Identifying additional Routers and Repeaters connected to Gargoyle Router

[egru]

I have a bit tricky setup and hence am providing detailed background to help understand the situation comprehensively.

My queries are mentioned at the end of the setup mentioned below.

Background

Basic Setup
I have a Kibosh parental control router model TP-Link TL-WDR3600 v1 with Gargoyle firmware 4.1.6 having 128 Mb memory and two USB ports.

I get internet connection from ISP to my home through a fiber connection on an ISP provided modem which provides both Internet and Phone line.

WAN port of Gargoyle router is connected directly to the Ethernet cable coming out of the ISP provided modem. Gargoyle router is configured to allow internet access using PPPoE by providing the username and password provided by the ISP. This essentially means that Gargoyle router is the single point of access providing internet access to all the devices connected in my home.

As of now, I am using only WiFi to access internet and the only SSID being used is the one provided by Gargoyle router. Nothing is connected to any of the four LAN ports in the Gargoyle router as of now.

Also, on a different note, my home is wired with network connectivity built in and each of the rooms in my home has an Ethernet LAN socket in the wall. Bedroom, Living Room, Children Room etc. have their own LAN sockets. All of these LAN sockets converge into a junction box which is right next to the Gargoyle router.

Current Usage Setup
I have named and assigned static IPs to each of the "known" devices in my home like each mobile phone, each laptop, each desktop, each tablet etc. I have also ensured that I provide two different static IPs for devices having both LAN port and also have WiFi (mostly all laptops and desktops), one for the LAN and one for the Wireless). With this router setup, none of the devices in my home currently use wired LAN for connecting to internet and everyone connects using SSID provided by Gargoyle router. This is to ensure that I can monitor each device by name.

My queries are as follows.

LIVING ROOM Setup
Due to the distance of the living room from the Gargoyle router, the WiFi signal is very weak in the living room. I have two old spare Encore Router cum Repeater (ENHWI-2AN3 and ENHWI-3GN3) which may come in handy here. I have hard reset each of these spare router cum repeater to factory settings. I am planning to configure first Encore Router cum Repeater to be used as a normal wireless router, provide it with its own SSID and password and connect the LAN socket in the living room wall to the WAN port of the first Encore Router. The corresponding other end of the living room LAN socket available in the junction box (which is sitting adjacent to the Gargoyle router) will be connected to one of the four LAN ports in the Gargoyle router.

This way, while Gargoyle router will still be the main provider of internet in my home, one more router and WiFi will be added in the living room area through the Gargoyle router's first LAN port (which is not being used currently).

My queries are as follows.

1) How do I identify the living room first Encore router connected to the Gargoyle router using MAC address similar to other normal devices being identified currently? Can I name and assign static IP to the living room first Encore router too?
2) At times the same devices that are directly connected to the WiFi signal of Gargoyle router's SSID will now get connected to the SSID of the first Encore router. How do I identify these devices uniquely on Gargoyle Router (the MAC address of these devices will be same but they will now connect to Gargoyle router through the first Encore router SSID which is effectively connected to LAN port of Gargoyle router)

CHILDREN ROOM (This is more tricky situation)
As I have mentioned, I have a LAN port in each room in the wall which essentially comes from the junction box (sitting next to the Gargoyle router and the phone cum internet modem provided by ISP). The problem is that this same LAN port in the wall allows to connect both RJ45 (for computers) and RJ11 cables (for conventional phones). So, if I use the LAN socket in the wall for phone line, I cannot use it for normal ethernet cable and if I use it for ethernet cable, I cannot use it for phone line.

I have a Two Line cordless phone in my home. First phone line is connected to the normal phone line provided by the same ISP providing the internet and the second phone line I use with MagicJack device which also works as a second phone number. The way MagicJack device works is that one end of MagicJack device plugs into an ethernet port having internet access using a RJ45 cable and the other end plugs into a normal phone line (second line on my two line phone) using a RJ11 cable.

As the LAN port in the wall in the children room will NOT allow to connect both the RJ11 cable for phone and the RJ45 ethernet cable at the same time, I have no choice but to connect RJ11 cable for first ISP provided main phone line to this LAN port (as this room is in the center of the home, this is the most ideal place to keep the two line cordless phone as otherwise I do not get cordless phone signals across the home).

Due to this, I do not have any LAN socket in the wall left to connect the MagicJack device's ethernet cable to connect it to internet.

To resolve this situation, I plan to use the second spare Encore Router cum Repeater in repeater mode this time in children room. This I plan to do by connecting the second Encore repeater to the SSID provided by Gargoyle WiFi router and extend and repeat it. This will also allow me to connect the ethernet cable of the MagicJack device to the LAN port of the second Encore repeater and solve my problem of no availability of more LAN ports in the wall.

My queries are as follows.

3) How do I identify the children room second Encore repeater and connected to the Gargoyle router WiFi SSID ? Can I name and assign static IP to the children room Encore repeater too?
4) At times the same devices that are directly connected to the WiFi signal of Gargoyle router's SSID will now get connected to the SSID of the Encore repeater. How do I identify these devices uniquely on Gargoyle Router (the MAC address of these devices will be same but they will now connect to Gargoyle router through the Encore repeater which is effectively connected through WiFi to SSID of Gargoyle router)?
5) Is it possible to use a different SSID for the second Encore repeater when I use it in repeater mode?
6) If answer to 3) is Yes, at times the same devices that are directly connected to the WiFi signal of Gargoyle router's SSID will now get connected to the different SSID of the second Encore repeater. How do I identify these devices uniquely on Gargoyle Router (the MAC address of these devices will be same but they will now connect to Gargoyle router through the second Encore repeater which is effectively connected through WiFi to SSID of Gargoyle router)

Finally, hopefully a simple query.
7) In spite of naming each "known" device and assigning a static IP address to it, at times, I still get some devices which I cannot identify and which are not named as being connected to Gargoyle Router. I guess these could be the DVR or some other odd device like Kindle etc. How do I identify these and assign static IP addresses to these devices.

I know the post and the queries have become long and also complex. But I will highly appreciate if someone can help me resolve these.

If you can be kind enough to respond to each query as asked point wise (numbered 1 through 7 uniquely) , it will be become easy for understanding and also for future reference.

Thanking in advance,

Regards,

EGRU

[Lantis]

1) yes it will have its own MAC and should appear on the network
2) depends on how the repeater works. If it creates a new subnet between its WAN and LAN (wifi) then any device connected to it will appear at Gargoyle as the repeater. All devices traffic will be aggregated under the repeater.
If the repeater is just a dumb switch configuration (WAN and LAN/WIFI are bridged) then you will still see the devices individually at Gargoyle.
3) same as 1. But with the same caveats as 2.
4) as per 2.
5) in general no, that makes it no longer a "repeater". Whether it can be setup in an alternative config is a question for them not us.
6) as per 2.
7) you need to audit the network. Some devices will have their MAC address printed on them, on the box or listed inside their network settings.
If this isn't available, the most straight forward method is to disconnect everyone except the device in question and find the one remaining IP/MAC

[egru]

Hi Lantis,

Thanks for the detailed update.

Just one more query.

How do I find whether the additional router creates a new subnet between its WAN and LAN (wifi) or is just a dumb switch configuration (WAN and LAN/WIFI are bridged) ?

Thanking in advance,

Regards,

EGRU

[ektus]

7) In spite of naming each "known" device and assigning a static IP address to it, at times, I still get some devices which I cannot identify and which are not named as being connected to Gargoyle Router. I guess these could be the DVR or some other odd device like Kindle etc. How do I identify these and assign static IP addresses to these devices.

In case of Android devices, it's not possible to assign a different device ID, at least not without root. They identify as "android-xxxx" and won't take the IP issued by the router if the name doesn't match. At least I wasn't able to get it to work with phone running 4.4 without root.


Regards
Ektus.

[Lantis]

If it isn't covered in the manual, then you may need to do it experimentally.
If your gargoyle LAN is say 192.168.1.x, and you connect the secondary router, associate to it, and a device gets an ip like 192.168.2.x, then it is creating a new subnet.

[porkypete]

I have a very similar setup - without the phone issues. My phone is a simple Yealink IP phone connected to the network, IP issued by Gargoyle router.

If your router/s have an AP mode, then select THAT, and connect to the WAN port. DHCP, NAT etc will be handled by Gargoyle.

Mine do not.... I have set them as dumb as possible. DHCP off, NAT off, Firewall off etc etc... only the WiFi APs' are on. Set a fixed IP ( router is 192.168.0.1 and the 2 "dumb" boxes are 192.168.0.11 and 12 respectively. Gargoyle is set to also issue these same IPs against their Macs, so I have a friendly name in the list. These MUST be connected on a LAN port, NOT the WAN. Now everything gets its IP from the Gargoyle router, and all monitoring, Quotas etc are managed by the Gargoyle box.

Use Wifianalyzer on an android phone to select the best channel/s assuming neighbours close by... on the 2.4GHz I use channels 1,6,11 to avoid overlap (20MHz channel width fixed). The 2 dumb boxes have identical SSID, security, and pass phrases to the Gargoyle router. Same logic applied to the 5GHz. This gives a single WiFi found when connecting, and I now have roaming throughout the house.

One other thing, I would put a switch at the patch panel (sounds like you have more than 4 LAN connections), and connect as many of those cables as possible to the switch, and a link from the switch to the Gargoyle router. Otherwise get those 2 routers connected and 2 other devices to the gargoyle router's 4 LAN ports - the speed and reliability are much better than wifi....