WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.360 Got a crappy Wi-Fi signal? You might be wondering, why can't you just add a second router to your 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.160 network and get twice the coverage? It turns out you actually can, although it takes a little 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:14.080 bit of effort and there are some caveats that you should be aware of. Before we dive in, we'd like 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:18.720 to thank our good friend Joel Crane for helping us out with this walkthrough. Step zero, it's 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:25.040 actually important to know what your typical Wi-Fi router does. It not only emits a Wi-Fi signal, 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:29.040 it's also responsible for moving traffic between the internet and your home, 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:33.760 which is the actual routing part, as well as ensuring that the right traffic goes to the 00:00:33.760 --> 00:00:39.040 right device. So a video you're trying to watch on your phone in bed won't instead get sent to 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:44.000 your TV in the living room. This job of sending data to the correct place is typically handled by a 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:51.200 feature in your router called the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP. How DHCP does 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:56.720 this is by assigning every gadget on your home network a private IP address, usually starting 00:00:56.720 --> 00:01:03.120 with 192.168.something. But why do you need to know this in order to add a second router? Well, 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:09.440 regardless of exactly how many routers you have, only one of them should have DHCP turned on. If 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:14.000 more than one router tries to assign private IP addresses, they'll often end up conflicting 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.400 with each other and assigning different addresses to the same device, which can cause all kinds of 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:23.520 errors when that device tries to communicate. So how do you ensure that this does not happen? 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:28.160 Start by hooking up your second router to a PC with an Ethernet cable. Just use one of the 00:01:28.160 --> 00:01:34.000 LAN ports and manually assign it an IP address in your router settings. Make sure it is not 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.080 something that's already being used by another device in your network. You can check by going to 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:43.680 your primary router setting page and looking for a list of connected devices or clients. Just pick 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:51.040 an address that is not on this list. For example, if your primary router is using 192.168.1.1, try 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:58.240 giving the second router an address of 192.168.1.2 if nothing else is using that. Reboot your second 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:03.760 router and once it's back up, go back into the settings and disable DHCP, leaving it enabled 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:08.640 only on the one router that's actually connected to your modem. Some routers call this AP mode, 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:13.840 where AP stands for access point. Essentially, you're telling that second router just to emit 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:18.800 a Wi-Fi signal while leaving all the actual routing to the primary router. After you've done this, 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:24.000 connect your primary and secondary routers via their LAN ports. Not the LAN port, very important, 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:30.000 not that one. And configure the second router to use the same network name, or SSID, and password 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.840 as your existing Wi-Fi network. That way, any devices in your home should roam between the two 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:40.240 routers, locking on to which everyone has the best signal. But for that to work, the physical 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:45.040 placement of these routers needs to make sense. Put your second router somewhere far enough away 00:02:45.040 --> 00:02:49.680 so there isn't a bunch of signal overlap, which you can roughly measure with the smartphone 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:54.720 signal strength app. But not so far away that you're leaving a big dead zone in between them. 00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:59.440 You want a healthy Venn diagram. This process can obviously involve some trial and error, 00:02:59.440 --> 00:03:05.040 and to make matters more complicated, many smart devices are quite stupid in the sense 00:03:05.040 --> 00:03:09.440 that they'll stay connected to a weak access point for longer than they really should. If you're 00:03:09.440 --> 00:03:13.200 finding that this is the case when using a second router, you might just want to name it 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:17.840 something different and just connect to it manually. Of course, if this all just sounds 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:22.320 like a huge pain, it is a bit easier just to get a mesh networking kit off the shelf if you need 00:03:22.320 --> 00:03:26.480 better Wi-Fi coverage. But if you really do want to use that second router you just have laying 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:31.200 around anyway, this guide should at the very least be strapping a clothes hanger wrapped in tin foil 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:34.800 to your phone. We all have our embarrassing past. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:39.200 video, hit like, hit subscribe, and hit us up in the comments section with your ideas for topics 00:03:39.200 --> 00:03:40.880 that we should cover in the future.