Configuring two routers, lan to lan or lan to wan?

[murderdoll]

I've recently got a fiber connection installed so now I have 2 routers, the new alcatel (192.168.1.254) optical fiber one and my old expensive tp-link (192.168.1.1) router. I want the tp-link router to be the master and use the alcatel one only to connect to fiber.

 

So I tried the following:

1. I connected both routers together via an ethernet cable on regular ethernet ports, disabled DHCP on alcatel and kept it on tp-link.
2. Configured the DHCP gateway and dns on tp-link to point to alcatel (192.168.1.254)

 

Now all devices connect to the tp-link and get internet from the alcatel router, all looks good. But my main tp-link router functionalities like bandwidth control have no effect now.

By the way, my main desktop is connected to the alcatel router directly, getting it's ip info from tp-link however. I prefer to keep my main desktop connected directly to the router that have internet (which is the alcatel).

 

What would be the proper way to hook this up, keeping in mind I want to maintain all the good functionalities that came with my tp-link router and I want all devices to see other?

Maybe I should do a lan to wan setup, but that looks like a lot of configuration? Should I use bridging?

 

Device name: G-240W-A and Vendor is Alcatel_Lucent

Pics of alcatel and connections to it http://imgur.com/a/j5CsT

[+BudMan MVC]

50 minutes ago, murderdoll said:

I want to maintain all the good functionalities that came with my tp-link router

What???  Like what exactly - your kidding right?

 

52 minutes ago, murderdoll said:

I prefer to keep my main desktop connected directly to the router that have internet

For what possible reason?

 

The proper way to hook this up if you want to use your tp-link as your router is to put your g-2450W into bridge mode and use at just a modem.  Its wifi would be OFF and it would just connect to your tp-link wan.. It just provides you with internet that is all.  Your tp-link would get a public IP.

 

If you can not put it into bridge mode.  Then you would just double nat, doing the same thing - other than you have to change the IP ranges.  You currently have your alcatel on 192.168.1/24 while you tplink is also using 192.168.1/24 -- you need to change one.. Be it the alcatel or your tplink so you have this

 

internet -- alcatel - 192.168.1.254 -- 192.168.1.1 (wan) tplink) (lan) 192.168.2.1/24 --- 192.168.2.x

 

You would then put your wan of your tplink into the dmz host of your alcatel, ie 192.168.1.1 would be dmz all ports would get sent to it.  You would then control forwarding at your tplink.  But I really have 1 question - what model of tplink do you have??  Can it even handle the bandwidth your getting from fiber?

[mbr]

Sounds like you just connected the alcatel as a device on your local network and not as an upstream router. Bandwidth controls only affect traffic going to the routed "WAN" port and not locally connected devices. Just connect the tp-link's wan to the alcatel directly and you should be good to go. Note: ensure the alcatel is not using the same subnet mask as the tp-link (192.168.1.x), otherwise routing will not work properly.

[murderdoll]

Thanks for the answers guys.

 

BudMan, the tp-link I have is Archer D5 AC1200, the interface is very user friendly and looks modern, it have bandwidth control, management control and some other features. The alcatel (from isp) router looks poor in comparison.

 

I can configure the ports on the alcatel to either 'Route Mode' or 'Bridge Mode', see this picture taken from alcatel admin page http://i.imgur.com/FFRp8uy.png

 

So according to what you guys said, I have to connect the Alcatel ethernet port to my tp-link WAN port and put both devices on different subnet masks. Do I do this with the port set to 'Router Mode' or 'Bridge Mode'? 

 

edit: alcatel is 192.168.1.254 , tp-link is 192.168.1.1. Also regarding having my desktop connected to 'alcatel', I guess it won't matter if I connect it to the tp-link router, so the only connection that the alcatel has is the LAN-WAN.

 

[xendrome]

Can you get the Alcatel put into bridge mode?

[+BudMan MVC]

If you put the alcatel in Bridge Mode!!!  Then it should just give your tp-link a public IP on its wan!!  192.168.1.1 your talking is the lan IP..  Go to the status on it and what does it show for its wan??

 

 

Your prob going to have to enable wireless router mode if you were using it as dsl modem/router before.

 

 

 

 

[Twellsy]

I suspect you want the bridge mode.  If it works how most of the other routes ive had do and bridge the WAN & LAN so whatever external IP is passed to your TP Link.  Be sure to use the WAN port on the TP link.

 

[murderdoll]

I understand what is a public address and I get what you're saying guys but bear with me.

• If I set alcatel to bridge, connect alcatel to wan of tp-link, do I still need to configure two subnet masks for the 2 devices?
• What would happen if I don't bridge the alcatel port and just connect it to the tp-link wan? Just curious.

Thanks a lot and sorry for the troubles

 

edit: it's at wireless mode now yes

[+BudMan MVC]

"do I still need to configure two subnet masks for the 2 devices?"

 

NO..  But if your going to turn your actel into bridge (modem) then its wifi would be OFF.  Even if you double nat, you would not want to use its wifi..  Looks like it only has 2.4 anyway.

 

If you don't bridge the alcatel then you need 2 different networks and you would be double natting.  This would not be the optimal setup.

[murderdoll]

Thanks for everything, I'll configure them up as soon as I'm back home and will report back. Great help.