Can I have 2 wireless routers on one BT phone line?

I don't really know enough about this, but this is what I want to do:

1. Connect my Mac in my study to an existing BT Voyager wireless router
via ethernet cable.

2. Put my new BT wireless hub in another part of my house to give
wireless access to my living room.

At the moment when I switch both routers on then I lose my internet
connection.

If I just use the router in my study then the wireless signal doesn't
reach the living room as I have an old house with thick walls.

If I swapped the study wireless router for a normal router would that
work?
Would switching the routers to different channels work?
I don't want to physically connect the routers as they need to be in
different parts of the house to work.
Or would I be better off getting a booster of some sort?

If anyone can help me I'd really appreciate it - if you need more info
then please ask.

Thanks

On 23 Dec 2006 10:58:08 -0800, "Roger" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>If anyone can help me I'd really appreciate it

you can only have one ADSL modem device on the line at one time (ie
only one plugged in).

If you need more range than the wireless provides consider external
antennae, ethernet over mains devices (Devolo homeplug), HomePNA
devices over the phone line or WDS wireless repeaters.

Phil

> I don't really know enough about this, but this is what I want to do:
>
> 1. Connect my Mac in my study to an existing BT Voyager wireless
> router via ethernet cable.
>
> 2. Put my new BT wireless hub in another part of my house to give
> wireless access to my living room.
>
> At the moment when I switch both routers on then I lose my internet
> connection.
>
> If I just use the router in my study then the wireless signal doesn't
> reach the living room as I have an old house with thick walls.
>
> If I swapped the study wireless router for a normal router would that
> work?
> Would switching the routers to different channels work?
> I don't want to physically connect the routers as they need to be in
> different parts of the house to work.
> Or would I be better off getting a booster of some sort?
>
> If anyone can help me I'd really appreciate it - if you need more info
> then please ask.

You can only have on ADSL modem on a line. If you disconnect one from the
phone line then you should be able to configure the two to work with each
other.

Peter Crosland

Thank you - both of you - very clear.

I will look into the repeaters.

You say that if I disconnect one from the phone then I can connect the
two together - does this mean that the disconnected one would act as a
repeater? Could you point me at something that will help me set this
up?

Thanks again.

Roger wrote:
> I don't really know enough about this, but this is what I want to
> do:
>
> 1. Connect my Mac in my study to an existing BT Voyager wireless
> router via ethernet cable.
>
> 2. Put my new BT wireless hub in another part of my house to give
> wireless access to my living room.
>
> At the moment when I switch both routers on then I lose my internet
> connection.
>
> If I just use the router in my study then the wireless signal
> doesn't
> reach the living room as I have an old house with thick walls.
>
> If I swapped the study wireless router for a normal router would
> that
> work?
> Would switching the routers to different channels work?
> I don't want to physically connect the routers as they need to be in
> different parts of the house to work.
> Or would I be better off getting a booster of some sort?
>
> If anyone can help me I'd really appreciate it - if you need more
> info
> then please ask.
>
> Thanks

Why struggle with wireless at all when you can easily network over
your ring main?

You can only have one (working or otherwise) adsl modem/router
attached to the line & why go to the expense of buying 2 routers when
a wireless access point would take the place of one of them.

You need to think things out a little clearer & do some more research,
before wasting more time & money....

thanks - for the record both routers were free.

"Roger" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ps.com...
>I don't really know enough about this, but this is what I want to do:
>
> 1. Connect my Mac in my study to an existing BT Voyager wireless router
> via ethernet cable.
>
> 2. Put my new BT wireless hub in another part of my house to give
> wireless access to my living room.
>
> At the moment when I switch both routers on then I lose my internet
> connection.
>
> If I just use the router in my study then the wireless signal doesn't
> reach the living room as I have an old house with thick walls.
>
> If I swapped the study wireless router for a normal router would that
> work?
> Would switching the routers to different channels work?
> I don't want to physically connect the routers as they need to be in
> different parts of the house to work.
> Or would I be better off getting a booster of some sort?
>
> If anyone can help me I'd really appreciate it - if you need more info
> then please ask.
>
> Thanks

As other people have said, you can only have one ADSL device connected to
your phone line.

Your options are...
Connect the routers together with a CAT5 cable, this will mean the second
router is working as a simple access point. this can be done in two ways...
1 - a long cable between the two
2 - A pair of the ethernet over mains plugs, one connected to one router and
the other to the other.

If you have two wireless access points in the same house, you need to do the
following BEFORE you connect them together...
Set the LAN IP address on both of them to be on the same network range, so
if one was 192.168.0.1 then the other needs to be 192.168.0.??? (??? can be
any value between 2 and 254)
You need to turn OFF the DHCP server on one of the routers.

I would suggest setting the second router as .2 then set the working DHCP
server's range to assign .100->.254 then you can use the .1 -> .99 for
static things. (Set the first router to .1 and the second router to .2)

Now for the wireless...

You need to set the channels of each access point to be different, and they
should not overlap ideally.

It is best to use channels 1, 6 & 11, then repeat with the routers furthest
away from each other.

You need to set the SSID the same on all access points
You need to set the encryption key the same (type and value) on all access
points

If you follow this, your laptops etc. will be able to roam between access
points automatically.

HTH

Sparks...

On 24 Dec 2006, "Sparks" <postmaster@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>As other people have said, you can only have one ADSL device connected to
>your phone line.

Don't take this personally, but I suggest substituting 'can' with 'should'
because while it is inadvisable to have two connected, it's possible that
one or other, or (of course) neither could work if two are plugged in.

Certainly, if two are connected and powered up, they won't both be 'active'
in the sense of 'establishing a connection with the exchange' but in some
tests I did recently (following up a post on a similar matter in another
newsgroup) I had one router working while the second was powered up but
unable to maintain a connection.

Roger:
> does this mean that the disconnected one would act as a repeater?

Very few wireless routers can act as repeaters, don't think either of your
BT branded ones can.
The other point is that WiFi works in simplex (one way at the time), so a
repeater ads a significant delay.

It should be possible to get the WiFi to work in both rooms in your house,
you need to experiment with placing the WiFi router, try high up in the
room, and see where the signal reaches. Using WiFi USB adaptors on a length
of cable (up to 5m) can help a lot as they can be placed where the signal
is, often 5ft off the floor (no furniture, people etc. in the way).
I find D-Link G122 USB adapters work well, and as they have a cradle /stand
it's easy to put simple aluminium foil reflector behind them which can make
a huge difference.
Finally some WiFi routers are better then others, don't know about BT ones,
but in my experience Draytek Vigor ones beats any other consumer WiFi
router, it's office class kit so not cheap, but you can get second hand
ones on Ebay. They are dead reliable, so that how I got both of mine.
Regards,
Martin

In message <458de7f7$0$8726$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Martin² <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>in my experience Draytek Vigor ones beats any other consumer WiFi
>router

my one complaint about my Draytek 2800G is that I can't use Firefox to
configure it (unless I also use IEtab). Even with the latest firmware,
whenever I attempt to change any settings the display pane shows a
pattern of vertical lines and the setting remains unchanged.

--
dave @ stejonda