OPS
Novice Member
Hi, mikevh
Firstly, let me congratulate you (and thank you) for producing such a comprehensive and yet succinct set of instructions for connecting up two routers in this way. Using just your first post, I was able to set up a system in my own home last week and it’s running perfectly.
I have one question for you, and this is not because I have any problems with my system, but just to educate me about how it all works:
I had assumed that, having switched off the DHCP on the secondary router, I would not be able to use the remaining three LAN ports on it, because devices attached to them would not be given IP addresses. However, I tried it out today, attaching a laptop to one of the ports and finding that that allowed it to have an internet connection (its Wi-Fi adapter had been switched off, so it must have been connected via ethernet). By logging onto my primary router, I was able to see that the laptop had, indeed, been given an IP address.
Having now read every post in this thread, I think I may have understood what is happening – is it basically what you say in the following quotation?
That is to say, my laptop "asked" my secondary router for an IP address, the router broadcast this request through all of its LAN ports, including that LAN port which is connected to my primary router, and so the request was received by my primary router. THE DHCP mechanism in the primary router was what was able to give my laptop an IP address. Am I understanding it correctly here?
Thanks again,
OPS
Firstly, let me congratulate you (and thank you) for producing such a comprehensive and yet succinct set of instructions for connecting up two routers in this way. Using just your first post, I was able to set up a system in my own home last week and it’s running perfectly.
I have one question for you, and this is not because I have any problems with my system, but just to educate me about how it all works:
I had assumed that, having switched off the DHCP on the secondary router, I would not be able to use the remaining three LAN ports on it, because devices attached to them would not be given IP addresses. However, I tried it out today, attaching a laptop to one of the ports and finding that that allowed it to have an internet connection (its Wi-Fi adapter had been switched off, so it must have been connected via ethernet). By logging onto my primary router, I was able to see that the laptop had, indeed, been given an IP address.
Having now read every post in this thread, I think I may have understood what is happening – is it basically what you say in the following quotation?
When a client device associated with either router, there's kind of a two step process. First, the "wi-fi" does it's thing and sets up up the network transport. Some people liken this to "plugging in the cable" in a physical switch. Once the network transport is up, the DHCP process in the client can start. It'll send out a "can I have an IP address" request (incidentally, addressed to all stations on the network - it's a broadcast,) which router 2 will fire out of all it's ethenet ports (like any other broadcast) including the one connected to router 1. On receipt of this, router 1's DHCP Server should answer and the replies head back by the reciprocal path. (It's a tad more complex than this, but not much.)
That is to say, my laptop "asked" my secondary router for an IP address, the router broadcast this request through all of its LAN ports, including that LAN port which is connected to my primary router, and so the request was received by my primary router. THE DHCP mechanism in the primary router was what was able to give my laptop an IP address. Am I understanding it correctly here?
Thanks again,
OPS