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We have three ADSL Wifi Routers which are connected to my ISPs, these are wifi access points for the various computers that we use at office.

Devices used: http://www.dlink.co.in/products/?pid=451 and a similar wifi router/adsl model device from DLink

I am trying to see if users of each of these routers be combined into one single Local Network where file sharing, usage of the same Radius server for Enterprise Authentication, sharing of web servers etc. can be done.

I have tried to connect two of them first using the following technique and had no positive results. I turned the DHCP off on one of the routers and assigned it 192.168.1.2 as the IP address, the other router which assigns DHCP based IP addresses has been given a range starting 192.168.1.3. After configuring the above, I have connected these two routers (with IP 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2) using a regular LAN Cable.

After the above setup each computer connected to these routers are able to access internet, using the appropriate gateway IP addresses, however each of these computers are not able to identify the other over the Network. I thought since now all the devices are connected and share an IP range and are on the same subnet Mask (255.255.255.0) they would all the visible to each other, but my network skills in this are are very limited and I could be talking completely unworkable and illogical things here.

The reason for this whole division of connections is because I am in a location where the connectivity speed per broadband is only good up to 8 Mbps and we need more than that leaving multiple connections as the only option, any other innovative way to achieve what I am trying to do are welcome.

Thank you for reading and your time, let me know if I can add more information or make the question clearer by any means.

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You need a router that will combine the multiple WAN connections - well, really, share the multiple WAN connections - they cannot actually be "Combined" unless your provider gives a way to "Bond" them - essentially meaning that you can get an aggregate (3x the top speed of each) but you can't get more than (the top speed of each) for any individual connection.

There are undoubtedly many approaches that work - the one I happen to be most familiar with is the pfSense router (FreeBSD-based freeware/donationware router load for a PC.)

You disconnect your local network from the ADSL modems and shut down their WiFi (hopefully they do have ethernet cable connections.)

You connect all three ADSL modems to the router - in my case the pfSense box. You follow instructions/guidance/support forum tips to get it set up for multi-WAN connections to your ADSL lines.

You connect your local network to a 4th interface on the router. If you need WiFi, you provide WiFi APs that are just APs, not ADSL modems, routers and APs.

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You should be able to get this done pretty easily.

Leave DHCP 'ON' on one of the routers than simply connect the three routers together using network cable (CAT5e). The ISP will give each of these routers a different external IP address so that collision should be avoided. You will only need to make sure that each router is given a different IP address internally. The client PC's will get their IP's from the one router with DHCP enabled.

Just out of curiosity is there a reason you need three different ISP's in one network? Could you just use a switch and point everything at one ADSL Modem?

Let me know, Ben

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  • Thank you for the response, I tried doing this and the computers did not identify each other in the network, could this be a firewall issue in each PC? We are not using three different ISPs we are using three connections from the same ISP only to ensure that we get over 8 Mbps connectivity, which is upper the speed limit the ISP is able to offer in our area.
    – skv
    Commented Jul 12, 2014 at 16:59
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    But that will only use the connection from the one with DHCP enabled. The clients won't route via the other ones.
    – Phil
    Commented Jul 12, 2014 at 17:45
  • wouldnt you be able to set the default gateway manually on those clients that need to use the alternative ISP's so they look at the right router?
    – DevDonkey
    Commented Feb 22, 2015 at 13:42

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