Using Two Routers Together

[jbsmith]

I have a bit of an odd task that I need help with determining the setup. My task is that I have a Linksys WRT54G with Tomato on it and I want to use that to capture my total bandwidth usage for the house.

So my assumption is that I will need to have the WRT54G be the first device after the modem in order to capture all internet bandwidth traffic (I'm not concerned about traffic within my home).

My plan was to turn off the wireless on the WRT54G and hardwire that to my existing Cisco E4200. I will keep everything currently connected to the E4200 (hardwired and wireless) because that is a 1000BaseT whereas the WRT54G is not, so I'd like to keep my speeds to and from my NAS as high as possible.

So would my connection be as follows?

1) Internet/Modem to the WAN port on the WRT54G
2) Turn off DHCP on WRT54G (this is where I'm not sure if I need to do this)
3) Set WRT54G's IP to 192.168.1.2 (the E4200 is currently at 192.168.1.1)
4) Connect the WRT54G LAN port to an open LAN on the E4200 (or should it be connected to the WAN port)

 

[L&LD]

The WRT54G will limit your WAN/LAN and LAN/WAN connection speeds.

 

[jbsmith]

The WRT54G will limit your WAN/LAN and LAN/WAN connection speeds.

I'm not sure that it would as I live in an extremely rural area so my download speed is only 1.5mb/s.

Regardless do I have the steps outlined correctly in my original post?

 

[L&LD]

I still think your ISP may be limited by the old hardware, but it's your call.

This would be my settings with your equipment:
1) Modem to WAN Port of WRT54G
2) WRT54G DHCP ON - Set IP to 192.168.1.254
3) WRT54G LAN port to E4200 WAN port
4) Set E4200 IP to 192.168.1.1
5) Set E4200 with DHCP OFF
6) Turn off Firewall on E4200
7) Turn off NAT on E4200


With the above setup, the WRT54G will be handing out DHCP addresses to everything connected to the network and also allow you to measure the ISP bandwidth the network uses.

I still think the WRT54G will limit your ISP connection (it is not just about download speeds).

The E4200 will be switching at GB Ethernet speeds everything connected to it's ports.

The above setup should work how you want it to.

 

[jbsmith]

Thanks....outside of download speeds what/why would the WRT54G limit the network... If everything is connected to the E4200?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[L&LD]

For one,

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/77-max-simul-conn

I have filtered/selected only Cisco and Linksys for Company and G54 and N750 for Class to make the models we're interested in stand out.

Oh, and Archived products shown is enabled too.