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Rashed4004

Occasional Visitor
hello all

got a networking question.

my router is sitting in my living room beside a network point.
my ntd is in my garage and beside all network termination points.

can i connect the router to the network point, connect a network cable to the other side of the network point, connect a switch to that network cable, connect a network cable to the switch and connect that cable to the NTD?

and then i need to connect another router to the switch so that the other router can connect to the main router and extend network.

router -> switch -> ntd (network termination for fiber optic network)
................ I
................v
............. 2nd router
 
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I presume the NTD is where the internet comes in to your home?
I so, then most likely no, unless it's a device that can act as a DHCP server.
 
I presume the NTD is where the internet comes in to your home?
I so, then most likely no, unless it's a device that can act as a DHCP server.
yes, network termination for fiber optic network. My router connects to this device and dials PPPoE.

NTD doesnt have any DHCP or any other capability. It just connects my router to the national optic fiber network.

in this case the main router will provide dhcp.

what i want to know is if the 2nd router will be able to connect to the network and get IP from DHCP provided by the main router through the switch.
 
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yes, network termination for fiber optic network. My router connects to this device and dials PPPoE.

NTD doesnt have any DHCP or any other capability. It just connects my router to the national optic fiber network.

in this case the main router will provide dhcp.

what i want to know is if the 2nd router will be able to connect to the network and get IP from DHCP provided by the main router through the switch.

I presume the switch is connected to the main router WAN... its DHCP server is not going to issue internal IP addresses to the WAN.

Maybe you want one of these:

ISP <wire> router1 (DHCP1) <switch> router2 (DHCP2) ;double NATted.

Or,

ISP <wire> router1 (DHCP) <switch> router2 in AP mode

OE
 
what i want to know is if the 2nd router will be able to connect to the network and get IP from DHCP provided by the main router through the switch.
Maybe.

This is complicated, since technically you only want one router on a network, even if you disabled the DHCP server on the second router, as otherwise you end up with a double NAT situation, which is not desirable in most situations.

However, most routers can be configured as an access point or some other type of bridge configuration, but as you don't mention what hardware it is, it's hard to say if this is the case or not. Sometimes this requires using a LAN port instead of the WAN port to connect to the rest of the network.
 
Ok. Let’s get you guys some more information about the situation.

I just purchased a pair of ASUS xt8 and has a pair of old ASUS ac68u.

at the moment I use 2 ac68u in aimesh and will be running xt8s in aimesh as well.

now, I need 1 xt8 in middle living room, 1 xt8 in formal living room which will cover backyard and patio and 1 ac68u in the garage to cover front yard and also media Center laptop is connected to garage router so that my tv gets full network speed to stream 4K movies.

the problem is that each room has only 1 network port. So, I can’t connect anything to middle living room xt8’s lan port to bring the network back to garage.

that’s why I am trying to find a solution if I can use a switch/router in between middle living room xt8 and ntd and share the network with our router connected to the switch/router.

hope this makes sense
 
I can't help but feel you're making this far more complicated than it needs to be. Or I'm missing a piece of the puzzle, which is quite possible.

Why not... Configure one XT8 as a router and place it next to the NTD (connected to the XT8's WAN). As the XT8 only has three LAN ports use one of them to connect a dumb switch, giving you more LAN ports. Then connect all your network devices including the other XT8 and 68U's to these LAN ports. Configure the XT8 and 68U's as AiMesh nodes. Job done.
 
I can't help but feel you're making this far more complicated than it needs to be. Or I'm missing a piece of the puzzle, which is quite possible.

Why not... Configure one XT8 as a router and place it next to the NTD. As the XT8 only has three LAN ports use one of them to connect a dumb switch, giving you more LAN ports. Then connect all your network devices including the other XT8 and 68U's to these LAN ports. Configure the XT8 and 68U's as AiMesh nodes. Job done.
This would be the easiest setup and that’s how my 2 ac68us are connecting now.

but if I put 1 xt8 in the garage the then the potential of a powerful router is wasted as it will be sitting in the garage and serving garage and front yard.

Thats why i want to keep xt8 in the house to provide wireless coverage and keep ac68u in the garage.
 
This would be the easiest setup and that’s how my 2 ac68us are connecting now.

but if I put 1 xt8 in the garage the then the potential of a powerful router is wasted as it will be sitting in the garage and serving garage and front yard.

Thats why i want to keep xt8 in the house to provide wireless coverage and keep ac68u in the garage.
OK do that then. Put one of the AC68U's in the garage and put the XT8's in the house. I don't see the problem with that.
 
OK do that then. Put one of the AC68U's in the garage and put the XT8's in the house. I don't see the problem with that.
the problem is that each room has only 1 network port. So, I can’t connect anything to middle living room xt8’s lan port to bring the network back to garage.

that’s why I am trying to find a solution if I can use a switch/router in between middle living room xt8 and ntd and share the network with our router connected to the switch/router.
 
the problem is that each room has only 1 network port. So, I can’t connect anything to middle living room xt8’s lan port to bring the network back to garage.

that’s why I am trying to find a solution if I can use a switch/router in between middle living room xt8 and ntd and share the network with our router connected to the switch/router.
As I understand it all the cables from each room terminate in the garage, correct? So just plug all those cables into the LAN ports on the garage router. If there aren't enough LAN ports just connect a dumb switch to one of the router's LAN (not WAN) ports to increase the number (as I said above). You don't need a second router in the garage (or in the house).
 
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As I understand it all the cables from each room terminate in the garage, correct? So just plug all those cables into the LAN ports on the garage router. If there aren't enough LAN ports just connect a dumb switch to one of the router's LAN (not WAN) ports to increase the number (as I said above). You don't need a second router in the garage (or in the house).
I already have this setup keeping ac68u in the garage but I want to change this as I want to use xt8 as main router while it’s in a different room.

I know there are other ways of doing this but I am trying to the way I think it will be most beneficial for me
 
I already have this setup keeping ac68u in the garage but I want to change this as I want to use xt8 as main router while it’s in a different room.

I know there are other ways of doing this but I am trying to the way I think it will be most beneficial for me
To use the XT8 as the main (and only) router but located in the house you would have to run both its WAN and LAN connections through the single available cable back to the garage. The only way this would be possible would be by using smart switches at each end of this cable that created separate VLANs, one for WAN data and another for LAN data. It's doable, has the advantage that you don't need another router in the garage, but LAN performance might suffer for the other AiMesh nodes (their traffic would have to go up and down the single cable).

The other alternative was suggested in post #4 where you keep the second router in the garage. This would work, but as pointed out you would have two separate networks. One network would be for the living room XT8 (which is double NATed) and another network for everything else (running of the router in the garage).
 
ok. i have started playing with it. this is situation so far.

i have converted 1 ac68u into switch by turning off wifi and setup in ap mode. connected primary xt8 to the ac68u-switch with ethernet and then connected the ac68u-switch to the NTD and from primary xt8 dialled PPPoE and Internet is connected. Downside is that ac68u lost its 1gz capability and i am getting 100mpbs internet instead of 1gbps. I think while ac68u is running in switch mode its limited to 100 mbps port speed. I will buy a gigabit switch tomorrow and try with it.

now, my main problem is that primary xt8 isnt seeing the 2nd xt8 when i am connecting the 2nd xt8 to the ac68u-switch with ethernet. primary xt8 only seeing 2nd xt8 being connected over 5gh-2.

any ide what this could be?

thanks
 
Double NAT must likely. But as your not willing to listen to the advice given, what's the point? You're trying to do something that doesn't make sense and that'll give you a bunch of extra headache for no reason, just because you have an idea of how you want things to work, without understanding the limitations of it or willing to listen to people telling you why is a bad idea.
Good luck with it, it's going to be painful.
 
Double NAT must likely. But as your not willing to listen to the advice given, what's the point? You're trying to do something that doesn't make sense and that'll give you a bunch of extra headache for no reason, just because you have an idea of how you want things to work, without understanding the limitations of it or willing to listen to people telling you why is a bad idea.
Good luck with it, it's going to be painful.
sorry man, its not that i am willing to listen to your advise. in fact i posted in this forum as i dont have much networking knowledge and wanted your help help to figure out the way to set it up.

i jus wanted to try it the way i was imagining it and wanted to see it myself where it fails and what works and what does not.

so, to do it double NAT what else do I need? Do i need to buy a managed switch?

thanks
 
You don't want double NAT, it's what's likely to be causing your issues right now. It's what happens when you have multiple routers on the same network.

No need for a managed switch unless you need some kind of VLAN setup.
 
no worries.

i have decided to get a 2nd port installed in my middle living room but I will still get a TP-Link TL-SG108E and try to configure vlan for learning purpose.

thanks for your time all.
 

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