models are you looking at?