one router two networks

[arsenish]

hey guys at a motel where I work, we have a single router but there are two networks available, is that possible? How? One of them is secured and other is unsecured, in fact we recently made one of them password protected. through both of them we can connect to the internet, but they usually get disconnect just like that and we need to restart the router. Any idea on this? I thought a single router could have only one network...

 

[arsenish]

No, its not the network of some other business nearby, its got the name of our motel and I asked a guy there, and he said that the other network was of old router, but how come it is still there coz we have got the new router replaced. the unsecured network gets connected and disconnects after a while, but sometime it goes on. we not having any prob with this, but am amazed so if anyone has the answer then please....

 

[Geoff]

Are you sure the old router isn't connected somewhere? If not, then when you click on the network it actually lets you get on the internet? There are routers that will broadcast more then one SSID (usually modded versions).

 

[arsenish]

i dont think it is connected somewhere else coz its the only place we have all the internet and cable connection settings. these due to some reasons we have to restart the router very frequent, i mean like more than 10 times a day. any idea on this.. or may be i should put it by the new post.. thanks for the reply

 

[Encryptor]

It's very easy to have several networks on one Router, using VLAN's, different subnets and many other ways. It's used by Companies or home users to protect their main network while allowing visits to surf the Internet without the ability to access anything on the protected/private network(s).

Encryptor
Linux rocks the planet...

 

[arsenish]

Thanks everyone for the replies. It was like the router was still connected and we found it yesterday. It was not one router two networks, but it was, like obvious, two routers and two networks, one was hidden though. By the we are having extremely frequents interruption in our internet connection, its like we had restart it every 5/6 mins yesterday... could it be because of the two routers??????

 

[Lectrician]

Here in the UK it is possible to get a nasty router free from British Telecom and this has two wireless networks on it - An admin one and an open one. The open one only allows access to the internet and network, the other one allows access to the settings in the router.

The reason they did this was that so many people who obtain the kit assume it is plug and play WiFi, and want to be able to plug it in and it work. They dont want to have to connect with a cable and then set up the network before using the WiFi. It also helps the call centre during fault finding/setting up calls.

I don' like the idea, and hate the router.

 

[bilbus]

When you say "two networks" what do you mean?

A router can have 100's of networks (subnets) Even without VLANs.

My home router / firewall has 4 interfaces (networks) and my work router / firewall has 8 interfaces (networks)

If you mean you see two SSIDs ... yes a single access point can have man SSIDs. My AP has 2 SSIDs ... for the office and public subnets (both networks are on their own VLAN)

So yes

and having more then one router on a network is comon in the enterprise. Hell we have 2 feeding our WAN connections. And will cause no problems. If you dont need it you should not have it.