Two R7450 Routers w/ separate SSID on one Network

[aquafuzz]

Current Setup:
Fiber ISP wired to Netgear R7450 #1, from Router #1 (SSID-Home) it is wired to a TV, Bedroom PC and 5 port switch. From the 5 port switch it is wired to my home office PC and to a detached office space where the Netgear R7450 #2 (SSID-Office) is located.
Both routers are configured as if they are a single routers (out of the box setup), no special configuration.
The Issues:
No know issues within the home setup.
In the detached office where I conduct all of my ZOOM meetings I sporadically have "you network connection is unstable" warnings popup on my ZOOM meeting or my ZOOM connection completely disconnects and reconnects (WiFi drops and picks up again). I have had an IP Conflict warning pop up on my PC but after a restart of the PC everything was fine.
I only seem to have issue while in ZOOM. If I am on YT or Netflix or Prime Movies or and other streaming service, no issues.

Speed tests are consistent, 450 down - 450 up, ping 2ms

This began all around the time I upgraded both routers from old ASUS routers to the R7450's and switching ISP's from Sprectrum - cable modem to a local CoOp - fiber (Home Telcom). I upgraded routers to handle the fiber service.

This may not be router related but that's where I'm starting because that's the only thing that has changed recently.

Are there any further tests I can run or things to check before re-configuring routers?

If I have to re-configure my routers, what is the best solution for my setup? I want to have a SSID for each router.


Wiring Layout


Router #1 Home Configuration




Router #2 Office Configuration

 

[R. Gerrits]

The way it now seems to be configured is causing your traffic from the Office network to be NATted twice when going to the internet.
Don't think it would be causing the zoom / wifi disconnects though.

But, do you really require the both locations to be also in different subnets?
(perhaps from a security perspective, if you require firewall between your office and your house)

Otherwise I would configure the router #2 as an access point.

In case you do want to keep different subnets, then I would at least give router #2 a static IP-address
(change the starting IP of the DHCP pool on #1 to a higher IP (like .6) and then configure #2 to statically use IP-address .5)

 

[aquafuzz]

The way it now seems to be configured is causing your traffic from the Office network to be NATted twice when going to the internet.
Don't think it would be causing the zoom / wifi disconnects though. As configured I have no other issues with drops or slowdowns or conflicts other than ZOOM. I've researched a bit more about ZOOM and there is mention of making ZOOM a priority on the router or enabling WME/WMM on the router because of dropped audio/video even on giga service. If I do this would I need to do this for both routers. Haven't try that yet.

But, do you really require the both locations to be also in different subnets? I don't really need the second router to have that level of security as long as Router #1 has security set on it.
(perhaps from a security perspective, if you require firewall between your office and your house)

Otherwise I would configure the router #2 as an access point. I have looked into that, but will I be able to have separate SSIDs/passwords for both routers? I want then distinct when I have groups to the office and only have them connect to Router #2.

In case you do want to keep different subnets, then I would at least give router #2 a static IP-address
(change the starting IP of the DHCP pool on #1 to a higher IP (like .6) and then configure #2 to statically use IP-address .5) So in this scenario Router #1 would be 192.168.6.1 and Router #2 would be 192.168.5.1? Do I need to disable the DHCP on Router #2 in the static IP config?

 

[R. Gerrits]

I don't have experience with Netgear in AccessPoint mode, but I'd be very surprised if router1 would push any WiFi info to router2.
Router 1 wouldn't even know there is an access point connected (it could just as well be a switch). So I think it is fine to use a different SSID.


and for the static IP option.
no I don't mean 192.168.6.1 and 192.168.5.1

I mean that currently router 1 is assigning IP-addresses from the range 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254.
And apparently router 2 gets 192.168.1.5 as its "WAN" IP-address.

So change the range on router 1 that it starts at 192.168.1.6
This allows addresses 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.5 to be used as static IP-addresses.
And then you can configure the WAN (internet) interface of router 2 to use 192.168.1.5 (or 192.168.1.2).

But, going to a more simple setup, where Router 2 is an AP from Router 1, to me looks more simple.
(but it does mean that also all your office devices will get an IP-address from DHCP on Router 1 and thus also get 192.168.1.x.

And now that you mention it, I'm not using zoom often, but I do recall having the same "you network connection is unstable" messages in the past.
But on my R7800, "WMM: Wi-Fi Multimedia enhances quality of service on wireless LAN by prioritizing data packets" is enabled.

If you only use ZOOM on the office, then probably WMM only needs to be active on router 2. As it (according to the description) it only affects wireless)

 

[aquafuzz]

I don't have experience with Netgear in AccessPoint mode, but I'd be very surprised if router1 would push any WiFi info to router2.
Router 1 wouldn't even know there is an access point connected (it could just as well be a switch). So I think it is fine to use a different SSID.


and for the static IP option.
no I don't mean 192.168.6.1 and 192.168.5.1

I mean that currently router 1 is assigning IP-addresses from the range 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254.
And apparently router 2 gets 192.168.1.5 as its "WAN" IP-address.

So change the range on router 1 that it starts at 192.168.1.6
This allows addresses 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.5 to be used as static IP-addresses.
And then you can configure the WAN (internet) interface of router 2 to use 192.168.1.5 (or 192.168.1.2).

But, going to a more simple setup, where Router 2 is an AP from Router 1, to me looks more simple.
(but it does mean that also all your office devices will get an IP-address from DHCP on Router 1 and thus also get 192.168.1.x.

And now that you mention it, I'm not using zoom often, but I do recall having the same "you network connection is unstable" messages in the past.
But on my R7800, "WMM: Wi-Fi Multimedia enhances quality of service on wireless LAN by prioritizing data packets" is enabled.

If you only use ZOOM on the office, then probably WMM only needs to be active on router 2. As it (according to the description) it only affects wireless)

Thank you that was helpful, a good starting point on todays router adventures.

 

[coxhaus]

I see no reason to run a second router unless you can come up with one.