Two routers on network

Hi,

Basically I live in a relatively big house, 2 Computers / 1 Console Downstairs and 3 Computers upstairs.

There is currently a Ethernet cable going upstairs into a computer, can I put that cable into another router and utilize it as a switch to then have 3 cables leading out of that router into the systems upstairs?

any information on this would be greatly appreciated I have been searching around google but nothing looks reliable to me, I have a fairly good knowledge on Hardware / Networking, but still studying.

thanks
 
Put the cable to the upstairs computer into a SWITCH (not a router) and everything will be managed by the original router just fine :)
 
Do you already have 2 routers? If not, do what jobeard says. If so, what routers are they?
 
@jobeard, the idea being that i dont have a switch, want to be able to use a router instead

@sngx1275, yeah i have 2 routers, the current 1 im using is Netgear DG347N and the 2nd one that i want to add is a netgear sky broadband one

on the router i wish to add can i just disable the DHCP and the wireless fuction, and it will work as a switch?
 
You may be able to...

I think you'd want to log into the one you want to use as a switch and set the IP to the same network as the one you are going to use as a router. I'd set it to something large where it will be out of the addresses used by DHCP on the one you are still using as a router. So like 192.168.1.25 or higher. Just remember that address so you can get back to its setup page if you need to.

Then you'll want to disable DHCP like you thought, and plug in the wire from your router to one of the LAN ports on the one you want to use as a switch. Don't think it will work if you plug it into the WAN port. Then you should have 3 more ports on the LAN side of the switch that you can use.

You can try it and if it doesn't work, just set it back the way it is, there won't be any harm in trying. But I don't know for sure that what I said will work...
 
yeah giving it a try, if not ill just pop into town get a switch like a normal person lol

having a problem logging into the sky router now though :S admin/password doesnt work and ive help the reset button down for a while, the login details on the bottom of the router dont work either :S networking... such a pain
 
you can use a router as a switch like this:

1) first disable the DHCP service in the 2nd router

2) then cable from R1-->R2 by leaving the WAN port on R2 empty
 
cant login on the 2nd router now :S problem after problem lol

admin/password doesnt work neither the username/pass on the bottom of router :S any ideas how i can get around this?
 
ok forget that, it doesnt work, the 3 systems upstairs now work with internet access from the added sky router however downstairs nothing is connected to the internet :S

how to fix lol im lost now just going to revert back to original set up i think
 
the user/pwd (and all settings) revert to day-1 by using the RESET switch

it's by the WAN port (usually) and you need to insert +hold a paper clip for >10 secs
 
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