My question is SHOWN as an image:



Main router => TOR computer will be a WiFi connection

Tor computer => My laptop will be a wired Ethernet connection. Laptop has no WiFi chip at all.

This is really a question about simply networking itself. Ignore the Tor concept altogether.

I'm simply asking, can the main router see that the laptop is connected, or can it only see the device directly connected to it, i.e. the Tor router.http://lifehacker.com/what-is-tor-and-should-i-use-it-1527891029Who is they? And if its setup right "they" should only see the outside INTERFACE of the router.

Alright.

I came to the conclusion that this is all a waste of time.

A hacker (especially nation state) would hack your main home router.

Then hack your endpoint laptop.

Then they can see that both are connected to a dedicated Tor router in the middle, through its MAC address or other identifier, such as device name.

So they can see that both are connected to the same dedicated Tor router, and thus, they can see who you are that way.

So unless you are confident that you can secure your main home router, then this idea of a dedicated Tor router is hopeless.

You would be better off using a QUBES live disc and ONLY use Tor from the very start.

As the internal NSA Snowden documents say, "one page request" is all it takes to hack you.. but note, they can only do this page request if you are actually connecting via your real IP address.

Therefore, use a QUBES live disc, use TOR ONLY (never mix it up with clearnet), and make sure your BIOS is freshly INSTALLED, and then just cross your fingers and hope you don't get hacked while using Tor browser. By all means, use NoScript etc.For possible interest,  Nation State attackers do a lot of things we can not stop.
This story may be bogus, but some said the Russians could hack US deletions.
Nevertheless, there has bee some proof that nation state attacks have gone deep into forbidden areas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare_in_China
Quote

China is the world's second-largest economy, and a nuclear weapons state with the world's second-largest defence budget.
Chinese Information Operations and Information Warfare includes the concept of “network warfare”, roughly analogous to the United States concept of cyberwarfare.[1]