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First post, by Kerr Avon

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A mate of mine has bought a security system (four security cameras plus the base unit, it's this one: https://www.screwfix.com/p/swann-swdvk-845804 … equestid=618483), and he wants to connect it to the TV in his upstairs bedroom. Downstairs he has a router, connected to the phone line, and he wants to connect the security camera base unit into a second router in the bedroom. The connection between the two routers will hopefully be wireless, but if necessary than a cable will be OK.

He's tried it but it's not working, which I'd imagine is because both routers have the same IP address, is that right? I'm going round there tomorrow, to take my laptop and if I change the IP of the second router, will that then allow the second router to communicate with the first router (and vice-versa) OK?

I've never tried to use two routers together, so I'm totally new to all this, and I'd appreciate any help and suggestions. Thanks for any answers.

Reply 1 of 13, by BloodyCactus

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what you wrote is a bit confusing. is it really two routers, that implies two WAN connections from outside, one into each.

normally its 1 router and then you would have eg: switches that everything wired connects to and wireless access points that do wifi.

in that instance, lan from router to switch. simple. implies router is handing out dhcp etc.

if it really is two routers, you'd need to run them on different ip subnets and setup netmasks and such.

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Reply 2 of 13, by konc

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First of all why do you need the second router in the bedroom? Or to rephrase this, you don't need a second router in the bedroom. Secondly there are many questions to be answered before you can get a correct answer, starting by which output you are going to use.

If I understood correctly you want to connect the lan output to the router downstairs. Using this method you need an app or a web browser to view the cameras and I can see only 2 ways of viewing them on the tv upstairs: 1. a smart tv connected to the lan with a browser capable of displaying what the device is serving or 2. casting to the tv from a mobile device. Yeah, neither is practical when you hear some noise downstairs. If I were you I'd try to route a cable and connect it directly to the tv.

Reply 3 of 13, by wirerogue

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many wireless routers can run in bridge mode.
you'll want to assign it a static ip and disable the onboard dhcp server as well.
this will simply turn the router into a wireless client and switch for the lan ports.
the wan port will no longer function.

Reply 4 of 13, by konc

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wirerogue wrote:
many wireless routers can run in bridge mode. you'll want to assign it a static ip and disable the onboard dhcp server as well. […]
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many wireless routers can run in bridge mode.
you'll want to assign it a static ip and disable the onboard dhcp server as well.
this will simply turn the router into a wireless client and switch for the lan ports.
the wan port will no longer function.

True, but very few can do this though wifi. In fact I don't know of any consumer/isp router that does that, you need to run a cable to them and turn them into an access point.
Also this doesn't solve viewing the cameras, which is done through an app or browser when using the lan connection.

Reply 5 of 13, by dr_st

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I wouldn't say it's very few; in fact, I think that many do (see, e.g., here for TP-Link), but sometimes it's difficult to get working (especially between devices of different manufacturers), and when it works, your connection on remote devices may not be any faster, even if the local signal is better (because of the extra wireless hop, interference, etc.) It's always better to bridge the access points via wired LAN.

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Reply 7 of 13, by gdjacobs

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Wireless extender mode is a bad idea. Contention will absolutely kill your throughput.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 8 of 13, by chinny22

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First off, yes you need to change the IP, EVERY device needs a different IP address.

As others have said the device in the bedroom wont be a router, but a switch. A router "routes" local network (eg your wifi network) over to an external network (eg your ISP)
Most home routers are a combination of 3 devices a router/switch/Wifi. You'll be using a router as a switch. -Not picking on you just helping to get your terminology right.

I'm assuming the bedroom switch is because he needs more then 1 network port in his room? In which case wirerogue's 1st post.
To start with though I wold run a cable between the 2 devices. Prove the setup works then attempt to setup the wifi as this is the most complex part and most likely not to work.
If no other network ports are needed in the bedroom just run the cable direct into the DVR.

Or if the bedroom router's main purpose was so the DVR could connect over wifi. What you are after is a Wifi Bridge. As others have said this'll depend on if your router supports it.

Reply 9 of 13, by konc

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I just read the first post more carefully and it doesn't make any sense at all. Read this part again:

Kerr Avon wrote:

Downstairs he has a router, connected to the phone line, and he wants to connect the security camera base unit into a second router in the bedroom.

I understand that drv and the tv are in the same room??? 🤣 Then what do you need the network for, just use an HDMI. This can't be the case, something's wrong here.

Anyway I'll assume that the dvr is also downstairs. Even if you manage to connect everything together and bring the network upstairs, just how are you going to display the image on the tv? You need an app of browser for this

Reply 10 of 13, by Kerr Avon

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First of all, thanks for all of the replies, and apologies if I wasn't clear in my original post. This is new to me, so I'm probably not using the correct terms, and maybe I'm making wrong assumptions.

The situation is that my neighbour's house now has five security cameras fitted, and they are linked to his upstairs TV. The cameras' leads (they are wired, not wireless) all go through the attic, and meet and go down into his bedroom, and are connected to the camera's hub box (or whatever it's called, the unit that houses the hard drive and everything). The hub box is wired into his bedroom TV, and everything is working fine, he can view the cameras on the TV, there's no problems with the security system at all.

The problem is, he wants to connect the camera hub box to the internet, so it can email him if say he's at work and one of the camera's detects moving in his yard (he has lots of valuable fish, some of them are *massive*). He doesn't want or need to view the security cameras on the downstairs TV, just for the security camera hub box (which is upstairs) to communicate with the internet, via the house router, which is downstairs. Ideally, he doesn't want to loop a cable all the way from the bedroom to the router (from the camera hub box in his bedroom, down to the router in his living room), or to drill a cable though the bedroom floor (for the cable from the camera hub box to the router in his living room) if he can avoid using a long cable.

The router is SKY broadband, which wirelessly connects to the usual stuff (tablet, phone, an Amazon Fire stick type thing). Everything is working with that router, but he has a second router (identical to the first) that isn't being used for anything, and he was hoping that he could somehow introduce the second, previously unused router into the equation, and get the two routers working together, meaning that his camera hub box would be connected by a short cable to a router (call it router two, the new router that would be in the bedroom next to the camera hub box) and that router two would communicate wirelessly with router one (the downstairs router, the one that's connected to the phone line and feeds everything else, i.e. his tablet, mobile phone, etc).

Is this possible, or does it require a different item (not a router) to be connected to the camera hub in place of router two? Please don't assume I know anything about this (I pretty much don't), it's all new to me.

Reply 11 of 13, by chinny22

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Lets correct your terms, knowledge is power 😀
Camera Hub Box = Digital Video Recorder or DVR
Router 2 = Can I use a xyz router as a Wireless Bridge.

So your question is quite simple. Can I use an old Sky router as a wireless bridge to connect to my DVR.

To be able answer the question though we would need to know the exact model of the router. ISP's can change models depending on your package, region, etc.
If it cant cheapest option is to get an old router that does support "Bridge mode" and turn it into a wireless bridge.
alternatively you can get powerline adapters. This plugs into a power socket and uses the house electrical wiring rather then a wifi signal
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline

(TP is just the first to come up not saying they are better or worse then other brands)

Reply 12 of 13, by Kerr Avon

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Sorry for not posting earlier, my mate was working away from home (I know what that's like, it's not great). Anyway, he bought a powerline and everything is working fine now.

Thanks for all of the help, it's much appreciated.

Reply 13 of 13, by DNSDies

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I actually have a setup similar to this in my house, and here's how I did it:

I got 2 Netgear R6250 routers.
Installed Firmware DD-WRT v3.0-r38100M kongac on both.
Setup Router #1 as an Access Point (AP)
Setup Router #2 as a Wireless Bridge that connect to Router #1 using the 5ghz wifi channel

My security hub is plugged into Router #2 and Router #2 provides extra wifi coverage downstairs.

Here's a detailed article on how to set one up yourself:
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge