Mesh Wifi

wespilot80

I have a dual band (2,4Ghz and 5Ghz) wifi router (new service). Almost none of my AI device work now and I cannot move then beyond 30 inches (power supply).

So, my question is, Can I daisy chain a different 2.4 Ghz router off of my modem and temporarily turn off the dual band until I get al the items reconnected? I think I would have to keep the 2.4Ghz router installed, No?

Scary_Guy

Sorry, you did say router but many people tend to say that when they mean modem. Also some modems now have routers built into them as well making things even more confusing. I tried to word things for either possible situation but i guess that didn't work. (Disclaimer, I am not a MicroCenter employee so don't blame them. Actually I should put this on all my posts, or maybe in my signature.)

If you think it's a range issue and you want to set up some WiFi repeaters that's doable. The router will work as well, but you might have to run an ethernet cable from their device into yours. If it has more than one WiFi radio on board then you might be able to set it up to repeat the signal wirelessly.

https://superuser.com/questions/1272705/wifi-single-radio-acting-as-ap-and-ap-client-simultaneously might explain how to do what you want, if I groked that correctly.

Alternatively you could try changing the SSID and the wireless key (WPA2 most likely, as they may not support the new WPA3 standard) to match that of the old router and everything should connect right up. This trick has worked for me before anyway.

Scary_Guy

Is that the router or the modem? That is, is it your equipment or did your ISP give it to you?

The answer to your question is maybe. It really depends on the software of the router/modem but in general this is doable. If it's not (which seems unlikely with a modern device) you can look into installing custom firmware on it like OpenWRT which will provide much more functionality than stock firmware will.

My advice would be to keep that old router and connect all your IoT devices to the new router/modem, isolating them a bit from the rest of the network (IoT devices are known for having weak security is why.)

You can absolutely daisy chain routers. You just need the secondary router's gateway address to point to the primary router. Here is an article with more information: https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/how-to-turn-an-old-wi-fi-router-into-an-access-point/

wespilot80

My ISP gave me both a modem separated out from the Wi-Fi router. That is two separate pieces of equipment the modem is one thing connects my fiber optics Internet cable from outside my house to inside my house my router connects to the modem my router is a 2 bandwidth router 2.4 gigahertz combined with 5.0 gigahertz. I thought I was clear when I said router I didn't say modem I said router When I asked the question about router.

Upon installation and setup none of my existing 2.4 gigahertz smart home devices work and I cannot make them work so go back to my question and answer it. Is it possible to extend an individual, separate,  by itself, 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi router not a modem to the existing modem which connects to my fiber optic Internet cable?

Scary_Guy

Sorry, I could have sworn I replied to this. Anyway you marked it as answered but I want to throw something else out there for anyone else reading.

If none of the devices are connecting one trick is to change the SSID and security key (WPA2/3 ideally) to what it was on the old device, and also maybe the gateway (usually 192.168.x.x or 10.0.10.x) if the IoT device is set to use a static IP.

That way instead of having to go reconfigure each IoT device you just reconfigure the router and it saves a lot of work.

Also note that you will have two SSIDs for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz radios. So you can just make the 2.5 one the same and pick something else for the new one. You shouldn't make it the exact same thing for a few reasons. One is other devices that do both 2.4 and 5 GHz might get confused, and the other is it makes it easier to tell them apart so if guests want to connect to the 5 GHz to stream media they can.

I will say that changing the password occasionally might be a good idea anyway especially if the IoT devices aren't isolated just for security reasons especially since IoT devices (especially older ones) are notoriously bad with security anyway.

Hope you figured it out!