How To Connect Two Routers Properly [Complete Guide]

All of us had faced a certain time in our lives when we had to change our position solely because of a poor Wi-Fi signal or when we needed to exclude a device from accessing the files and data of the rest connected to the same network. Worry not; these are easily managed by connecting two routers. It’s easy, fast, and we’ve got a nice detailed guide right here.

How to Connect Two Routers Together

You can use two methods to connect Routers successfully. The processes might seem lengthy, but if you’re familiar with setting up a Wi-Fi Router, you wouldn’t need to worry. However, the thing to note here is there are again two approaches to the Ethernet Cable method. The first one, LAN to LAN Method, would let you extend your network, including your Routers. It also helps in sharing files between the devices connected to the network.

LAN to WAN Method, on the other hand, creates another smaller network using the other router inside the network of the main router. Thus, it helps restrict data flow and files between the devices connected to the respective networks.

Now that you know about the different approaches and which one is the best for you let us proceed with the actual process.

Note: Consider selecting your latest and more advanced router as the main router, as we’ll begin to set it up first. You’ll need an Ethernet Cable either temporarily or permanently, and possibly an Ethernet to USB adapter if your PC does not have an Ethernet Port, which you can find here.

Connecting Routers Using the Wireless Bridge Option

As you have already guessed, this process uses one of the Wireless features of your router. If your router doesn’t seem to have a wireless Bridge feature (also called the repeater feature), you would not be able to perform this process. However, you can check if your router has this feature by going into the Internet configuration page of your router and looking for Wireless or Network Mode.

If your router does not happen to support this feature, do not worry. You can jump to our Ethernet Cable method explained later on.

Steps to Set-up Main Router:

1.Connect your Modem to your router and plug in the router to your Computer’s Ethernet Cable.

2. Login using the router’s IP address and set it up for the internet connection.

Steps to Set-up Secondary Router:

1. Connect your Secondary router to your Ethernet Cable.
2. Login using the router’s IP address.
3. Find a Wireless or Internet configuration page.
4. Locate Network or Wireless Mode and change it to ‘Bridged.’
5. Ensure that the IP address of the secondary router is in the DHCP range of the main router.
6. Ensure that the ‘Subnet Mask’ for both routers are identical.
7. Choose an SSID for your Secondary router which does not match with the SSID of the main router.
8. Make sure both routers have the same security as well as password enabled.
9. Place the configured Secondary router where you need to repeat the signal.

Connecting Routers Using the Ethernet Cable

• LAN to LAN Method:

Steps to Set-up Main Router:

1. Connect your Modem to your router and plug in the router to your Computer Ethernet Cable.
2. Login using the router’s IP address and set it up for the internet connection.

Steps to Set-up Secondary Router:

1. Connect your Secondary Router to your Computer’s Ethernet Cable.
2. Login using the router’s IP address.
3. Change the router’s IP address to match with the main router’s, and then increase the second last digit by one. (e.g. 192.168.1.5 changes to 192.168.2.5)
4. Ensure that the ‘Subnet Mask’ for both routers is identical.
5. If the option ‘UPnP’ is available in the secondary router, consider turning it off.
6. Disable DHCP service on the secondary router.
7. Additionally, you can also change the channel settings so that the channels of both routers are far enough not to interfere with each other. Also, learn this here now for easy setting up these connections easily. 
8. Plugin the Ethernet Cable into the LAN port of the main router and the other end into the LAN port of the secondary router.
9. Place the configured routers as required.

• LAN to WAN Method:

Most of the steps would be the same as LAN to LAN setup, with only minor differences here and there.

Steps to Set-up Main Router:

1.Connect your Modem to your router and plug in the router to your Ethernet Cable.

2. login using the IP address of the router.

3.Change DHCP settings so that it provides addresses between 192.168.1.2 and 192.268.1.50.

Steps to Set-up Secondary Router:

1.Connect your Secondary Router to your Computer’s Ethernet Cable.

2. login using the router’s IP address.

3.Change the router’s IP address to match with the main router’s and then increase the second last digit by one. (e.g. 192.168.1.5 changes to 192.168.2.5)

4.Change the secondary router’s WAN IP address to 192.268.1.51.

5. Ensure that the ‘Subnet Mask’ for both routers is identical.

6.If the option ‘UPnP’ is available in the secondary router, consider turning it off.

7.Change DHCP settings so that it provides addresses between 192.168.2.2 and 192.268.2.50.

8.Additionally, you can also change the channel settings for the least interference by choosing the most distant channels for the main and secondary router.

9.Plugin the Ethernet Cable into the LAN port of the main router and the other end into the WAN (internet) port of the secondary router.

10. Place the configured routers as required.

That’s it! With just a few simple steps and a few minutes of your time, you have gotten yourself a properly functioning connected Wi-Fi Routers!