How to Connect Two Routers on One Home Network
One of the most popular reasons for using two routers is to allow additional computers to access the internet. You may have two hard wire routers simply to double the number of available ports in order to connect additional computers. Or, you may have two wireless routers bouncing signals across a greater distance. You can also have one wireless and one hard wire router,
1). The two routers do not need to be identical models or brands. Decide which router will be your primary, which we will call Router A. Hook up Router A, as usual. We will not go into the full details here, but you will need to connect the WAN port with a cable to the modem.
2). After following the usual steps for hooking up Router A, connect the computer(s) that will be using Router A to the LAN port(s) using regular network cables.
3). Configure the home network. This is where you can configure both wireless and hard wire settings. When you are finished, test the computer(s) to make sure you are able to access the internet.
4). Now that everything works normally, then we will complicate matters by adding a second router. Connect a regular network cable to one of the LAN ports on Router A. Plug in the other end of the cable to one of the LAN ports on Router B.
5). Hook up the computer(s) that will be using Router B to the LAN port(s) using regular network cables.
6). You should now have internet access on all computers on the network. If each router has 4 ports and they are pigtailed with a LAN cable, then now 8 computers could be included on the home network. Well, actually only 6 because two of the ports are used up with the pigtail between the two routers. If one or both routers is wireless then you could connect even more computers.
