AC87U is coming home...RT-N16 as lan switch for it?

[sammarbella]

The shiny new AC87U is coming to my home monday and i want to use my old RT-N16 as a lan switch.

I saw a how-to using DD-WRT firmware to convert a router in a switch and assign the WAN port as an additional usable port to connect it to the router.("Assign WAN Port to Switch [X]")

Is it possible to do something similar with Asuswrt-Merlin firmware in order to be able to use the 4 lan ports for....lan devices and use the WAN port to connect it to router?

 

[Ronv42]

The shiny new AC87U is coming to my home monday and i want to use my old RT-N16 as a lan switch.

I saw a how-to using DD-WRT firmware to convert a router in a switch and assign the WAN port as an additional usable port to connect it to the router.("Assign WAN Port to Switch [X]")

Is it possible to do something similar with Asuswrt-Merlin firmware in order to be able to use the 4 lan ports for....lan devices and use the WAN port to connect it to router?

DD-WRT, Tomato, and Merlin all support programming the switch. I know that that Tomato actually has the option right on the main network page if you setup the router as a access point you can tick the box "Use Wan for Lan". The vlan gui in DD-WRT achieves the same.

If you do an:

 nvram show | grep vlan

You should be able to pick out the vlan configuration items but the logical to physical mappings differ by router model. Look for items like:

vlan2ports=0 7u
vlan1ports=1 2 3 5 7*

Again I am not well versed anymore in this topic since the last time I had to do this was with older "G" hardware such as the Linksys WRT54G and Buffalo series.

 

[RMerlin]

Simplest is probably to configure the router as an Access Point. You can then disable the wireless radio if you want to avoid any interference with the RT-AC87U that will be nearby.

 

[sammarbella]

Thanks for you reply Ronv42.

I know it's possible to do it with DD-WRT as i saw a simple how-to:

http://www.howtogeek.com/174419/how-to-reuse-your-old-wi-fi-router-as-a-network-switch/

In the section "Advanced Router to Switch Configuration" it explains step by step the procedure.

Excuse me if my question was not clear.

When i said if it's possible to do the same in Asuswrt-Merlin firmware, my question was looking for the exact procedure to do the same with it.

As the router have Asuswrt-Merlin firmware on it right now.

 

[sammarbella]

Simplest is probably to configure the router as an Access Point. You can then disable the wireless radio if you want to avoid any interference with the RT-AC87U that will be nearby.

Thanks.

Is it possible to use all port on the device including the old WAN to access the new router configuring it as you said?

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks.

Is it possible to use all port on the device including the old WAN to access the new router configuring it as you said?

The WAN port would be used as the uplink to your main router.

After that, look at the Networkmap on your main router to determine the IP through which you can access the RT-N16 to manage it.

 

[sammarbella]

The WAN port would be used as the uplink to your main router.

After that, look at the Networkmap on your main router to determine the IP through which you can access the RT-N16 to manage it.

Need i to deactive more things like NAT/DHCP/firewall on the "switch" to prevent nasty problem like double NAT?

 

[RMerlin]

Need i to deactive more things like NAT/DHCP/firewall on the "switch" to prevent nasty problem like double NAT?

No, Access Point mode will already disable all these features.

 

[Nullity]

Need i to deactive more things like NAT/DHCP/firewall on the "switch" to prevent nasty problem like double NAT?

AP mode will disable all those things automatically.

edit: I'm too slow.

 

[sammarbella]

Thanks to both.