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WAN to WAN port connection?

DanSeg
Community Member

I have two Nest Wifi routers connected to each other via an ethernet cable to maximize speed by avoiding mesh. The primary one with Internet connected to the WAN port and a cable from the LAN port to the secondary router’s LAN port. This is the standard setup I guess.

Because the secondary router has two ports (WAN and LAN) I wonder if I can connect an additional device via cable utilizing the free port. In the best of worlds I could connect the primary router to the secondary WAN to WAN and use the LAN port to connect the additional device Is this possible? I can test but wanted to ask if anyone has any experience in this area. I don’t want to use a dedicated ethernet switch for this because I don’t have space enough. 

5 REPLIES 5

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @DanSeg 

On a secondary Nest WiFi Router unit, both the WAN and LAN Ethernet ports are bridged together, so you can use both of them. Since you have one connected to the primary Nest WiFi Router's LAN port already, I would leave that one as-is and just use the other one to connect your nearby device. That said, if you have more than one device nearby, an alternative approach is to buy an inexpensive (unmanaged) Ethernet switch and connect it to the primary Nest WiFi Router unit's LAN port and then hang Ethernet devices (including your secondary Nest Nest WiFi Router) off of that network. You can even connect more Ethernet switches to that one if needed.

DanSeg
Community Member

Thanks Michael, really appreciate you taking the time to respond. I did not know the ports were bridged together. I tried it out now and it worked perfectly. I know I could have used a switch but in this case I have no place I can hide it so this was exactly what I needed. 

Thanks for the support

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

 

Thanks again for helping here, @MichaelP.

 

@DanSeg, I hope you've got the answer you're looking for. If you're still in need of any assistance, feel free to let us know.

 

Best,
Mel

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Mel

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know.

Thanks,
Mel