I have 1 internet connection which I've split up using a managed TP-LINK switch.
The switch sends both TV/internet to a Bell Wireless Router/WIFI/DHCP (192.168.2.1). (vlan36)
The switch sends only internet to a TP-LINK Wireless Router/WIFI/DHCP (192.168.76.1). (vlan35)
The reason I'm still using the Bell Wireless Router is I can't get IPTV working properly on my TP-Link router (Archer C7 v2) as the Bell Router assigns 192.168.2.x IPS to the wireless/clients/devices and the receivers are assigned some 10.x.x.x network ips. (I spent months trying to get it working.. I managed to get a picture/video.. but there was something causing multicasting from working properly.. so the picture/video would freeze... so I gave up! Eventually I'd like to tackle this again..)
So now I'd like to hard wire both these networks together so the clients/devices/etc on either networks can communicate with each other.
Is this possible?
Can I use my managed switch to do this? Do I simply add a new interface to my tp-link router and give it a static IP from the Bell router? (192.168.2.2 for example). I'm assuming some funky routing would have to be setup..
Multiple ways to do this of course, but I'd choose a single subnet approach so that devices can not only communicate with one another, but so that broadcast traffic reaches all devices on your LAN.
The idea would be to have have one subnet, probably 192.168.2.1 in the interest of not messing with your Bell router. One DHCP server, again probably your Bell router. And two gateways, the Bell at 192.168.2.1 and the TP-LINK at 192.168.2.2.
Any devices you want to get to the Internet via the Bell you'd do nothing to. Any that you want to get to the Internet via the TP-LINK you'd set a static address in the 192.168.2.0 range and set the gateway to 192.168.2.2
I don't think I follow completely.. just a few questions.
how are the two routers hooked up together? LAN to LAN port? I set 1 port on my TP-LINK to a 192.168.2.2 IP? with its gateway to 192.168.2.1? Do all my devices on my 192.168.76.1 network stay configured the same?
I don't want to assign 192.168.2.0 ips to my devices on my TP-LINK network.
The solution I proposed was to put everything on a single subnet with two gateways. I thought since your long term goal is to only have one router this would work well for you. If you want broadcast traffic to work, like WOL packets, network discovery and so forth, this is a good way to go.
So yes, you'd have your two routers connected LAN to LAN. The Bell router would be the DHCP server at 192.168.2.1 the TP-Link would have a static IP of 192.168.2.2, both would have their WAN ports connected to the managed switch as they do now. Anything you wanted to get to the Internet via the Bell, you'd leave as is. Anything you wanted to get to the Internet via the TP-LINK, you'd assign a static address on that device in the 192.168.2.0 range, but with 192.168.2.2 as the gateway.
If you don't want everything on the same subnet for some reason, then hopefully somebody else has an idea for you...