How to Convert Your Old Router Into a Access Point - Computers - Networks

You ask why you would want to do this. Well the two main reasons are, if you require more then four computers wired into your network, this normally means buying a network hub or a network switch. The other reason is to extend your wireless access range, if your single keeps dropping out or you're out of range of the router. This is normally a cheaper alterative to buying expensive access points or switches.

If you're looking into extending your wireless access range you will need to make sure you have a long enough cable that will reach from where you want the old router to be located to the current location of the main router. This is because the two routers are going to hard wired together so that the old router acts like an access point rather then a router.

Once you have figured out where you want to place the old router, you will have to connect to it via wireless or wired connection to change the settings to allow it be used as a access point. When you are connected to the router you will need to log onto the router, the IP address for routers aren't always the same. This is one way you can find your router IP, go to the windows start button click it then click run, then the text box pops up type in it "cmd" then click run or press enter, then the command prompt opens type "ipcongfig /all" this will show you a list of connections made on your computer.

Look for the wireless or wired connect name in the list that is created and look for the IP address next to "Default gateway" this is the routers IP address. Now enter the IP address into your web browser and you should see the login page for your router, if you haven't picked a password for your router then the main username is "admin" and the main common passwords are "admin" or "password" this should log you in if not you will have to find the password for that type of router.

Once logged into find the part of the router that has the option to disable (un tick) enable DHCP Server, this will tell the router NOT to give the computers attached to it IP address and instead will pass the computers connection to the next device which will be the main router that connects to the internet and that router will give the computer an IP address.

Beware, if you want to set up any other settings on the router like wireless access key passwords or router passwords, best to do it now because some times the old router will be giving a IP range that you can't connect to or see easily and if you want to change the wireless password without knowing the IP of the router once its connected to the main router you will have to reset the router to default by pressing the reset switch located on the old router and start the process from scratch.

Once the settings have changed and saved reboot the router and connect the old router to the main router that connects to the internet, all you have to do is use one of the available Ethernet socket on the main router and place it into one of the sockets on the old router, I use socket 1 on both devices so I don't mix up the connections when added new computers to the network.

Now the old router should be acting as an access point rather then a router, this means you can now connect up to six computers to the wired network and/or have extended your wireless area of your network. This setup should work for most routers so long as you can disable the DHCP server from the router you are going to be using as the access point.

access point vs router