>OK, I agree that I need to turn off DHCP on the "slave" router and give >it a different ID from the "master". But now you are suggesting that I >go from the WAN port on the wired/wireless "slave" to an "in" port on >the router. While that sounds logical, I am wondering if the electronics >on the WAN port can deal hand off to the "in" port the router? Isn't the >WAN port set up to deal with some kind of specialized connections >"handshake" from the ISP's "modem"? (I am asking this out of ignorance.)
It gets confusing because the box offers a bunch of different functions. You can connect the box in several different ways and you can enable/disable the various functions. Every router has 2 sides, usually labeled WAN and LAN, but these names are only correct if the box is connected in the simplest way. I think it best to think of WAN as "outside" and LAN as "inside." The LAN side usually has a bunch of ports and that is where you connect your "inside" network. The WAN side has just 1 port and you connect that to the "outside." That "outside" could just be the rest of your bigger LAN. In that case "inside" is a subnet your have created. A subnet is a LAN that has a different range of IP addresses than the "outside" LAN. So the function of the router is to separate networks and control what passes from one network to the other. If you turn on the box's WiFi then that gets connected to the "local" side of the router too. If you ignore the WAN port, then the box is not being used as a router. It is just being used as a hub/switch. You will have only 1 network (no subnets). And the WiFi function is getting added to that 1 network. So if you have just 1 network you must have just one DHCP server and must be sude that the box you are adding does not also do DHCP. If you connect the new box vis its WAN port you have 2 networks (the main one and the subnet the router box is creating). Then you want both routers to provide DHCP. One per network. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
