Extending the home network

I have an older wireless router lying around since I got a new one, but it is a waste to just leave it in the storeroom. So I dug it out, and tried using it to extend my wired network.

A quick note before the details on how I did that. First, I have my main desktop, laptop, and media server connected by LAN cable to my router. My TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to my TV are all connected to the router via WiFi, though. This actually makes it harder to stream high bitrate media from my media server to the Fire TV Stick and Raspberry Pi 4, though.

So the idea is to use an old router, place it near my TV, and connect the devices there to this old router using LAN cables. The old router is then connected to my router using LAN cable. The old router will be configured as a bridge, with DHCP and other stuff disabled so that everything is handled by the main router.

For my old ASUS router, this is actually quite easy.

1. Power up the old router, then push down on the reset button for 10 seconds. This resets the router to factory settings.

2. Connect the old router to my laptop using LAN cable, then go to 192.168.1.1 which is the default address for the router. This should bring up the initial router settings page.

3. Choose manual setup.

4. Set an admin password.

5. Choose "Access Point (AP)" as the router mode. This should automatically disable a lot of stuff that is not needed.

6. Set router address as something easy to remember, like 192.168.x.2 (replace x with a suitable number that is used by the main router, which should be 192.168.x.1).

7. Save settings, then power off the old router.

8. Connect WAN port of old router to one of the LAN ports on the main router using a LAN cable. Then, power on the old router.

9. Connect additional devices to old router using LAN cable. You should be able to access the main router at 192.168.x.1, and the old router at 192.168.x.2 (or whatever you set the old router's IP as). A good practice is, on the main router, set it to assign 192.168.x.2 to the old router based on MAC address.

BTW, the Amazon Fire TV Stick does not have a LAN port, so you will need to find a powered LAN to USB connector, which plugs into the same USB Micro-B port that the port usually goes. Amazon actually sells such an adapter.

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(After connecting my Fire TV Stick to a LAN cable, I still get some stutter when playing high bitrate videos. I guess it is a limitation of the CPU/GPU on the Fire TV Stick and not the network. Kodi, which I installed using this guide, seems to have slightly better performance than VLC. This is another guide which teaches how to add Samba shares to Kodi.)