When you open a browser and go to a webpage, data is traveling through the internet, to a server to get the content. It then travels back to serve you that content on your computer. But how does data travel on the internet, really? I mean, how does it go to a server and back that fast?
I’m sure that you have heard the word subnet before. It is often in error messages or when talking about networks. For us techy people, it’s clear as day what a subnet is, and we can most likely tell you how many devices a network can have (there is always a limit), based on the subnet mask.
If you are like most people, you have probably heard something called IPv6, but you may not have any idea of what it is, except for something tech-related. What are the advantages of using IPv6 and why does it even exist? In this article, I will try to explain why IPv6 is important to the industry and something that will be more and more common in the future (more…)
What is a WAN-Port and what is it used for really? It’s that extra ethernet port on the back of the router that you cannot use for your fifth computer. The WAN and LAN-ports are often referenced in the router manual or in guides on the internet, and the ports can be found on almost any router. There is no doubt that these little things are there for a reason. (more…)
Extending the WiFi network is something that most people seem to want nowadays. It’s quite often that someone asks me how they can extend the range or cost-effectively expand their network. It’s getting more important than ever to always be connected, wherever you are in your house, and everything should be wireless. This is where double routers are coming into play.
People often start by purchasing a new router to extend their WiFi. The mistake they do afterward is to throw the old router away. Why not use it to further extend your network? Connecting the second router to the first can greatly increase your network coverage. It is also possible to use the same SSID on both routers, so you don’t have to switch depending on where you are in the house.
But there are also other benefits of having two routers except for better WiFi. You can expand your network with more ethernet ports in other parts of the house/apartment. Most routers have USB which you can use on multiple points in the house for mass-storage, network printing or whatever you want. But the best of all is that it is much easier than you might think to add a 2nd router to your network.
Connecting two routers might not be the first option that you think of when you think about extending your network. However, if you have an old router laying around at home, then what’s the point of purchasing something else like an extender or a power adapter, when you can just use your old router?
Having a second router means that you can get more ethernet ports, for example. I have two routers at home and this was the main reason why I wanted to set up the second router in the other room. But it was also because I needed USB ports over there. This meant that I could either purchase a power adapter with a USB port (which most of them doesn’t) and then connect it to a switch for the ethernet ports OR that I could just use the old router that I had laying around.
But we also need to talk about the WiFi extension, which is the reason you are looking for a solution to this, I guess. I don’t have such a big apartment that I needed two routers. However, since I decided to go with a 2nd router, I now have an apartment where every single part of it has a wireless network. The balcony has full WiFi access as well as the sofa in the living room, which is on the other side of the apartment.
So, if you have an old router at home and want to get a better WiFi network in other parts of your house or apartment, I highly recommend that you dig up the old router that you have, instead of running to the store to purchase new hardware. Down below, I have written a detailed guide on how to set up, and you can easily follow along.
Before we get started with how to use two routers and yet, have just one network, we first need to understand how the second router should be set up. Nowadays, you can purchase something called access points, or WAP, wireless access point. This is a product that is doing nothing other than to extend your WiFi connection.
A big difference between a router and an access point is that a router is doing so much more than an access point. A router will, for example, use DHCP to give devices an IP address in your network. A router can also do stuff like port forwarding and other types of networking stuff. An access point can’t do these things. If an access point gets a DHCP-request, it will forward that request to the router. What we need to do, is to make one of the routers more like an access point.
There are two ways to do this. If you have a router that is just a few years old, there is a high chance that the router has something called AP Mode. When a router is set to AP Mode, all things that are different between a router and an access point is turned off automatically. However, if you do not have this setting, you will need to turn off these things manually. To make a guide that is good for everyone, I have explained both ways down below, so do not worry if you don’t have this easy setting on your router.
But how do you know if you have AP mode on your router? Well, I wish I could tell you how you can see this on your router but unfortunately, there is no big red message on routers with AP mode. You can either:
If you have purchased a new router and found out that there is an AP Mode on that but not on the old router, do not switch. The newest router should always be the main router which is taking care of all the network stuff. This will ensure that you have new and fast hardware that takes care of network requests. New routers are often much more secure and since they are connected to the internet, that is a huge benefit.
For this guide, I am using my old Asus RT-N56 router as the secondary router while I am using my current main router, the Asus RT-AC68U, which you can find on Amazon, to be the master router.
Time to start configuring your router. I usually start with the 2nd one. Make sure to disconnect the power from both routers so that no one is connected to your network. We don’t want to configure the wrong router.
Take the 2nd router and make a factory reset on it to make sure there are no old settings on it. This is usually done by pressing a reset button on the back of the router and holding it in for a few seconds. Another way is to take a needle or similar and put it in a reset-hole on the back of the router. Please look in the manual or search Google to find out how to reset your router.
When your router has been reset, connect an ethernet cable to LAN 1 on the back of the router and the other end to the computer and turn the router on (if it isn’t already on from the reset). Open a web browser on the computer and go to the default IP address of the router. This is usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.
Since you have done a reset of the router, you will most likely have to go through a starting guide where you have to enter some information. When it’s time to choose the SSID and password, choose the name and the password that you want as your WiFi.
Since an IP address is unique, we also need to change the IP address of this 2nd router as the first one will likely have the same IP as the 2nd has right now. This would mean that you would have an IP conflict in your network and it would not work as you expect. In the router's settings, change the IP to something else. My recommendation is to change the last number to a 2 instead of a 1, so it looks like any of these:
On my Asus N56U, I can find the IP settings under the LAN-category in the settings menu. Set the IP address and confirm and then let the router restart. You will also lose connection to the router since you have changed IP, so you will need to go to 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.1.2 in your browser to get back to the router settings.
The only thing left now is to turn off router-specific settings. Down below, I have explained how to do it with and without AP Mode, so choose the one that is suited for your router.
If you have a router with AP Mode, you need to go to the settings for your router. Most likely, the IP address is now 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.1.2. On my Asus router, I can find the setting under Administration in the settings menu. Choose Access Point (AP) Mode and click Save. This will restart the router again, but this time it will turn off all the router-specific settings, which is what we want.
When the router has restarted, you can disconnect it from the power outlet as well as the computer as it’s time to configure the main router now, which is almost the same steps.
If your router doesn’t support AP Mode, you will have to manually turn off router-specific settings. This is almost as easy as AP Mode. This is because settings on a router are based off one specific setting so if you turn it off, the router will stop with other settings as well.
This setting is DHCP. On my Asus router, I can find DHCP settings under LAN and then DHCP Server. Here, I can choose to turn off the DHCP server, which is exactly what we want. This will stop the router from giving out IP addresses to devices in your network and will also stop giving out the default gateway and DNS servers and such. So, turn off the DHCP server and apply the settings. Let the router restart.
When the router has restarted, you can disconnect it from the power outlet as well as the computer as it’s time to configure the main router now, which is almost the same steps.
We have now done the hard part of configuring one router and it’s time to do the same on the first router that will act as the main router. There isn’t much that needs to be configured here at all, the starting guide will take you through most of the settings and we don’t need to change anything either.
If you have been using the router before and you already have it up and running, there is no need to factory reset it. Just make sure that the SSID and the password are the same on this router as it is on the 2nd router that we just configured. If it is, continue to step 2b.
If the router is not yet configured, plug-in power and connect it to your computer using an ethernet cable. Now, go to the default IP address of the router, which you have learned by now is either 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. When you first get there, you will have to go through a starting guide for the router, choosing admin passwords and set up your wireless network. Here you must choose the same SSID and password that you chose for the 2nd router that we just configured.
When you are done with the starting guide and you at the router settings, there is one thing that we need to do on the first router. That is to change the DHCP server settings to not interfere with the 2nd router. Many routers have DHCP configured to start already at the .2 IP address. This is something that we want to change.
Under your DHCP Server settings, which can be found under LAN > DHCP Server on my Asus RT-AC68U router, you need to change the IP Pool Starting Address. I have mine set at 192.168.1.100. This means that any device that connects to my network will have an IP address that is higher than .100. The max for networks is .254, so technically, I can have 154 devices in my network that is using DHCP. However, I also have a lot of other devices in my network with static IP addresses that are below .100.
If you are someone that doesn’t need static IP addresses, I suggest that you have this set on .10 so that you have a few reserved IP addresses if something would come up. It doesn’t affect the performance at all so it doesn’t matter. You just don’t want it to be .2, that’s the main goal.
Now that both the routers have been configured, there is only one small thing left and that is to connect them. To do this, you will need an ethernet cable. Depending on how far away these routers will be to each other, the ethernet cable might need to be quite long. Yes, it is possible to do this by connecting them wirelessly, but I highly suggest using a cable as both routers will talk a lot to each other and it’s best with a stable connection then.
Connect the cable to one of the LAN ports on router 1 and then route the cable through the house to the placement of router 2. This next bit is very important and is the biggest reason why people have problems with this solution:
DO NOT CONNECT THE ETHERNET CABLE TO THE WAN-PORT, CONNECT IT TO A LAN-PORT INSTEAD!
connecting the ethernet cable to the WAN-port of the 2nd router will fail and the setup will not work as expected. I’ve had at least three friends calling me about their setup not working and then it’s just a matter of switching port. So, make sure the ethernet cable is connected to a LAN-port on both routers.
Once they are both connected with the cable and they are powered on, you are done. Congratulations, you now have two routers in your home where one is working as an actual router while the other one is working as an access point, extending your WiFi and giving you more ethernet ports in other parts of the house.
If you want, you can go an extra step further to make sure that they do not interfere with others. This is something I highly suggest that you do if you have done all the work to set up everything, as it’s nice to know it works as good as possible.
Since you now have two routers that are relatively close to each other, you need to make sure that they do not interfere with each other. What do I mean with that? You see, when a router is putting out WiFi, it does so in a channel. If both routers are using the same channel to put out WiFi signals, they will interfere and disrupt each other. So, you want to make sure that they use different channels.
A channel is a certain frequency. As you may know, radio comes in at a special frequency, and if you want to change the radio channel, you change the frequency. But you may also have heard that two radio stations interfere with each other, if you are in the middle of two cities, or if you are using an FM Transmitter, for example. It’s the same for routers.
In your router settings, you can change the channel on your WiFi signal. However, if you live in an apartment, you most likely have neighbors around you that also have their routers and you don’t want them to interfere with you either. To solve this, there is a program that you can download for free called SSIDer that can help you choose the best channel for your WiFi.
The problem with SSIDer is that it can be complicated at startup, with a lot of graphs and numbers. MetaGeek, a fantastic company that is creating WiFi solutions for companies and professionals, have made a guide on how to use SSIDer and how you can find the best channel for your situation. Check it out down below.
As always, there are other options to extend the WiFi. The latest technology and the best thing that is currently on the market is a Mesh WiFi system. This is when several routers are creating a “net” with WiFi. You can have two or three routers in your home and they all talk to each other to improve your WiFi and making sure that you have a stable network at home.
But nowadays, it doesn’t have to be routers either as many companies have released mesh-packages. An example of this is the Google Mesh Network, which you can find on Amazon. It is a product with three smaller routers, called nodes, that work together to build a mesh system. One of them is the main router that is connected to the network while the others are extending the WiFi connection further.
The biggest advantage with mesh systems instead of connecting routers together the way we have done is that everything is wireless, and the products are made to be wireless all the time, without ever needing a cable. This means that they will communicate on one channel (frequency) and send out WiFi signals on another, which doesn’t interfere with each other. They also work better if you would go from one room to another, as everything is seamlessly connected.
If you would like to know more about mesh systems and why it’s the big buzzword in WiFi today, you should check out How-To-Geek’s guide on mesh systems, as they have made a great explanation of it.
You can of course just get a range extender as well but as they tend to perform bad, losing a lot of speed and often lose signal as well, the mesh system is much more preferred, as well as connecting two routers as we did in this guide.
Now, let me know, how do you extend your WiFi at home?
Since I am working with networking and computers, I need to have some basic knowledge about protocols and what they are. In one way, it’s the worst, since all these abbreviations are complicated and very technical. On the other side, they are such a big part of computing and networking, so you quickly learn the most important ones.
But what is a protocol? In short, it’s a set of rules in networking. Protocols are making sure that both sides of a conversation (let’s say a client and a server) speak the same language and handle information the same way. Without protocols, all computers and servers would handle things differently and nothing would work together.
Protocols have existed since the end of the 1960s and since then, many protocols have been created and updated. Many protocols are common things that the everyday user would recognize while other protocols are techier. Come along for a ride when we take a deep dive into protocols and check out some common protocols.
To help computers talk to each other, there needs to be some form of standard communication that both computers know. This is what protocols are defining. A protocol is a set of rules that define how the communication between two computer or other devices will talk to each other.
There is a long list of protocols that define how communication should work. Many of these protocols are something that you are familiar with already, like WiFi or Bluetooth. These are what you could call Wireless Network Protocols. This is why WiFi in an ASUS laptop and an Apple iPhone works the same way, even if they are different devices with different manufacturers; because a protocol exists.
When looking at many of the names in networking like TCP, UTP, IP, HTTP, FTP and so on, there is always a P in the end. That P stands for protocol, which means that all these functions above are a protocol. This is because everything has to be standardized if it should work with many different devices.
Before the internet existed, during ARPANET, engineers needed some form of documentation. In 1969, an internet engineer named Steve Crocker invented something called Request for Comments, or RFC for short. RFC was invented to record unofficial notes during the development of ARPANET. However, it has become more than that since.
RFCs are today the official documentation for the internet. In this documentation, you can find internet specifications, events or protocols. There are a couple of organizations that are handling the RFC documentation, like IETF, IRTF or IAB.
These are also the types of organizations that are deciding about protocols but in their different genre, so to speak. For example, the organization that is deciding about the Bluetooth-protocol is the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) while the HTTP protocol is being handled by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Protocols make sure that everyone can understand each other
As you might know by now, there is a lot of protocols when it comes to networks, computers, and communication. It’s impossible to list them all but l would still like to expand the most common protocols that are being used in networking today. If you are interested to learn more about networking protocols, Wikipedia has a great collection-page where you can read more on protocols.
If you are on this website, you have probably heard of HTTP. If you are on any website, you have probably heard of HTTP. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is a network protocol for the web. This is the type of protocol that the web browser you are using and the webserver that the website is on, is using to communicate with each other.
HTTP was created in the 90s and has since then been updated several times. In 2015, the latest HTTP standard was approved by IESG (Internet Engineering Steering Group), the HTTP 2.0 or HTTP/2. HTTP/2 comes with several new features that improve the speed of HTTP, making it faster to reach the website you want.
A problem with HTTP is that the communication between the browser and the server is unencrypted. Because of this, HTTPS (HTTP Secure) exist. This is an extension of the original protocol but with HTTPS, the communication is encrypted, thus making it much more secure, as the name suggests. If you see a green lock icon in your web browser URL field, the connection to the webserver is secure, using HTTPS.
TCP/IP is two protocols that are working together to make sure that everything is going where it’s supposed to without any faults on the way. TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and is a protocol used in anything that has to do with the internet, like routers, computers, phones, laptops and much more.
When you are sending a message over Facebook or a Skype chat, the TCP will split that message into bits and pieces and make packages out of it. These packages are then sent over to the destination using the internet. Once at the destination, the packages can be unpacked, and the message can be put together again. This is because the transmission control protocol handles both the packaging and unpacking, making sure that the sender and the receiver understand each other.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is making sure that the packages mentioned above actually reach the correct destination. As you may know, networks are using IP numbers as their address, so that the network can be identified. How hard wouldn’t it be for your package to reach your house if you didn’t have any address? It’s the same thing with network packages.
Oldschool Internet Kiosk
The DHCP is that kind of protocol that you never think about but if it didn’t exist, it would be a real hassle every time you had friends over. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and it’s responsible for giving out IP addresses to the devices that connect to the network.
For a device to be able to connect to the internet or use any form of network feature at all, it needs an IP address. When a new device connects to a network, the DHCP server (usually the router) will give the device an IP address as well as other network details such as the DNS server address(es) and the default gateway.
In the configuration settings of a router, you can usually set the range of the IP addresses that DHCP should work with. If you do that, you can make sure that there will be no IP conflicts on your network. This is often not a problem unless you have set some static IP addresses on your network, then I suggest that you make sure these addresses are not in the DHCP range.
If DHCP didn’t exist, you would need to get the MAC address (unique network car identifier on all devices) of your friend’s phone and then go into the settings of your router to manually add an IP address to the phone. For a company with thousands of employees, that would be a huge workload. Thanks, DHCP, for your existence.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a protocol that is translating IP addresses into names and vice versa. Instead of having to enter the IP address and the port of a web server, you can instead type the address of the website, and DNS servers will work in the background to find the correct web server for you.
You can test this for yourself, by doing the opposite of the above. If you would enter 216.58.211.14/ in your web browser, you would be taken to google.com. DNS servers are working together to get you where you want. The very first DNS server is your router, which will know all the devices in your LAN. When you go to a website, your router will forward the request to a DNS server outside your network, usually the ISP’s DNS.
A DNS can hold a lot of records. This is special pointers that will help the DNS to point in the correct direction. There are, for example, something called MX records. These type of records point to a mail server and is used for email. A (or AAAA) records are used for translating IP addresses (as in the example above) while NS records point to other name servers.
Before Email 🙂
Something we all do is to share files with each other. I bet that many of you are uploading files to OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or any other form of cloud storage. If you do, you are using a protocol called File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short.
The name of the protocol is pretty much explaining itself. It’s a protocol that is being used for transferring files between a client and a server. The client is often your laptop, your phone or your PC while the server is whatever service you are using (OneDrive, DropBox, etc).
When using FTP, you usually need to authenticate yourself with a username and a password. However, FTP has the same problem as HTTP, that the communication and file transfer is unencrypted. To solve this, SFTP (Secure FTP) is often used instead, which will encrypt the username, password and the files being transferred.
Working as a system administrator, I often get asked about computer-related questions. My friends are using me as their tech-guy when they need help. I just hung up from a phone call from a friend of mine that had a problem with his computer. The default gateway was not available. Here’s why and what you can do about it.
The problem “Default gateway is not available” is usually caused by the network adapter’s drivers that are out of date or because of bad network configuration. To solve this issue, one can try reinstalling their drivers or by uninstalling their antivirus software. There are also other solutions that we cover (and guide you through) in this article.
In this article, I will go over the most common solutions and take you to step by step on the way, so that anyone can do it, even without previous computer experience. However, because of the network geek that I am, I believe it’s good to understand what a default gateway is to understand why it’s such important to your computer. If you are one of the 99% that prefer solutions instead of explanations, you can click here to get there immediately.
A default gateway is most of the time, the router in your home. This router has an IP address and this address is the default gateway address for the computers, phones and anything else in your house that needs an internet connection. This is because the default gateway is the gateway to the internet.
You see, when a computer needs to reach another network or go to a web server on the internet (for example if a user goes to a webpage), it doesn’t know where to go first, because it’s outside of the local network. When this happens, the computer instead goes to the default gateway, which can then route the packages out from the network to the internet.
That is why it’s almost always the router that is the default gateway. Since the router is responsible for the traffic coming in and out of the local network, it has communication with the outside world. If the default gateway would be another computer, it would be a standstill. All other devices in the network would send its packages and requests to that computer, which wouldn’t know what to do with it.
What this also means, is that when a computer doesn’t have a default gateway, or can’t reach it, the computer can’t reach the internet. That is why you might see something like “Limited Network” because the network is limited to the local network only, and not the outside world.
Another Type of Gateway #funny
As I said before, the router is in 98% of the case, the default gateway in your home, and most businesses as well. So, if you know what IP address your router has, that is your default gateway. If you do not know what IP it has, you can easily google it and find the answer. Searching for something like “Asus router default IP” would result in getting the address. To save you some time, I have already googled for you for some of the biggest brands:
You can also check on the back of your router, as it is also mentioned there what IP address it has. This is something you might need to do if you have a no-name router from your ISP. If it’s not on the back, I’ll suggest that you contact your ISP to ask what the IP address of the router is.
If your network is up and running normally, you can also check your computer settings to see what the default gateway is. To check the default gateway on a Windows-machine, you can do this:
Don’t be afraid of all the scary things that come up. There are things here that make sense, I promise you. If you take a look at what it says, you should have one line saying, “Default Gateway” and then an IP address next to it. As you can see in the image, my default gateway is 192.168.1.1 which is the same address as my router connected to the internet has.
I have had this problem myself and as with any problem, Google is the best solution. However, while searching for solutions for this problem, I found that most sites wanted me to download some sort of driver software that would scan my computer for errors and then download them for me. I have a few problems with this solution:
So, whatever you do, do not download any type of software to solve a problem with drivers or with your computer. Even downloading or purchasing an anti-virus today is not necessary. This is something that I explain more about in this post.
Searching on Google for a solution to this problem is resulting in tons of solutions. To not be worse than others, I have listed my recommended solutions to this problem as well. However, before doing anything, I highly recommend that you do basic troubleshooting first, like rebooting the router and the computer to see if that helps. Remember, I work with IT-Support and at least 50% of the problems can be solved by a reboot. The problem is that users don’t want to reboot and call us for another solution instead 🙂
If you only experience this problem on one device in your home, it is something with that device. If you have a computer with Windows on, I highly recommend that you reinstall your network adapter drivers. If they become corrupt, they can have trouble finding the default gateway. To do this, follow these simple instructions:
Windows has many general drivers’ built-in which means that even without an internet connection, it can still install drivers. Sure, it can’t go to the internet and download the latest drivers, but at least there are some.
It’s funny, but it is getting more common every day. That is that your anti-virus is the cause of the problem. Anti-viruses are often blocking more than they should be protective, which can cause trouble. I highly suggest that you do not purchase or install any anti-virus at all but if you have, or if it came with the computer, which is extremely annoying, you should uninstall it.
Especially if it’s McAfee Antivirus. This antivirus is known to cause trouble with your drivers so if the above solution didn’t help, uninstalling McAfee Antivirus, or any anti-virus for that matter can help.
And don’t worry, the reason why an antivirus isn’t necessary is that Windows 8 and Windows 10 has one that is built into the operating system so you will be protected anyway.
To uninstall your antivirus software, follow these instructions:
When the computer boots up again, you will note if it worked or not by testing your internet connection. Have the internet? Congratulations. Still missing out? Don’t worry, I got more tricks in store for you.
If you still experience problems with the default gateway, another trick could be to change the drivers that are being used by the network adapter. This is quite simple to do, simply follow these steps below:
IMPORTANT: While this does work for some, I highly recommend that you take note of which network adapter model you have, before starting to change up. If it doesn’t work, you want to get back to the first one.
What happens in the background is that the computer will use other drivers for your network adapter. In some cases, Windows has been choosing the wrong one and this is how you can fix it in that case.
Still no internet? Keep going!
If you are on the wireless network and experiencing this problem, it might have to do with your network adapter going into sleep mode. This is something that the computer does to some parts of the computer that is not in use to save power and battery. Unfortunately, it can sometimes choose a wrong time to do so and stop letting it do it for the network adapter could be an option.
To turn off this function, do this:
What you are doing is to tell the computer that it cannot turn off the network adapter at any time to save power. Most likely, you will not notice any difference in battery length, as the network adapter is always on anyway (expect during problems like this) and it draws so little power compared to other components.
If you still have problems with the default gateway and has done all the steps above, it is starting to look dark. There is one last thing you can try before you give up every hope and that is by resetting the TCP/IP. This is usually not something you need to do since these settings will be as default most of the time. However, if they have been changed, resetting them back to default might be a solution. To do this, follow the steps below:
Once restarted your computer, your problem with the default gateway will hopefully be gone and you can once again browse the world wide web.
