2 Wireless Routers Running off the same Modem?

I've done this.

1) connect LAN port on "primary" to one of the LAN ports on "secondary."

2) Turn off DHCP and NAT on the secondary

3) "Primary" will have a LAN address. Maybe 192.168.0.1. Give "secondary" a _fixed_ LAN address of, perhaps, 192.168.0.xxx where xxx is outside of the range of the DHCP supplied LAN addresses by "Primary."

I think this is everything, and it worked for me. "Primary" was a d-link wireless router connected to a cable modem, and "secondary" was a netgear connected to the d-link.

Thanks, Tony:

It's the primary router, connected directly to the modem (a Netgear

624 WGT). The secondary router (Linksys BEFW11S4)I had connected to the Netgear: Netgear LAN port to Linksys WAN port.

How will the WPA capable access point allow me to use WPA for Tivo, since the Tivo software doesn't accomodate WPA encryption?

Doug, I'll give this a go. Thanks so much!

That isn't quite true. The traffic between the WPA router and the laptop would be encrypted, so harder to spy on.

Since WEP is easy to break, they could still probably spy on the traffic between the WEP router and the TIVO, and possibly attach to the first router eventually.

I would use MAC address filtering on the first router if I was concerned about this, so that they would at least need to spoof the MAC id of the TIVO to attach to the first router.

I'm open to other options. How would the net effect be the same? Wouldn't the WPA encrypted information over SSID (A) be secure and only the WEP encrypted Tivo data on SSID (B) be at risk? Is there some other option available to me, considering that Tivo software doesn't provide for WPA, yet? Maybe I misunderstand basic wireless networking.

But it seems this would not accomplish what you want. Adding another router running only WEP just for the tivo would create another much less secure wireless network and have the same net effect of just using WEP on the first router.

What is this "primary"? If it's a plain modem with no NAT or routing ability then this won't work. The way to do this in that situation would be to get a plain WPA-capable Access Point (non-routing wireless) and attach that to another of the LAN ports of the working Netgear router.

Tony

Doug, two more questions.

1. Will my Linksys USB adapter connected to Tivo get its IP address from the Linksys (secondary) router?

1. Will changing the Fixed LAN Address of the secondary router from its default of 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.0.xxx affect the ability of the router to assign an IP address to the adapter and to access the router's menu, which by default is through http://192.168.1.1? Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Mark. Can you help me understand how the USB adapter attached to Tivo will get its IP address? Will it be from Router 1 or Router 2?

Thanks.

It's really the data to and from my computers that I'm interested in having WPA encrypted. So, let me ask this: am I just wasting my time with this idea?

just connect some ethernet cable between a LAN socket on router 1 and a lan socket on router 2, and disable the DHCP server in one of the two. Then assign that router a fixed IP in the right range, and all will work.

Hackers wold just connect to the WEP-only router, and totally bypass your WPA security.

Moving the WEP-only router to the outside of a firewall device would help slightly. However basically if you have a WEP-only device anywhere on the network, its weaker than WPA.

Alternatively you could put the TIVO and WEP-only router inside a shielded cabinet of some sort, to prevent radio leaking out far enough for anyone to pick up the signal.

On the other hand, unless you have a high-bandwidth link, commercially sensitive data or criminal neighbours, you're probably worrying about nothing. Ask yourself who is going to bother sitting outside your house for several hours collecting enough packets to break in, just so they can browse your music collection and download a bit of pron through your 512k dsl line...

From the router with DHCP enabled.

Since you have a WEP-only unit in use too, you're wasting your time. Its rather like double-locking the front door, but leaving the side window open.

If someone really wanted to spy on your data, they'd break your WEP key, connect their own hardware to your network, and use a sniffer that captured every single packet passing through your routers. Bear in mind WPA and WEP only apply to the in-air leg of the journey.

Got it. BTW, I followed this recommendation and the set up worked first time, no glitches at all. Thanks to everyone who responded and helped.