Don't buy a network switch—turn your old router into one instead
Like all good tech geeks, I am a terrible hoarder. I have drawers full of old cables for phones I no longer own, and empty boxes from devices I sold years ago. I also have several old routers gathering dust, and decided to put one of them to good use.
Why I turned my router into a network switch
Wired connections often beat Wi-Fi
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
A lot of my devices have Ethernet ports. Unfortunately, the number of ports on my router and wireless mesh nodes is fairly limited. In my home office, I have my iMac, MacBook Air, and hi-fi system all using wired connections through a network switch that's connected to my mesh node.
In my living room, however, I only have my smart TV and PS5 connected to the mesh node, and I have a DVR and Switch 2 that are forced to connect over Wi-Fi. I could just spend $20 on another network switch, but I realized that my old router should be able to do the job for free.
It supports gigabit Ethernet and has four LAN ports, which means that with one port used to connect to one of the two mesh node ports, I end up with four usable ports over both devices, instead of just two. Using wired connections on my data-hungry devices can help to reduce congestion on my Wi-Fi network , so it's a win for my wireless devices, too.
Disabling DHCP on my router
You don't want two routers assigning IP addresses
There are a few things I needed to do in order to be able to use my router as a network switch. After all, the product wasn't designed to work that way.
The first thing I needed to do was disable Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). This is the network protocol that automatically assigns IP configuration to devices on your network. The local IP address of each device on your home network is usually assigned by your router, which aims to ensure that no two devices have the same IP.
Since my current router is already using DHCP to assign IP addresses, leaving DHCP enabled on the router I was repurposing could mean that both routers try to assign IP addresses, which can cause issues.
Each router has its own firmware and a mess of menus to wade through, but thankfully, it was fairly easy to disable DHCP on my old device using a simple toggle switch. With this setting disabled, I could be sure that only my current router would assign any IP addresses.
Some routers have features such as Access Point mode or Bridge mode, which can disable routing features. You may need to consult your manufacturer's documentation to find the best way to disable DHCP.
Changing the router's IP address
Stop any conflict with your current router
tomeqs / Shutterstock.com
The other thing that I needed to change was the IP address of the router itself. 192.168.1.1 is a common IP address for routers, and the same address was used by both my current router and my old router.
If both routers use the same IP address, this can cause conflicts and could mean that I may not be able to access the admin UI for one of the routers. I found that it was simple enough to change the IP of my old router.
When I tried to do so, however, there was a small snag. I wanted to change the IP to 192.168.1.2, but this was already included in the assignable IP addresses that the router would use with DHCP enabled. It wouldn't let me save this new IP until I changed the list of addresses available to DHCP to start from 192.168.1.3 instead.
Once I'd made this change, I was able to change the router's IP to 192.168.1.2. Both routers now had different IP addresses, so there was no risk of conflicts.
Some key mistakes to avoid
Don't use the WAN port and use decent cables
Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek
Once I'd changed these settings, my old router was ready to be used as a network switch. There are a couple of mistakes that are easy to make at this point, one of which I made.
By default, a router's WAN port won't function like a standard LAN port unless you switch the router into Access Point or Bridge mode. This means you need to use one of the regular LAN ports to connect to your main router or mesh node, leaving the remaining LAN ports free for your other devices.
The other mistake, which is the one I made, was to use a cheap Ethernet cable. When I ran a quick speed test using the router as a switch, I found that one device was getting half the download speed that it achieved over Wi-Fi.
The problem was the Ethernet cable I was using. When I switched it out for a good-quality Ethernet cable , the wired download speeds were even faster than the Wi-Fi speeds I was seeing.
Put your old router to good use
Network switches aren't expensive and can be incredibly useful. If you have an old router lying around, however, you don't need to spend anything at all. It took me less than five minutes to change the necessary settings, and now more of my devices are enjoying a nice, stable wired network connection.
