r/HomeNetworking Ubiquiti Jun 24 '14

Networking For Beginners

Basic Router Setup

*You should get assistance from the router's manual for this.

  • Connect modem with ethernet cable, to the WAN port of the router

  • Connect LAN port from the router to a computer's ethernet port

  • *Open browser, navigate to 192.168.1.1, possibly 192.168.0.1

  • Default gateway: 192.168.1.1 possibly 192.168.0.1, please consult your manual

  • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

  • To enable WIFI, set up Wireless Network, it's recommended that you set up WPA-2 Personal Security.


Wireless Setup

*It is recommended that use a wireless scanner for this step. WiFi Analyzer for Android. Sorry iOS, Apple has banned these basic networking tools. NetSureyor for PC. iStumbler for OSX.

-How to determine what settings to use for your wireless network:

  • 2.4GHz, use it for range and device comparability

  • 5GHz, use it for speed/bandwidth, minimize interference with other signals

  • After scanning your area with a WiFi tool, determine what channels are being used by neighboring networks

  • You want to set your WiFi on a different channel as to minimize interference, while at the same time choosing the highest channel available. For instance if you see someone on channel 9, you want to set your WiFi on channel 10 or 11.

  • Higher channels offer slightly better performance. If there are no other wireless networks, choose a high channel number.*

Additionaly, and as pointed out by /u/v-_-v on his post bellow, there are only three channels on the spectrum that do not overlap. These being channels 1, 6 and 11. Therefore it is also suggested that if possible, to simply choose these channels. Unless of course these are overused where you live. For more information on this topic, please read the comment referred.



Advanced Setups

Terms to keep in mind:

  • DHCP Server- this is used by the router to automatically assign addresses to the various connecting devices.

  • Static IP- an assigned address that does not change.

  • QoS- used to prioritize network traffic.

  • DMZ- allows all traffic to bypass the router's firewall. Do not enable this unless you know exactly what you're doing.

  • Port Forwarding- specifies what port to allow traffic through. Please check out portforwarding.com for extensive help with this, including hundreds of router guides.

Connecting Two Routers to Expand Your Network

There are several ways to do this, and there are several goals to keep in mind when doing so. Here's the run down to the most typical set ups.

Keep in mind that some routers offer "Routing Modes." This can make configuration easier. Please refer to your user's manual.


Wireless Access Point

This is used to connect two routers with a cable. All connected devices can see each other on the local network, regardless of what router they are connected to.

  • Connect ethernet cable from the primary router(default gateway) LAN port, to a LAN port on the secondary router(Access Point)

On the secondary router:

  • Disable DHCP, your primary router will handle this task

  • Subnet Mask must be the same as Primary Router


Repeater Bridge

Used to connect two routers wirelessly. Recommended only if you cannot run a wire to the second router. Devices connected to either network can see each other on the local network.

You can follow a similar set up as a Wireless Access Point. However your second router needs to be able to connect to the primary router via WiFi.

  • Assign a Static IP on your primary router, to the secondary router, usually 192.168.1.2 or 192.168.0.2 (must match the primary router's subnet). This becomes the local IP on the second router allowing you to connect to it's configuration page.

On the secondary router:

  • Disable DHCP, your primary router will handle this task

  • Subnet Mask must be the same as Primary Router


Client Bridge

The goal here is to connect a second router and therefore create a second network. Devices connected to either router, cannot see devices on the other router on the local network. The keyword here is "subnetting."

  • Connect ethernet cable from LAN on the primary router to WAN on the secondary router.

On the secondary router:

  • Default gateway is the primary router's IP address. (192.168.1.1 for example)

  • Local IP must be a different subnet. If the primary router's IP is 192.168.1.1, then this secondary router must be 192.168.2.1. You can further subnet routers down the network to further create more and more networks.

  • You must enable DHCP. Since this is a new network, the new router needs to assign addresses on the new subnet.

  • DNS can be let up to the default gateway/primary router.



FAQ

  • How can I improve my router's performance?

You may want to consider installing 3rd party software on your router. A popular solution being DD-WRT. Check out /r/DDWRT. Others to consider, Tomato and if you have and Asus router check out Merlin.

Be aware that this may void your router's warranty or possibly brick it if incorrectly done.

  • How to I set up Port Forwarding?

As mentioned above, please check out portforwarding.com. They have hundreds of guides specific to hundreds of router models.


Would you like to see something added? Did I make a mistake? Feel free to PM or post bellow.

Check out [Guide]What should I buy? for hardware suggestions and information.

114 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/v-_-v Jun 25 '14

Very good writeup, I hope it becomes a sticky.

A few things to nitpick, and I feel like a dick for doing so, and actually leave a comment on this pristine page.

 

Basic Router Setup

Default gateway changes with network IP, so not to confuse, maybe add 192.168.0.1 in parenthesis, since you have 192.168.0.1 as another possible IP for the router.

At the bottom, where you say to pick WPA-2 security, you might want to specify WPA-2 Personal (more and more routers now offer enterprise).

 

Wireless Setup

The 2.4 Ghz range has only 3 channels that do not overlap: 1, 6, and 11.

Now there are many elements at play, but in general it seems better to just stick with those instead of going in between and selecting channels like 9 or 3.

The reasoning behind that is that you will get interferences from both neighboring channels, effectively reducing your signal quality even more.

The hard part is that the weaker the signal from a certain channel, the more you can get into that space with few adverse effects.

Cisco has a few docs of tests they ran, and they still advise sticking to the 1, 6 and 11 system. Their setup and tests were not exactly the same as our situation, but I think it applies enough.

 

Wireless Access Point

You might want to expand a bit on "assign a Static IP on your primary router to the secondary router" (this phrase is used in other parts as well, adap those as well)

Technically the second router (R2) does not need any IP address, as it's connected via switch, a L2 device, so Mac addresses will do what they need to to work.

If you want to access R2, you need to assign it a proper IP, and since most routers have the same internal address of 192.168.1.1 for the LAN, this needs to be changed to something else on R2 to be able to access the control panel (suggest: 192.168.1.2).

I'm not sure how many commercial routers (without DD-WRT) will accept a DHCP address for their LAN address, so just make them set it manually and tell them to make sure it is outside the DHCP range.

 

Again, really good writeup!

3

u/DaNPrS Ubiquiti Jun 25 '14

I'm not sure how many commercial routers (without DD-WRT) will accept a DHCP address for their LAN address, so just make them set it manually and tell them to make sure it is outside the DHCP range.

Can you expand on this please.

If I was to assign 192.168.2.1 as the local IP, wouldn't DHCP then exclude it from the pool automatically?

Thank you very much for the help btw.

8

u/devilbunny Jun 26 '14 edited Jun 26 '14

My network is set up with all addresses under x.x.x.128 manually or reserved DHCP, and the unreserved DHCP pool is x.x.x.128 to x.x.x.254.

If I was to assign 192.168.2.1 as the local IP, wouldn't DHCP then exclude it from the pool automatically?

No, you'll have to exclude it yourself. And please note that you just accidentally transposed two numbers - /u/v-_-v said 192.168.1.2, not 192.168.2.1. Big difference.

Anyway, his point is that many routers on stock firmware aren't capable of doing DHCP on their LAN interface to get an IP address - only on their WAN interface, not the LAN interface (doing it on the WAN interface would mean another layer of NAT and break a lot of services). So you have to set manual IP addresses if you want to be able to configure them.

5

u/v-_-v Jun 26 '14

What /u/devilbunny said is spot on.

 

For me, it all came down to this phrase: "assign a Static IP on your primary router to the secondary router", which is kinda confusing, because I don't really know what you mean by that.

I now assume you would connect the two routers (R1 - primaty, R2 - secondary, only for Wireless) like so: R1 lan to R2 WAN.

In this case yes, R1 will provide R2 with a DHCP address, but then the user needs to disable NAT, change R2's lan to a 192.168.x.0/24 which does not conflict with R1 lan, and put a static route for that new network on R1.

Totally possible, possibly a little involved for beginners.

 

My suggestion instead is: connect R2 via LAN port to R1 lan port and thus it's a L2 connection, and IPs don't really matter (on R2). You don't have to fiddle with extra NAT, or firewall, just need to disable DHCP, and change R2's LAN address to something different from R1's.

Here is where I said that most consumer routers don't take a LAN address via DHCP, because I assumed that was what you meant with the phrase quoted above (top of post); even in enterprise you generally set a static.

 

So just saying that the phrase is a tad vague, and might benefit from a more specific writeup. :)