Multiple Routers connected to one fiber line - eviltoast

Hi All

I have done my own network setup at our family guesthouse property which was working perfectly fine for over a year and now started giving trouble.

The reason being the property is quite large and due to the age the walls are quite thick with a corrugated iron roof. Makes any wifi extender / antennas useless.

Here is my setup

- 200mb/s Fiber line from ISP

- Connected directly to the Fiber line is the TOTOLINK Router (AC1200) provided by the ISP. (MAIN ROUTER)

- From the Router I have a network cable that runs to the second router (TP Link Archer AX1500) (ROUTER 1) This router is setup as a router (not a Access point) With a dynamic IP. No other settings changed on the router.

- From Router 1 I have a network cable that runs to another TP Link Archer Ax20 (ROUTER 2)

- Router 2 is setup as a router (not access point) with dynamic IP. No other settings changed on the router.

Frim Router 2 I followed the same setup as above and in total I have 7 routers connected via network cable from one to the other. All routers are TP Link either Archer Ax20 or Archer AX1500)

All routers are setup as Routers (not Access points) All IPs dynamic. No other settings changed on the router.

I also have about 6 x TP Link Deco devices that are connected to one of the routers offering increased wifi signal in that section of the property. I did not change any of the advanced settings on the Deco devices.

I am getting a lot of dropped connections. The Speed tests fine at around 180 / 190 mb/s and then the connection drops.

Is there a way to alter the settings on the routers installed to try to prevent IP conflicts / wifi conflicts which i believe is resulting in the dropped connections.

I have done firmware upgrades on all routers and the ISP was at the property to test the fiber line but could not find any faults.

I would greatly appreciate any help / advice.

Thanks!

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  • mlcarson@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Unless you’re doing something very unusual (multiple ISP’s or a home lab), a home only needs one router – this is where you went wrong. You add WiFi with AP’s – not routers. A normal router should be able to handle as many networks/VLANs/DHCP scopes as necessary and will have a single default route out to the Internet.

    You’ve made your network needlessly complicated. In order to fix things, you should setup all but one router in AP bridge mode. This does not completely fix things because wireless routers aren’t going to act as a single controller for your wireless devices. If you can return all of these routers, I’d recommend it because AP’s would provide a better solution. Do you even have a need for more than one network? Do you even have a managed switch? Does everything go back to a central switch?