Router to router setup - seek advice

Hi

Trying to setup the following. Need advice & verification before I invest another router.

Queries:

Which mode (bridge/router?) to use for router A?

Which type of cable to use between router A's ethernet port and router B's Wan port?

Which router to serve as DHCP server?

Will there be any conflict between NAT and SPI activated together on different routers?

What configuration to set for router B?

Router A: with ADSL modem/1 ethernet & USB port each/NAT
|
Router B: with SPI/1 Wan port/4 Lan ports
|
|------------------------------ Desktop (wired for Linux)
|
AP
|
Wireless Cardbus
for 3 notebooks

Please enlighten me Thank you very much.

what kind of routers do you have?

it depends on what you are trying to accomplish whether or not you use bridging on the first router ie. lets say you want to have public addresses on the second router then you could bridge the first one if you do bridge the first one the second would need to be configured for PPPoE authentication
the first would be really just a modem at that point.

may need a cross-over cable between the two routers (depends on what kind they are.)

they could both be set as dhcp servers again what is it you need to accomplish?

What is SPI? and yes both can run NAT/PAT.

set router B to have router A as its default gateway and make sure the WAN interface on B is in same network as A could even use dhcp if you like on this interface again depends on what you want to accomplish.


what is it you want to accomplish that you think you need 2 routers? Do you need static NAT or port forwarding enabled for outside to inside access?

Thanks for your reply.

Router A is a 2-port (Ethernet/USB) broadband router with built-in ADSL modem and NAT. Router B is a 4-port 10/100 Mbps broadband router with 2 print servers (parallel/USB) and SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) firewall.

As usual will need router A to perform ADSL connection and get the WAN IP address. Thinking to have router B to perform routing and set router A in bridge mode. Is this correct?

By connecting router B's WAN port onto router A's ethernet port, what cable to use?

Aware that both routers have DHCP server functionality. Thinking of having router B to perform the DHCP server since most AP, desktop (wired) and notebooks (wireless) are connected to it directly or indirectly.

SPI as mentioned above is a firewall. Having concern(s) whether it will crash with router A's NAT function.

No intention to have 2 different subnets or port forwarding.

Reasons to have two routers on the same LAN:

To upgrade the current 8-port 10 Mbps microhub (i.e. repeater) into 10/100 Mbps ports.

To experiment SPI firewall in addition to NAT.

To connect two printers (parallel/USB based) using router B's print servers.

Please help to clarify my doubts and errors (if any) Thank you.

when you enable bridging on router A it will basicly just make it a layer2 device and no routing it would basicly be a modem thats it, it does not know IP from jack and router B would do the PPPoE authentication and DHCP its like just having a modem in front of router B so actualy you turned the router A into a modem and no longer a router. Hope that makes sense.
you could do that and set up router B just like router A used to be. connect router A and B using a cross-over cable (568A to 568B).

The alternative is to plug router A to the switch port on router B and turn off router B's DHCP. so now router B is just a switch and print server.

Hi Juniperr,

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for clearing my doubts.

My hands were tied due to the recent APIPA (i.e. Automatic Private IP Addressing) issue on two of my notebooks. I have not resolved it yet and these two systems have lost their internet/LAN connectivity.

I have not bought the second router PCI BRL-04FPU yet mainly because of the above. In addition I am also thinking to setup another network with my existing cable modem and AP. Will be getting Linksys BEFSR11 later.

Appreciate your assistance. Thank you very much.