How to use second wireless Belkin router as a receiver?

Go to Belkin website and ask their tech support IF it can be done?

Netgear routers actually have a button switch to disable wifi.

Wireless routers generally transmit and allow others to connect to them, but do not support the notion of being able to connect to a wireless network. It might be possible, but as LouB posted you will have to ask their technical support. I suspect you'll be out of luck.

I believe the feature you're looking for is Wireless Client or more correctly Wireless Client Bridge. Some Belkin routers include the feature while others don't, so you'll have to log into the router and look around. If the feature is missing, and if your router can handle

: The other is an older G router. Model: F5D7230-4

Although I have NO experience using Belkin Routers, I have done what you are requesting with Linksys WRT54GL Routers using DD-WRT's Third Party Firmware!!! Although the Belkin F5D7230-4 Router is listed within DD-WRT's Router Database, whether your G-Unit will be supported depends upon its Revision:

Although DD-WRT's "Client Bridge" Mode is "Attractive" since it would place your "Extended" LAN on the same Subnet as the your "Main" LAN, with my WRT54GL Unit DD-WRT's "Client" Mode works "Best"!!! If your G-Unit is supported and you are going ahead with DD-WRT then I suggest their WiKi a good source of Information:

Lawrence Houston -- ( snipped-for-privacy@greenfield.dyndns.org)

It would appear that your router can be configured as an a bridge. Docs here for a Wireless Distribution System.

WEP security level only.

I haven't confirmed this, but, I doubt the factory firmware will support this. Given that your router (the older one, that you want to act as a client) is supported by DD-WRT, I would agree with the suggestion of first upgrading your router to the DD-WRT as well. Just be sure to confirm that your version (not just model number) is compatible, and you load the firmware they recommend for that model AND version number (I don't believe you specified the version of the older Belkin).

I have done what you are trying to do with my Linksys WRT54GS and WRT300-N. It doesn't matter which firmware your AP is running, but, you need a firmware that supports putting your router into a client mode. I personally run the DD-WRT on both because it's just so much better than what comes out of the box.

There are other open source firmwares that I believe support this (such as Tomato or open-wrt), but, I am not familiar with them.

I was originally going to second Lawrence's suggestion, based on my own experience with DD-WRT. I use DD-WRT on two routers, which are connected as a repeater bridge (where the users connect wirelessly to the second unit). It has worked just fine for me for over a year, and I am not a computer professional. (You do have to be careful about which versions of DD-WRT to install; go to the DD-WRT forum to find out, and do not rely on the database.) The security level on my bridge is WPA2 Personal, which is quite strong.

However, I checked the DD-WRT database of supported units, and while Belkin units are supported, the database has a warning for all Belkin units:

WARNING: Always use TFTP to flash Belkin routers if at all possible! Upgrading dd-wrt from the web interface can lead to a bricked (nonfunctional) unit!

If that message means nothing to you, you should probably stick to the WDS instructions provided by Belkin, unless you need better security than WEP.

HTH

Neil

Unless it can be configured as a wireless bridge, it can't. There is an alternative though. You configure one of your computers to connect to the existing wireless network. Then share the connection in the computer to your wired NIC, and put it in the wired switch and connect the other computers to it. You typically need to assign fixed IP addresses to the other computers. Your shared NIC port will be by default 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0. So they will need to be on that network, with the 192.168.0.1 as the gateway.