How to turn an old router into a switch

How to configure the router as a switch? Most likely you will ask this question if you are planning to expand your home network, but only have an Ethernet router, not a switch.

The good news is that you can take advantage of this redundant router and pay no more to buy switches. The setup steps are very simple. Along TipsMake.com learn through the following article offline!

Example of using a router as a switch

As you can see from the two examples below, it is possible to use a second Ethernet router to expand the existing wireless network or home Ethernet network, providing the ability to connect more computers to your network. Please note that the first and second routers must be on the same network, because the second router only acts as a switch, not the router.

How to turn an old router into a switch Picture 1

How to turn an old router into a switch Picture 2

How to configure the router to a switch

Start configuring the second router as a switch.

Step 1:

Connect the LAN port of the first router to the LAN port of the second router using a crossover cable. If one of the routers supports auto MDI / MDI-X, you can use either straight or crossover cable. Remember, do not make any connection to the WAN port or the Internet of the second router.

Step 2:

Now suppose the LAN IP of the first router is 192.168.1.1 with the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 , and then it will act as the gateway for the entire network (including the computers connected to the second router).

If you want to enable DHCP, then just enable the DHCP setting on the first router and it will act as a DHCP server for the entire network (you don't need to turn on DHCP on the second router anymore).

For example, you can enable DHCP with IP range 192.168.1.2-250 , subnet mask 255.255.255.0 , port 192.168.1.1 , DNS server 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 on the first router.

Step 3:

Next, log into the configuration page of the second router, and then give this router an IP, by configuring the IP and subnet mask in the LAN settings . The IP you configure must be on the same subnet as the first router's subnet, and this IP is not used by any other device.

If you have configured the LAN IP and DHCP settings of the first router (as shown in step 2 above), you can easily configure the second router with LAN IP 192.168.1.251, 192.168.1.252 or 192.168.1.253 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

Step 4:

After that, do not enable DHCP or any other settings on the second router. If you have DHCP or other settings turned on, turn them off. Finally, save all settings. You have now completed the task of turning the second router into a switch.

Step 5:

If you have a computer configured to get IP automatically, connect it to another LAN port of this new "network switch". The device will be able to connect to the network, ping IP routers and access the Internet.

Note: If everything still doesn't work, turn off all routers and computers, restart the first and second routers, then turn on other computers and check again.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 19 June 2020

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