Boost Wireless Signal With Ethernet Connection

[Sir Topham Hatt]

On the access point ensure the DNS and gateway is set to 192.169.0.1.

 

What is your access point? Make and model?

 

169?  Are you sure?

 

It's a TP-Link WR740N.

 

Here's what I have done so far (started again):

 

1: Change IP address of router to 192.168.0.2

2: Change SSID to "MyNetworkName"

3: Set Password for wireless, same as the main router

4: Turn DHCP off

5: Set main router IP address range to 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.199

 

That's it.  The main router isn't connected to the access point's WAN port yet.

 

Do I power everything off, connect it, then power on the routers, then the PC?

[+BudMan MVC]

You would NOT connect your router to your router your going to use as AP wan port, it would be one of the LAN ports on your router your going to use as AP.. So your connection would be from LAN to LAN.

 

You really don't need to set gateway or dns on your AP lan interface -- unless from the gui or the AP it needs to access the internet.  Your turning it into a AP, it most likely has no need to get off your local network.  And if you did want it to those setting would have to be on the LAN interface not the wan..  Your wan interface is not used, any settings on it would not be of any use.

 

And yes I would disable WPS, it has been compromised and is not secure.

 

As to using enterprise version of WPA or WPA2 -- Unless you have a Radius Server to auth against you would not be able to get that to work.  PSK or Personal mode is all you need in a home setup.  Just make sure your PSK is strong.  And yes if you want to easy bounce between AP and the routers wireless then all the wireless settings should be the same, you can run on a different channel if you want but the SSID and settings be wpa or wpa2 tkip/aes,etc.. should all match.

[manroweb]

 

 

169?  Are you sure?

 

It's a TP-Link WR740N.

 

Here's what I have done so far (started again):

 

1: Change IP address of router to 192.168.0.2

2: Change SSID to "MyNetworkName"

3: Set Password for wireless, same as the main router

4: Turn DHCP off

5: Set main router IP address range to 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.199

 

That's it.  The main router isn't connected to the access point's WAN port yet.

 

Do I power everything off, connect it, then power on the routers, then the PC?

 

 

 

Sorry typo 192.168.0.1

Ok 740N I know well.

 

You need to connect one of main routers LAN port to a LAN port on the 740N.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

So... this works then :P

 

Why wouldn't I attach the main router to the WAN port on the access point though?  I would have thought it would "see" the internet through the main router and work fine?

 

Would I then technically be able to attach another one to the access point?  Or would that have to be attached to the main router?

 

Thanks for helping me learn :)

[manroweb]

The WAN port is not on the same interface as the LAN port, so then relies on the router to route traffic from LAN to WAN and vice versa.

You are not using this device in a routing mode, so it would not work.

 

You can add another access point to any LAN port on the router or LAN port on this access point.

 

With the TP Link 740N if you load DD-WRT firmware onto it, you can enable the WAN port as a LAN port, and then have 5 LAN ports rather than 4.

It also makes the access point alot more stable. I have this device with DD-WRT and it runs so much better than with stock firmware.

 

Glad you got it working :)

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Although after testing the WiFi, my phone doesn't appear to be using the access point.

"Connected devices" says 0, even though I have turned WiFi off, then on again sitting right next to the access point router.

Will try and have a look at the WiFi settings but I don't think there is anything wrong with them :/

[manroweb]

Make sure the wifi settings and security are identical on both router and access point.

If they are different then you will need to add it twice with both sets of settings.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Yeah, all seems the same.

 

The "Enable WDS Bridging" isn't ticked though, I guess this is right?

 

MAC filtering though has me a little confused.  ON the internet router it has:

 

 

Wireless MAC Filtering

 

Allow All Devices, unless in Wireless Filter List

Deny All Devices, unless in Wireless Filter List

 

ON the access point is has:

 

Filtering Rules

                Deny the stations specified by any enabled entries in the list to access.

                Allow the stations specified by any enabled entries in the list to access.

The Access point has MAC filtering disabled anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter?

[manroweb]

Do you have any of the MAC filtering turned on?

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

Try this on your phone. Does it show  you two different networks?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Yeah, both are my SSID, one is low (-90) the other is high (-50).

 

MAC filtering is turned off on the access point but I have the "Allow All Devices, unless in Wireless Filter List" option checked on the internet router (default)

[manroweb]

That is fine re MAC filtering, there is no filtering going on unless you have added MAC's.

 

In the settings of wi-fi analyzer enable show full securities, and then compare router and access point.

List them both and we can see from there

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Here's a couple of shots.

 

 

The red one is the access point, the green is the internet router downstairs.  I'm currently sitting right next to the access point.

 

 

 

I haven't touched the channels so they have done that automatically.  WOuld it be better to try and get them both on the same channel which seems less congested around here? - I guess the two blue ones are other wireless devices (neighbours) operating on the same channel?

It I should force them to use a specific channel, is there a preference?  Seems most other WiFi uses channel 11, but what is wrong with channel 3 or 4?

 

Seems to work okay but the range isn't as strong as I thought.  It's about 15/20 metres from upstairs to near the back of the garden and it took a while to steady out.

An improvement on what we had anyway for sure!

[+BudMan MVC]

move it to channel 1 and leave the router on 6 there is nothing on that channel either.  There are only 3 channels that don't have overlap 1 6 and 11

 

So looks like your working to me..

 

What range did you think you should have?  You don't need 5 bars to work ;)