SOURCE: http://www.tomshardware.

com/forum/33700-42-ultimate-modem-router-setup-thread

***The Ultimate Modem/Router Setup Thread***

This thread will outline the following:

- How to Cascade your Router (Run 2 Routers in the same subnet)

- How to run a Triple Router Y-Configuration (2 Routers connected to a Master Router and have the subnets
separated by their WAN ports)

- Chain two networks together in a Cascading fashion (Bridging LAN to WAN)

Including:

-PPPoE setup from Router and using Modem to establish

connection to ISP

-PPPoA setup on Modem and Bridging to WAN port of Router

Important facts:

- I will be referring to the subnet as being 192.168.1.1. If your subnet is otherwise, simply adapt your IP address to
my instructions
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CASCADING A ROUTER (Same subnet)

Have you ever wondered how you could use an old router to extend your networks capablities? Why let such a
useful peice of equipment go to waste?

This section will show you how to have a second router connected to your network (LAN to LAN) and utilize the
LAN and Wireless functions of the router to extend your networks capabilities.

Second Router (Slave Router)

The process starts on your Second Router first.

Firstly, connect your computers LAN port Directly to any of the LAN ports on your router (2nd Router) via an
ethernet cable.

Firstly start by loading up your configuration page of your router.

To do this, look on the bottom of your router, and there should be a default gateway and a Username and
Password. Enter the default gateway into your internet browser and use the credentials on the bottom of your
router.
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If there is no information on the bottom of your router, do the following:
1 - Press Windows Key + R at the same time
2 - Type "cmd" without the quotes and click Run
3 - Type "ipconfig" once cmd is open
4 - Note down the IP address under Default Gateway

Type the IP address you noted down in your Internet Browser

It may ask you for a Username and Password

For a Netgear:
Username = admin
Password = password

For a Linksys:
Username = admin
Password = admin

To properly find the correct Username and Password for your router, visit http://portforward.com and find
Username and Password that corresponds to your router model
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Once the configuration page is open, the first step is to set the routers DNS server to the IP address of your first
router (Master), in this case my first router has an IP address of 192.168.1.1, so set your primary and secondary
DNS to 192.168.1.1 (or whatever applies to your setup, may be 192.168.0.1)

The next step is to change the IP address of your Slave router to one increment higher than your first
router(Master),
e.g Master Router = 192.168.1.1, so Slave Router = 192.168.1.2

All you really need to do is turn DHCP off, as your master router will assign the IP addresses (hence the "Slave"
term)

Once complete, disconnect the Ethernet cable between your Slave router, and connect your PC straight to the
Master router (This should be the first time you connected to your master router in this whole process)

First Router (Master) (192.168.1.1)

Access the configuration page, similarly to the way in which done previously.

Change the DHCP range of the router(Master) from 192.168.1.2-254, to 192.169.1.3-254, so the address range is
one increment above the Slave routers IP address.

So this means that the Slave router is not in the master routers DHCP address range.

Now finally, run a LAN cable directly from a LAN port of the Slave router to the LAN port of the Master router.

All done

____________________________________________________________________________________
RUNNING A TRIPLE ROUTER Y-CONFIGURATION (Devices on each network separated by their WAN ports)

This setup is by far my favourite. It works by having a Master Modem/Router (192.168.1.1) connected to the
Internet, and having two Slave Routers cascaded off it LAN to WAN, and the separation of users occurs because of
the Firewall between the two Router's WAN ports.
I know many people have asked, how do you create two Networks with separate subnets, so Wireless users are
separated from HardWired users. This is handy when your in a Business or School environment, and you would
like to prevent temporary users from reaking havoc on your network.

Firstly connect an Ethernet cable from each Slave routers WAN ports to a LAN port of th Master router.

Master Router

Step 1 Setup up your Username and Password for PPPoA/E on your Master Router
Step 2 Assign a static IP address to Slave 1 (Slave Router 1), in this case assign it the static IP of 192.168.1.2
Step 3 Assign a static IP address to Slave 2 (Slave Router 2) of 192.168.1.3
Step 4 Turn wireless off
Step 5 Turn DHCP off

Slave 1

Step 1 Set the router subnet to 192.168.2.x

Step 2 Set the DNS to the IP of the Master Router (192.168.1.1)
Step 1 Make sure DHCP is enabled

Slave 2

Step 1 Set the router subnet to 192.168.3.x

Step 2 Set the DNS to the IP of the Master Router (192.168.1.1)
Step 3 Make sure DHCP is enabled

That's it!!!
Now the devices on each routers subnets are separated by their dedicated WAN ports!!!

___________________________________________________________________________________

CHAINING TWO NETWORKS TOGETHER IN A CASCADING FASHION (Modem handles PPPoA)

There are many, many ways to accomplish this setup, but I will first outline the way I have personally done it. This
setup will work if your Router does not support PPPoA, but will work using PPPoE aswell. The ISP sign-on is left for
the modem, and then cascaded or bridged LAN to WAN, to the router

Now with my setup, 192.168.1.1 is my Router subnet, and 192.168.2.1 is my Modem's subnet.
The devices I used in my setup were the Netgear DG834G(Turned into Modem only) and Linksys E3000(Router),
but I'm sure you can adapt this setup to your router quite easily.
This process can be difficult, but I will try and explain as clearly as possible.

The Router handles the following:

DHCP IP handouts
Port Forwarding
NAT Firewall
DMZ
Wireless and Such
Basic router functions

The Modem will handle the following

PPPoA sign-on
Complete connection to ISP
DNS servers
DMZ and Completely Opened Firewall

Modem Configuration

Your old Modem/Router is going to act as a DUMB modem.

Step 1: Firstly connect an Ethernet cable directly from your Router's (E3000) WAN port to a LAN port on the
Modem (DG834G)
Step 2: Connect an Ethernet cable from the Modem to your pc.
Step 3: Open up the configuration page of your Modem/Router (Netgear)
Step 4: Change the subnet to 192.168.1.1, you will then have to browse to 192.168.1.1 to load up the
configuration page again, if you indeed had to actually change the subnet.
Step 5: Go to LAN IP setup(Applies to a Netgear device) or otherwise called Static DHCP, where you can assign a
static IP to an attached device
Step 6: Next, because the Router(E3000) is connected to the modem, set a Static IP for the E3000's WAN port to
something in the Modems DHCP address range e.g 192.168.1.2
Step 7: Next turn wireless off
Step 8: Setup DNS servers if you feel like it
Step 9: Turn your firewall and NAT off
Step 10: DMZ to your Router IP (10.2.2.3) (Just for the sake of it)
Step 11: Make sure all your ISP details are entered for PPPoA and such, meaning the Username and Password
your ISP gave to you.
Step 12: Turn DHCP off

Thats the steps complete for configuring your Modem, after this point, you cannot connect a device directly to the
modem unless you force an IP to be assigned, as DHCP is off.

Disconnect all ethernet cables, and run one Ethernet cable from your PC straight to a LAN port of the
Router(E3000)

Router Configuration (E3000)

The router is going to handle DHCP, Firewall and NAT and router functions, here are the steps:

Step 1: Open the E3000 configuration page

Step 2: Make sure DHCP is on
Step 3: Change the routers subnet to 192.168.2.1, then re-access the configuration page at 192.168.2.1.
Step 4: Set the DHCP range to 192.168.2.2 to 192.168.2.254
Step 5: Set the Primary and Secondary DNS to the IP of your Modem (In this case, 192.168.1.1)

Thats pretty much it for the configuration of the Router, so run an Ethernet cable from your Routers WAN port to
a LAN port on your modem (Netgear)

Restart your Router and Modem, and check to see if everything works
___________________________________________________________________________________________

CHAINING TWO NETWORKS TOGETHER IN A CASCADING FASHION (PPPoE configuration from the Router (E3000))

This process, is almost exactly the same as the instructions covered in the section just before this.

The only difference is that you can setup your PPPoE configuration from your Router (E3000) and use your
modem to make the connection. This process will comes in handy when your ISP actually natively supports PPPoE,
because some ISP's don't. If your ISP does support PPPoE, I would definitely go with this setup over the above
one. You could essentially use PPPoA on your Router, but because there are limited Routers that support this
function, I had to make the section above.

Here are the instructions, very similar to the above section.

Modem Configuration

Your old Modem/Router is going to act as a DUMB modem.

Step 1: Firstly connect an Ethernet cable directly from your Router's (E3000) WAN port to a LAN port on the
Modem (DG834G)
Step 2: Connect an Ethernet cable from the Modem to your pc.
Step 3: Open up the configuration page of your Modem/Router (Netgear)
Step 4: Change the subnet to 192.168.1.1, you will then have to browse to 192.168.1.1 to load up the
configuration page again, that's if you had to actually change the subnet.
Step 5: Make sure the DHCP range is set to 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254
Step 6: Go to LAN IP setup(Applies to a Netgear device) or otherwise called Static DHCP, where you can assign a
static IP to an attached device
Step 7: Next, because the Router(E3000) is connected to the modem, set a Static IP for the E3000's WAN port to
something in the Modems DHCP address range e.g 192.168.1.2
Step 8: Next turn wireless off
Step 9: Setup DNS servers if you feel like it
Step 10: Turn your firewall and NAT off
Step 11: DMZ to your Router IP (192.168.1.2)
Step 12: Make sure all your ISP details are entered for PPPoA and such, meaning the Username and Password
your ISP gave to you.
Step 12: Make sure you wipe out all the information in the Basic Settings section (In the Basic Settings section for
a Netgear) that contains your Username and Password for your ISP TCP/IP configuration, as your Router will be
handling the TCP/IP configuration
Step 13: Turn DHCP off

Thats the steps complete for configuring your Modem, after this point, you cannot connect a device directly to the
modem unless you force an IP to be assigned, as DHCP is off.
Disconnect all ethernet cables, and run one Ethernet cable from your PC straight to a LAN port of the
Router(E3000)

Router Configuration (E3000)

The router is going to handle DHCP, Firewall and NAT and router functions, here are the steps:

Step 1: Open the E3000 configuration page

Step 2: Make sure DHCP is on
Step 3: Change the routers subnet to 192.168.2.1, then re-access the configuration page at 192.168.2.1.
Step 4: Set the DHCP range to 192.168.2.2 to 192.168.2.254
Step 5: Set the Primary and Secondary DNS to the IP of your Modem (In this case, 192.168.1.1)
Step 6: Configure your TCP/IP configuration for your Username and Password (PPPoE Username and Password)

Thats pretty much it for the configuration of the Router, so run an Ethernet cable from your Routers WAN port to
a LAN port on your modem (Netgear)

Your PPPoE setup from your Router is now complete!!!!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

There is a slightly alternative way to do this (Only works if your ISP supports PPPoE)

Put your Modem (Netgear) into Full Bridge Mode or Modem only mode

For Netgear:

http://DefaultGateway/setup.cgi?next_file=mode.htm

Where for DefaultGateway you put the Default Gateway for your Netgear router in there, which is the same IP
address you use to access its configuration page

Step 1: Choose from the drop down menu the option "Modem Only"
Step 2: Let it do its thing, and then restart the modem. (Do not try and access its configuration page as I believe it
deactivates Modem only mode)
Step 3: Once the Netgear has restart, connect a LAN cable from one of the Netgears LAN ports straight to the
WAN port of your router
Step 4: Setup your TCP/IP information (PPPoE) on your Router
Step 5: Setup your DNS servers
Step 6: Setup the Router almost as if it has its own built-in Modem

That's pretty much it for that alternative. I would definitely say that this process is much easier to follow and
perform, but the other process gives you more control over how you want it setup