How would you setup this home network?

[romeoagogo]

I just bought a WRT54GL linksys and currently own a WRT54GS. The GS just cannot handle my torrent traffic it seems and constantly dies even with DD-WRT firmware and some tweaks to limit connections. So I've bought the GL to replace it in my home network. However, I live in a duplex and let my neighbors use my wireless so I would still like to make use of the GS to handle wireless in order to free up resources on the new router. Currently I have the GS running 2 wireless networks, one open and one closed. The closed is my personal AP on one subnet and the open is on a another subnet (192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x respectively) and they are firewalled from each other. I would like to maintain this setup and I'm trying to figure out, from the standpoint of keeping the networks separate, if I should run one AP on the GL and one on the GS or keep them both on the GS. Also - can I just connect an ethernet between the GS and GL or is there some specific way I need to configure the GS to get an IP and such? I am fairly comfortable with most home networking/flashing firmware/dd-wrt settings etc. but this is the first time I'm throwing a second router into the mix so I'm just wondering if there are problems I'm going to run up against that I havent seen yet. So basically how would you set this up to accomplish this? 2 wireless APs, one open, one close, firewalled from each other while keeping the main router (GL) as free as possible?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Putting 1 router behind another..."double NAT'ing"...your outside router and internet connection still see the same amount of traffic. If you're torrenting...home grade routers will not satisfy you much, and DD-WRT only helps a little bit...horsepower of the router is still the same....DD-WRT doesn't upgrade the CPU or add RAM.

I'd say keep it simple...use the GL with DD-WRT....skip using a 2nd router, you don't need one. DD-WRT allows you to run multiple SSIDs and isolate them...achieving the goal you want.
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/10724_3714521_2

 

[romeoagogo]

yes I understand that you can only get so much out of a homegrade router and also understand that dd-wrt doesnt effect the hardware of the router itself. i do know however that when i previously used my roommates GL for both of our torrents we never had a problem. I think it may have to do with the far smaller amount of memory in the GS. regardless, you do have a good point that the GL should handle both functions just fine, I was just kind of hoping to find some way to use this extra router I now have. Any suggestions?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

point that the GL should handle both functions just fine, I was just kind of hoping to find some way to use this extra router I now have. Any suggestions?

How many computers "total" are we talking about here..both yours and your neighbors? I'd really want to just keep it all on the DD/GL unit.

 

[romeoagogo]

Ummm probably about 6-7 PCs. My HTPC/file server, desktop, laptop, tablet, and maybe 2-3 laptops of my neighbors. I doubt all would be active at the same time ever but that's probably about the number. I do maybe 10GB in transfers from desktop to fileserver a day and probably 5-10GB coming into the fileserver from torrents.