Wireless network and access point - can I do this?

[Hansen]

Can I set up my network in the following manner to garner better wireless reception? I have a Belkin wireless router (#1) connected to my cable modem and serving as my wireless router and switch. Can I take another Belkin wireless router (#2) I have and set it as an Access Point only (says I can do that) and put that in another part of the house and connect the two with a CAT 6 cable so that #2 will act a 2nd point where I can get wireless access in my house?

Hope that makes sense. Thanks

[larryk]

Yes, you can have multiple wireless access points to increase your reception footprint.

[BattleZone]

Yes, BUT make sure you manually set each access point to a different channel so they don't interfere with each other.

[russdog]

I do that for internet access, running a wire between 2 adjacent buildings.
However, be warned that I know nothing about using this with D* boxes.

In setting it up, there are 2 ways I can get it to work.
Method 1. The 2nd router has it's own range of IP's that are different from the IP-range used by the 1st router (which is connected to the modem), and the 2nd one does DHCP: devices connected to the 2nd one get their IP's from the 2nd one. This is how mine works when I plug it in, right out of the box. For me, this produces a slightly stronger wireless signal from the 2nd router but reduced download bandwidth from the outside world (presumably because there is one more address translation that needs to happen).
.
Method 2. I turn off the 2nd router's DHCP and I set it to AP mode. This way, the 2nd router serves as a pass-through of IP's assigned by the first router's DHCP. Thus, devices that connect to the 2nd one get their IP addresses assigned by the 1st router. This gives faster download speed, but a slightly weaker wireless signal from the 2nd router (dunno why).
In either case, I make sure that the 2nd router itself is assigned an IP within the IP range of the first one but that is a different IP than the first one. That way, I can logon to either router wirelessly from behind the 2nd router.

I use Method 2 because I can get it to do port-forwarding from a machine that's connected to the 2nd router. (Maybe there's a way to do port-forwarding thru both boxes using Method 1 but, if so, I'm not smart enough to figure it out.)