Use router without WiFi as a Switch connected to ONT

[wizcreations]

My home is wired for ethernet.  Unfortunately, the cables are in a distant corner of the house where it is infeasible to place the WiFi router.  I'm trying to make a solution using hardware I already have rather than buy new mesh network equipment.

I have two routers. I want to connect one router to the ONT as a switch that then carries wired internet to three rooms of my house.  One of those rooms will have my second router providing WiFi.  The other two will have computers connected to the internet via ethernet.

Desired setup: ONT > Router "Switch" (w/o Wifi) > Router (w/WiFi)

The difficult part I'm running into is that I still need the router connected to the ONT to set IP addresses for the three connected devices and act as firewall to the open internet, then also have the second router set IP addresses for the connected wireless and wired devices.  I tried setting different DHCP IP Address ranges on the two routers but ended up with no internet at all when everything was connected.

Is what I'm trying to do feasible?  What configuration steps am I missing?

[Cang_Household]

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@wizcreations wrote:

Desired setup: ONT > Router "Switch" (w/o Wifi) > Router (w/WiFi)

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Let me understand your question. You want the first router (uplinked to ONT) to act as a switch? Therefore exposing all the switched devices to the Internet? Verizon Home will not give you more than one public IP addresses. So you will not be able to connect the devices on the switch.

I am wondering do you understand the different between switch (layer 2 and layer 3), router, and access point? Router routes traffic between two or more networks, for instance your home network and the public network.

You probably want ONT <--WAN> 1st Router <LAN--LAN> 2nd Router (as a switch and access point).

Verizon's router is really a combination of router, switch, access point, firewall, and DNS relay.

The two routers must have different LAN IP addresses. They should be static and have nothing to do with DHCP.

If you need the setup procedure, please reply.

[wizcreations]

Word choice may not have been the best.  I do not want the connected devices exposed to the internet.

I'm attempting to use the first router (wifi disabled) to distribute IP addresses to three devices: two computers and a second router (wifi enabled). Then I will use the second router to broadcast the wireless network.

I managed to get it running using ONT <--WAN> 1st Router <LAN--WAN> 2nd Router.

1st Router LAN IP address 192.168.0.1

Assigned a static IP address to 2nd Router from 1st Router

2nd Router LAN IP address 192.168.100.1

2nd Router Gateway = 1st Router LAN IP address

This is working but seems a bit fiddly.  Does it seem like I captured the right setup?

[Cang_Household · Accepted solution]

Ok. The current setup you have is creating a network segment within a network segment, i.e. 192.168.100.0/24 is within 192.168.0.0/24. The 192.168.100.0/24 can access 192.168.0.0/24 and above (the Internet), but not the other way around, unless you disable the WAN firewall for the second router.

Why don't you connect router 1 <LAN--LAN> router 2 ? You want to save a LAN port for other wired devices? Connecting a LAN port of the second router to the first and disable the DHCP server on the second would give you a single network segment.

[wizcreations]

It was disabling DHCP on the second router that I missed.  I'm playing around in settings I barely understand.  I didn't realize the wired router could assign IP addresses to the devices connected to 2nd router via WiFi.