How to Connect Multiple Routers in Your Wireless Network

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I believe you have read my previous article about cascading two routers. This is an extension of that article where I am presenting a method to connect multiple wireless routers in your network. In case if you are looking for a way to extend your home network to share a common Internet connection or for file sharing facility, this guide can help you. Here you can see adding any number of (with a limit of course) routers to an existing computer network is not a big task. For beginners connecting three or more routers may look like a difficult task but actually, it is very simple as changing the third octet of the Router's IP address. For example consider the IP address 192.168.1.5, here the 3rd octet is 1. So let us start our guide on how to connect multiple routers to share a common Internet connection.

Here I assume the network layout is 

Modem---->Router 1----Router 2--->Router 3---Router 4

and the modem IP address is 192.168.0.1

Steps to Add Router-1 in the Network

  1. Connect your Computer to Router 1 using an Ethernet Cable:


    Note: LAN Port of the Router-1 should be connected to the LAN Port of the computer using an Ethernet cable.

    How to connect three routers together

    Ethernet Port is marked on the above image.
  2. Power on the router (Computer too !!!) and wait for 30 seconds
  3. Login Router 1: To know how to find the login IP address of Router 1, please follow the steps mentioned in the link below.
    How to Find Log in IP Address of a Router
  4. Change the Router 1 IP address to 192.168.1.1

    The DHCP server should be enabled. Changing the router-1 IP address we need to save the settings.


    Configure router 1 for multi-cascading
  5. Disconnect the router 1 from your computer.

Configure Router 2 for multiple Router Cascading

  1. Login Router 2
  2. Change Router 2 IP address to 192.168.2.1

    DHCP server of Router-2 should be enabled.
    How to connect a new router in existing home network

Setup 3rd for Multiple routers cascading

  1. Login Router-3
  2. Change the IP address of Router-3 to 192.168.3.1
    Enable DHCP
    Configure the 3rd router in the network

Configure 4th Router for Multiple Router Cascading

  1. Log in Router-4
  2. Change the IP address of Router-4 to 192.168.4.1
  3. Make sure DHCP is enabled

How to Connect Multiple Routers in a Network

The points in connecting all these routers in a network are:
  1. Connect LAN port of Modem to WAN(Internet)port of 1st Router
  2. Connect the WAN Port of 2nd Router to one LAN port of the First Router using an Ethernet cable.
  3. Connect the WAN Port of 3rd Router to LAN port of the 2nd Router using an Ethernet cable
  4. Connect WAN port of 4th Router to LAN port of 3rd Router
The Connection Diagram is :

Modem(LAN)--(Internet/WAN)Router 1(LAN port)----(WAN Port)Router 2(LAN Port)-------(WAN Port)Router 3


In this guide, you have learned how to add multiple routers in a network. Stick with the same logic, you may not find difficult to configure wireless too in this network. To read my previous article about cascading two routers in various methods, click on the link below.
Router to Router Cascading -Different Methods

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Alex George is a Computer Science and Engineering graduate. He completed networking courses CCNA, CCNP, and MSCE. Now, he works as a Senior Network Engineer in a leading MNC. Webmaster Skills: Alex has been a blogger since 2004. He has a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript.

Comments

  1. Anonymous5:51 AM

    What happens if you're routers don't have the RJ45 WAN port, but only the Twisted pair ADSL WAN port? how do i connect them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex George12:59 AM

    Most of the routers have Ethernet port as the WAN port. Please make sure that you are using a Router or gateway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown11:07 AM

    this technique has helped me to connect to 2 more router can we connect any other router to cascaded 2 more router

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alex George10:38 PM

    We can cascade more than two routers. The limit of the cascade is (theoretically ) the limit of IP ranges.

    Eg:


    192.168.X.1 if you are using class C IP address. Here the maximum number of router cascade possible is X and it is 255-1 = 254

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joel3:19 PM

    Thank you for making something so complicated so simple.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5:54 AM

    could,'t connect the third router in this router configuration. Could you tell me the UP addresses for all routers and the DHCP status ?

    I can connect second router to the primary router and now waiting for the third router.

    ReplyDelete
  7. prince6:43 AM

    i want to show a wan in a demo...
    for that i have 4 routers only...suggest me how can i make my wan...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Siju George7:52 PM

    Hi Prince, You can follow the diagram below to cascade 4 routers.


    Router 1(LAN port)----(WAN Port)Router 2(LAN Port)-------(WAN Port)Router 3 (LAN Port) ---(WAN Port) Router 4

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:39 PM

    I have already wired CAT5 cables the other 3 computers originating from ADSL router 1. Without Wireless formerly all the 3 computer are connected to ADSL router (Router 1). Now to make the other 2 rooms wireless (due to ipad, ipod, etc), how do I do configure the IP and the DHCP so as not to conflict? So now the CAT5cable 1 from ADSL (router 1) go to computer port. Cable 2 will go to LAN of Router 2 (and computer 2 will be conencted to LAN port of router 2) and cable 3 from ADSL will go to LAN of router 3 (computer 3 will be connected to LAN of router 3). Can this be done?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Siju George10:55 PM

    Your network diagram should be:

    Router 1: (LAN Port)---> PC1 + (WAN Port) Router 2


    Router 2: (LAN Port)-----> PC + (WAN Port) Router 3

    Always connect the LAN Port of first Router to the WAN port(some times called Internet Port) of second router.

    You can configure the IP address and DHCP according to the blog post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous1:07 AM

    Can users of 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1, 192.168.3.1 all see each other?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Siju George12:23 PM

    @Jimp

    May I know what did you mean by seeing each other ?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Bill7:15 PM

    Your direction to

    "1. Connect your computer to router 1 using an Ethernet cable.
    Note: The Ethernet cable from the computer should connect to the WAN Port of the Router."

    has never worked for me. My Ethernet cable is ALWAYS connected to the LAN port in order to access the router.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous1:44 PM

    great tutorial. i have 2 routers cascaded like this tutorial suggests; both connect to the internet without issue and get their ip addresses according to the router on their respective networks. Is there a way to share files between the two networks? When I am on network 192.168.2 i can connect to both the routers but is there a way that a computer on 192.168.2.x view shared files from a computer on 192.168.1.x? What i would like to get at is 192.168.2.x can see shared files from 192.168.1.x but not the other way around.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Siju George7:15 AM

    The easiest way to share files between computers connected to both routers is to disable the DHCP of Router 2 and give IP address in 192.168.1.X range. Click on the link below and check LAN-LAN cascading for more information.

    http://www.corenetworkz.com/2008/02/router-to-router-cascading-simple-guide.html

    ReplyDelete
  16. Siju George9:37 AM

    @Bill

    Thanks for your correction. It was my mistake and I corrected it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Martin5:24 AM

    Wonderful Guide, thank you

    ReplyDelete
  18. Unknown11:53 PM

    Thanks ! I'll try it. But how can I configure the wifi for each router ?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Alex George4:10 PM

    You can enable Wi-Fi on any of the routers depends on your network needs. If you want to connect all devices to same wireless network, you may enable Wi-Fi on first router and disable wireless on other routers.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Unknown1:07 AM

    Thanks for adding to my knowledge

    ReplyDelete
  21. Pixl6:43 PM

    Hi, Siju,
    I have 3 cascading routers connected previously as you described, with appropriate ip addresses.
    However, a 4th router was added later with addresses in the 10.0.0.1 and net mask 255.0.0.0. which is different from the earlier 3 (which have 192.168.x.1 and net mask 255.255.255.0).
    Everything works. But I notice the gateway for each of the earlier routers is that of the preceding router in the cascade for the 3 with similar (only different 3rd octec) addresses.
    Only the 4th router does not follow this 'rule' and has a completely different gateway.

    I have no complaints but wonder if it is advisable or advantageous to configure the 4th router in this different fashion.

    Thank you in advance for your comments.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Unknown11:37 PM

    Using this method, can I configure each individual router to use a VPN?

    What I would like is to have a single internet connection but a number of routers, each configured to VPN through a different country. If I want to change which country a particular device is routed through, I would connect (via Wi-Fi) to the appropriate router.

    Furthermore, I would like to connect multiple different devices to multiple different countries simultaneously.

    Thanks!
    Marc

    ReplyDelete
  23. Alex George6:31 AM

    @ Pixl

    Having different subnet mask may cause some issues in this network structure.


    @ unknown

    You can use as long as your ISP doesn't feel any issues with it.

    ReplyDelete

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