How to set up multiple routers on a home network?

Question

I have a modem and about 5 routers to be put in different positions in my house (my house's pretty big with 4 floors and almost 200 square meters large, thus multiple routers are needed in order to provide enough wifi coverage in the entire house).

I'm about to connect all of those 5 routers to the master modem via the LAN ports. I've been told that I need to set the IP for each router to be 192.168.2.1, 192.168.3.1, 192.168.4.1,... and so on.

However, as I've never configured settings for routers before, could somebody please teach me how to do it? Please tell me all the details from A-Z on how to install routers, could anybody please help me? I'm new to this kinda stuff.

Oh and btw, when I'm dealing with router A, do I need to disconnect router B, C, D, E.. from the modem? Can I use 1 computer to configure settings for all routers?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

You only need one router, and several Access Points: such as http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DWL-2100AP-802-11g-108Mbps-Wireless/dp/B00019EYVG



You can place the APs and cable from the router using Cat-5 or over Powerline Ethernet adapters.

Answer 2

Details of the hardware please, especially the modem.



Please also explain when you need 255 IP addresses on each floor of the house?



Basically, you just plug each floor router into a port on the modem and then set up the routing table so the modem knows port is which network., i.e Port 1 is 192.168.1, Port 2 is 192.168.2, port 3 is 192.168.3 and so on.



If you do not understand all this, buy a copy of DNS & bind by O'Reilly. It will explain it beautifully.



I am actually curious about why you actually need routers as simple switches would make it a simple plug and work system.



OTOH, my 2c is that this is yet another school assignment.

Answer 3

i dont think you can connect 5 routers to 1 modem.

what you need to do is connect 1 router to the modem, and let the other 4 routers become repeaters.

unfortunately, most mid-priced routers dont have advanced enough firmware to easily 'become' a repeater. if possible, install DD-WRT firmware on all your routers, this will make life much easier.

visit http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge