Three routers behind eachother in the network; port-forwarding and wifi

Question

I have setup the network throughout the house, but it is quite complex and often fails somehow.

• router #0 (192.168.0.1) which is also the modem and has incoming connection
• router #1 (192.168.1.1) has gateway to router #0
• router #2 (192.168.2.1) has gateway to router #1

All three routers are wifi emitters, so we have three wifi-networks in this house. All three routers have DHCP enabled for wifi to work, and the routers get a dynamic ip from their parent router. Each router has it's own subnet (third digit is 0, 1 or 2) in which is distributes ips.

Many computers are connected (wired) to router #1, my computer is connected to router #2 and no computers (other than wireless) are connected to router #0.

Ideally I want one DHCP router in my network (router #1 for example) and one big wifi network. What would be a wise way to accomplish this? Can I let the routers extend eachothers wifi? Because router #0 and #2 would do fine without DHCP except for their wifi...and at present we have three wifi networks with medium range, I want one big wifi network with great range.

How do I need to connect my LAN cables (into WAN or LAN plugs in the router)? How do I setup this wifi? What would be static ip'ed? Static IP's are necessary for port-forwarding, right?

Answer 1

In brief, the router connected to the Internet is fine and can stay the same. The others, however, need to be configured to simply be an "Access Point" with DHCP and routing disabled. You then disconnect anything from their WAN port and connect them to the other router using the LAN ports on each.

In terms of Wi-Fi, each router needs it's own configuration but simply set them all to be the same SSID, encryption type and encryption key. Wi-Fi devices should then roam between the routers as they see fit.