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router to router connectivity

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by jmcgeach

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Have 2 ADSL routers with 2 internet connections each with their own home networks setup and working fine. Want to share files between 2 networks without disabling the properties of either one. There is provision for both wireless and hard wire connections. Looked at VPN but don't think this is the answer. Any comments.

All machines running Windows XP Pro

6 replies

by dmachovec

If I read your question correctly, you have two separate Internet connections in one household. The networks are likely running under the same IP Address scheme as most manufactures use the same IP addresses on all their routers. (i.e. 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x)

In order to make this work in your home environment, you are going to have to perform some configuring, and purchase a switch. For starters, you will need to change the IP Address scheme used by one of the routers so they are no longer the same. You can use the example above to make them dissimilar. (set one to 192.168.0.x and the other to 192.168.1.x) You can maintain DHCP on the routers to automatically hand out IP addresses to your clients in each network.

Now the part that will cost you a little $$$. You will need to purchase a network switch and 2 cross-over cables. Connect each router to the switch by those cross-over cables. (choose ports 2 & 3, not port 1). This will allow the 2 networks to see each other locally.

You should now be able to share folders and access the shares in the following manner.

1. Share your folder (i.e. share as example)
2. Find out the IP address of the PC you shared it on (i.e. 192.168.1.101).
3. From the computer you want to access the files from click START --> RUN and type the following:

\\192.168.1.101\example\ and click OK.

You will need to use the IP addresses instead of computer names because your network probably doesn't have a server set up to run internal DNS.

Hope this helps. Your other option will be to use software like GoToMyPC and set it up on one computer to the other, but you won't be sharing internally, you will be using your ISP to send the data out over the Internet instead of over a home network.

by jmcgeach

Will give that a try. The switch is no problem. Are crossover cables really necessary? The switch is not able to decipher which way is which? Thought crossover cables were a thing of the past.

by robo_dev

Connecting a switch between the two will not work. First, if you make the two routers have different address ranges, and connect them together via a switch, with a DHCP server on each router, there are two problems immediately:

1) Your workstations will randomly find either one DHCP server or the other. They may all connect to one router, thus negating the benefit of having two DSL connections.

2) Your workstations will be unable to communicate with each other since there is no route between the two networks, either at the workstations or in the routers. Windows network neighborhood would not work either, because there are two subnets.

The only way this might work would be to do the following:

Option A:

1) Turn off LAN DHCP in both routers.

2) Assign a common IP address range to the LAN side of both routers.

router1 192.168.0.1
router2 192.168.0.2

Connect from a LAN port of one router to a LAN port on the second router with a crossover cable. If you need more ports, plug a switch into a port.

3) Assign static IP addresses to each PC.
In each workstation assign a static IP address, with the gateway and DNS settings set to reflect what gateway you want the PC to use:

Eg: PC using router1
192.168.0.10
mask 255.255.255.0
default gateway 192.168.0.1
DNS server 192.168.0.1

PC using router2:

192.168.0.20
default gateway 192.168.0.2
DNS 192.168.0.2

OPTION B:

It may be possible to use DHCP by assigning a non-overlapping DHCP scope in each router and creating DHCP reservations for specific mac addresses, but this is somewhat tricky, and some workstations, such as Wireless PCs sometimes have problems with DHCP reservations.

you would still assign a static IP to each router LAN interface: 0.1 and 0.2 as shown above.

To do this you would have to enable one IP DHCP range (scope) in one router:

192.168.0.10 thru 19

And another range in the second router
192.168.0.20 thru 29

then create DHCP reservations for the PCs in which belong with router1 in router1

Then in router2 create DHCP reservatins for the PC mac addresses which belong to router2

easy, no?

by jmcgeach

what if

Router 1
192.168.0.1
Router 2
192.168.1.1

or do they both have to be on the same subnet?

by jmcgeach

Thanks to those who offered advice. Solved it by using wireless connections leaving hard wired behind routers alone.Works great like having 2 nics and 4 routers

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