[titan7342]

I have 2 linksys wrt54g routers cascading off of each other. The first wrt54g(#1) is connected directly to my cable modem the wrt54g(#2) is connected to wrt54g(#1) by a cable running from the Lan port on wrt54g(#1) to the WAN port on wrt54g(#2). All devices connected to both routers work fine except my Xbox360 that's connected to my wrt54g(#2). I can get onto xbox live but my Nat setttings are set to moderate keeping me from finding alot of games online. What I need to do is get ports 3074 & 88 open but I can't figure out how to do this with the cascading routers. How would I go about opening those ports? Do I need to give you more information?

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The ultimate question: Why are you using two routers?
A better idea may be to have one router and if that doesn't give you enough ports, use a network switch.

[Neil Jones]

The ultimate question: Why are you using two routers?
A better idea may be to have one router and if that doesn't give you enough ports, use a network switch.

[titan7342]

The main reason I am using 2 routers is because the location of one computer that's working wirelessly is to far out of range from the main router. Plus I had 2 routers already and I didn't want to purchase additional equipment if I didn't need to

[Dan]

Normally when you have two routers in place, you need to setup one of them as the "client router" so that it doesn't conflict as much. Basically it turns one of your routers into a switch, and lets the other handle the normal router functionality. Would you be willing to attempt this sort of setup?

[titan7342]

I beleive that's how it's setup now but I could be wrong. My 2nd router that my xbox is connected to is set to router mode and DHCP is turned off. If that isn't correct then I would definately be willing to try something else.

When I try to port forward for the xbox should I do it in the main routers setup screen or in my router that's set as the gateway to my main router?

[Dan]

Yep, that sounds right. My only question is how you have the cabling setup. It should be something like..
Modem -- connected to -- Primary routers WAN port.
(some) Computers -- connected to -- Primary routers LAN ports.
Secondary routers LAN port -- connected to -- Primary routers LAN port.
(some) Computers -- connected to -- Secondary routers LAN ports.

If you have everything else setup correctly (i.e. IP schema is correct) then you should retain your connection fine. What this does is avoids the second routers firewall restrictions (since you aren't going through its WAN port; also avoids some double NAT issues etc.) and should allow port forwarding to work correctly after configuring it on the primary router.

One hickup you may run into is if you haven't assigned the correct IP to the secondary router, but we'll cross that bridge when/if we get there.

[titan7342]

Thanks for helping Dan. I do have the routers connected both by the LAN ports on each router. I have tried opening up the ports on both routers, just the main router, and also on just the secondary router, but all three ways I had the same result. What router should the ports be opened up on? What would be a correct ip address that you mentioned for the 2nd router be?

[dsenette]

what you want to look for is a setting in the router (or in it's manual) that talks about making the router into an ACCESS POINT instead of a router (it could also be called bridge mode)this is basically the "client router" jazz that dan is talking about...turning off DHCP isn't enough...

[Hello71]

http://en.wikipedia....T54Gx_as_switch

Or in case you want to see just the paragraph...

(verified with WRT54G v2, other version setups might differ slightly) Many people have ADSL models and routers supplied with their connections and might end up with a spare WRT54G with perfectly good ports and a wireless connection.

To turn this into a "dumb" switch do the following:

* Change the default IP address (192.168.1.1) if the router has the same default IP address to avoid conflicts.
* Under Basic Setup disable DHCP, save settings.
* Under Advanced Routing change it from "Gateway" to "Router", save settings.
* Plug a network cable into the router and into one of the numbered gates in the WRT54G, and you're now good to go.

Another solution for it is http://www.tomshardw...switch-expander

- in which you don't need to change the IP address to resolve conflicts.

Basically all you need to do now is just a) make sure ports are configured correctly like this:

Modem (Ethernet)
|
Router 1 (WAN) (LAN 1)
|
Router 2 (WLAN) (LAN 1) (LAN 2)
| |
Computer 1 {WLAN) |
|
Computer 2 (LAN)

or similar, just replace comp 1 and comp 2 with other connections, then go into Router 2 settings, go to Advanced Routing and change "Gateway" to "Router", save and use!