Wiring two access points with one modem - proper settings for each

Question

I am having issues figuring out the correct way to set everything up with regards to gateways and which items to set as an actual access point vs. a router. Given the physical layout of our house, here is physical setup of our network.

In trying to set this up, Laptop 1 and Laptop 2 have issues seeing material on Desktop; if Laptop 1 and/or Laptop 2 are connected to 198.168.0.2 instead of 192.168.0.3, there are no issue. I'm confident that I have messed up some routing configuration vs. settings items to only access points. Laptop 1 and Laptop 2 also have issues accessing the network printer. The entire network is a combination of static IPs and DHCP (anything >= ..*.100 is DHCP); I have the DHCP server enabled on 192.168.0.2 only. Moreover, SSIDs are the same for both TP-Link devices, and passwords are the same.

My questions:

• For each of the devices, which should be set to Access Point only? I.e. which should have the switch feature turned off?
• Does having the network printer plugged into the modem, cause the issue where Laptop 1 and Laptop 2 cannot see it?

Thanks.

Answer 1

For each of the devices, which should be set to Access Point only? I.e. which should have the switch feature turned off?

The switch feature doesn't matter. Both Ethernet switches and Wi-Fi access points are just bridges and build a single layer-2 network in the same way. It's the router feature that must be disabled (i.e. "access-point" mode selected), on both of them.

Why do I say that? According to your diagram, devices connected directly to the DSL Modem have private addresses from the same network ID as devices connected to each of the TP-Links. This means that the DSL Modem is most likely already acting as a router, so you don't need the same on either of the APs – all areas which use the same network prefix (192.168.0.x) should be bridged together, and all areas you don't want to bridge should be using different network prefixes.

(Technically DHCP service can still be provided by a TP-Link, as long as you tell it to advertise the correct "default gateway" IP address, i.e. the DSL modem's instead of its own.)

Does having the network printer plugged into the modem, cause the issue where Laptop 1 and Laptop 2 cannot see it?

I don't know what you mean by "cannot see it", but I'll assume "cannot connect to it by address" (although the same really applies to "cannot auto-discover in the local devices list").

The answer is the same as above. It seems that your problem is that you have two networks, both numbered 192.168.0.x, but physically separated by a router in the middle (the 2nd TP-Link?). Just because the router has 192.168.0.x on the LAN side and 192.168.0.x on the WAN side doesn't make it stop treating both sides as separate networks. Both TP-Link devices should be in bridge or access point mode.