Wifi extender setup - strong wired connection is strong/no issue - wifi signal is strong but VERY unstable on my phone

[ppydp3]

Hi all. Saw some smart posters on here and it encouraged me to sign up. I'm not too knowledgeable with router setups (nothing more than the basics) so I was hoping I could get some help

 

I'm renting a room in a flat. We have a gigabit internet connection but the wifi is more than terrible in my room given how far away the wifi router is (which can't really be moved). Hence both my laptop and phone will have a weak connection. To save money and effort, I looked into the best way to resolve this using what I had lying around (My landlord has a second wifi router and a long 25meter ethernet cable and a few other 1 meter cables). I planned to use the additional wifi router as wired extender and place it in my room.

 

Current set up:

Main wifi router: DLink DIR-868L

second wifi router used as extender (in my room): DLink DIR-850L (wired to the 868L via very long ethernet cable)

 

From my research, the 850L needs to be used as the main router, and the 868L as the extender. This is because the 850L (supposedly) doesn't have the functionality to act as an extender. Going by this, I connect the modem to the  850L (acting as main wifi router), and then use the very long ethernet cable to connect the 850L to 868L (as the extender in my room). But that didn't work. I tried to look at the settings (via typing their IP (?) into a browser but I couldn't set it up. If i remember correctly, I couldn't even access the extender's settings webpage on my laptop (despite a wired connection). I'd type in the IP and I'd see the settings page of the main wifi router instead (and had no way to connect to the extender). I was trying to mess around with settings, try connecting the cables to different ports etc but no matter what I did it was a disaster. So for some reason, I switched the two routers around and it started working instantly (despite it going against my understanding) !! Now, with a second wired connection between this extender (the 850L) and my laptop; the wired connection is amazing. But the wifi signal is still terrible (at least on my phone and I'm not sure how to troubleshoot) i.e. is it my phone or is it how the extender is configured? My phone connects easily to the extender's network and it is a very strong signal (and stays connected) but I find the signal is intermittent when using apps on my phone. Whether it is wifi calling/video chatting on WhatsApp or playing online mobile games the connection breaks every minute or so. Imagine voice calling your parents, and the call hangs to "reconnect" every minute or so. It takes so long for the app to reconnect that it's easier to hang up and call them again (only for the issue to happen again so I'd have to repeat). I'm still connected to the extender network the whole time this is happening

 

I've tried tolerating this for a few months (because it technically is working, and my wired laptop works great), but I can't handle the wifi anymore

I still believe the set up is the problem, It shouldn't work at all but I can't explain why it does (well partially does). I see no issue whatsoever with a wired connection; it's just the wifi I have a problem with. My suspicion is that with wired, the extender is not doing anything but effectively glueing my two ethernet cables into one very very long ethernet cable (so it's like my laptop is directly connected to the main wifi router). In terms of wifi, even though I connected to the wifi extender's network in my room (and hence get VERY strong signal on my phone), it 'feels' like I'm just connected to the main wifi router's (which is far away) network, and the network name is just disguised by the extender's network name haha i.e. strong connection but poor quality

 

I realise this is very specific issue, but my landlords are just a nice elderly couple who don't know anything. They called the ISP's support. So long as I can connect to the internet, from the ISP's end, they just blamed it on being typical wifi and ignored the issue. If there are any issues with computers/networks, I'll be the *actual* person to try and fix everything (despite the fact that I'm not an expert).

 

Can anyone help? 

 

Pictures of routers:

 

850L:

 

 

868L

Edited June 2, 2017 by ppydp3
correction

[ppydp3]

In my (naive) experience, I do think it is a configuration issue. Is it possible to be connected to an extender's network, have a very strong signal, and have no issues with disconnecting (with the actual network), BUT have issues with actually using the internet?

 

I think my flatmate also has similar issues on his phone

[+BudMan MVC]

"I planned to use the additional wifi router as wired extender and place it in my room."

 

That would of be the correct choise.. But it wouldn't of been an "extender/repeater" it would of been just an AP (accesspoint) then.. And you would of need no router functionality at all.

 

Wifi repeaters are just freaking HORRIBLE!!!  It is automatic /2 the bandwidth

 

Here is the options I would suggest to fix wifi connectivity.

Run a wire to your room and setup an AP there.. Either a real AP or any wifi router can be used as just an AP.  Connect it to the network from one of its lan ports - disable its dhcp server and give its lan an IP on the network so you can easy access and admin the wifi settings for your wifi network.

 

2nd option if you can not run a wire - get some powerline adapters and use that as your wire to the AP you setup in your area.

 

3rd and most expensive option if you can not run wires - Get one of the new mesh wifi setups.

[ppydp3]

16 minutes ago, BudMan said:

"I planned to use the additional wifi router as wired extender and place it in my room."

 

That would of be the correct choise.. But it wouldn't of been an "extender/repeater" it would of been just an AP (accesspoint) then.. And you would of need no router functionality at all.

 

Wifi repeaters are just freaking HORRIBLE!!!  It is automatic /2 the bandwidth

 

Here is the options I would suggest to fix wifi connectivity.

Run a wire to your room and setup an AP there.. Either a real AP or any wifi router can be used as just an AP.  Connect it to the network from one of its lan ports - disable its dhcp server and give its lan an IP on the network so you can easy access and admin the wifi settings for your wifi network.

 

2nd option if you can not run a wire - get some powerline adapters and use that as your wire to the AP you setup in your area.

 

3rd and most expensive option if you can not run wires - Get one of the new mesh wifi setups.

13

The jargon you use sounds very familiar. Sorry, it's been a few months since I set everything up, I may have used the wrong jargon. I believe my room's wifi router should act as an AP. I remember now about the fact that DHCP needs to be disabled as the second wifi router wont be distributing out IPs (the main router will). Could you elaborate on the  "and give its lan an IP on the network so you can easy access". I believe I did something about using the IP that is within the range of IPs that the main router distributes. I'll look into testing everything again so I can report back

 

My landlords have also bought powerline adaptors, but I've found their signal isn't as strong (using the browser on my laptop, I just googled for a broadband speed test site to compare). That said, it might be a good plan B. I'd rather have a slower more reliable connection than a stronger less reliable one.

 

Right now, I'm thinking to keep the setup as it is (and keep the strong wired connection), and also put the powerline adaptors back in just for my phone as a win-win

[ppydp3]

32 minutes ago, BudMan said:

"I planned to use the additional wifi router as wired extender and place it in my room."

 

That would of be the correct choise.. But it wouldn't of been an "extender/repeater" it would of been just an AP (accesspoint) then.. And you would of need no router functionality at all.

 

Wifi repeaters are just freaking HORRIBLE!!!  It is automatic /2 the bandwidth

 

Here is the options I would suggest to fix wifi connectivity.

Run a wire to your room and setup an AP there.. Either a real AP or any wifi router can be used as just an AP.  Connect it to the network from one of its lan ports - disable its dhcp server and give its lan an IP on the network so you can easy access and admin the wifi settings for your wifi network.

 

2nd option if you can not run a wire - get some powerline adapters and use that as your wire to the AP you setup in your area.

 

3rd and most expensive option if you can not run wires - Get one of the new mesh wifi setups.

UPDATE: Hmm, I reconnected my old powerline adaptor (literally plug into mains and connect to its network) and noticed I still have issues. Would this be definitive proof that my phone is actually at fault?

 

While the two wifi routers need to be configured, I don't believe the powerline adaptors need anything - they're semi plug n play devices. I thought this was less likely because my flatmate also has a similar issue on his phone (that said I'm just going by his word)

[+BudMan MVC]

well does your phone have issues when connected to the main routers wifi?

 

Do you have other wifi devices to test with - maybe your phone is just flaky?

[T3X4S]

@ppydp3- Just an FYI - when it comes to networking, there is nobody better than @BudMan

Just follow whatever he says, and you will have the best option.
Side Note:  The fact you have listened, and tried to follow (thereby angering him) is a good thing

Welcome to Neowin 

[ppydp3]

On 6/3/2017 at 1:50 AM, BudMan said:

well does your phone have issues when connected to the main routers wifi?

 

Do you have other wifi devices to test with - maybe your phone is just flaky?

Doesn't seem so. Might just be a one-off. I'll look into the AP option again. I understand the steps you mentioned, I tried them before (and doing it again now), although i might be doing something stupid.

 

Since you mentioned any wifi router can be used as an AP, I'll ignore the ordering (Although I could have sworn it mattered).

 

So I have the longer 868L as the main wifi router. I have the short 850L in my room. There's 5 ethernet ports on the room router (it isn't designed well, I assume 4 are for LAN, and the last one coloured yellow is for "internet"). I believe since I'm setting up an AP then that yellow "Internet" ethernet port is useless to me now.

 

I've connected the long ethernet from to the LAN ports of both the room and main router. I have a second ethernet cable connected from my laptop to another LAN port on the room router.  Typing in the IP  to the room router in my laptop's browser, I end up going to the settings page of the main router instead. Why is this?

 

i assume what I have to do next is:

1) I'll hook up my laptop to the main router and find out what the range of IP it distributes is.

2) I'll (temporarily) disconnect the long ethernet cable (connecting both routers to each other), then connect my laptop to the lone room router.

3) if I can connect to the room router, I'll check whether DHCP server is disabled and whether its IP is within the range set by the main router.

4a) if something needs to be changed in the room router settings, I'll change it, resave the settings, and reconnect the long ethernet cable back to both routers

4b) if the room router already has the correct settings, then I'm not sure what to do. Unless there is something you can suggest as this point, I can only assume my phone is flaky

 

Is this correct?

 

@T3X4S   Haha, good to know I'm in capable hands  thanks everyone

Edited June 4, 2017 by ppydp3

[T3X4S]

Sounds like you need to change the IP address of the router (AP) in your room.

[ppydp3]

10 minutes ago, T3X4S said:

Sounds like you need to change the IP address of the router (AP) in your room.

 

++ @BudMan

 

 

UPDATE:

so I followed the above

step 1: main router distributed IPs between 100-199

step 3: I could connect (although I was forced to use DLINKs own GUI which made things a bit more difficult)

step 4a: I don't know if it's because I disconnected the long ethernet or if i never set it up to begin with, but it was set to router mode with DHCP enabled.

I set it to AP mode, and set it to static IP instead of DHCP

 

I had to set up 4 different variables which were daunting but I tried:

 

IP Address: - set this to an IP within the range of the DHCP server (192.168.0.198)

Subnet Mask: set this to 255.255.255.0 

Default Gateway: I believe this is the IP i will enter if I want to access the room router and not the main router. i just set it to an IP outside the main routers range (192.168.0.2 instead of 1)

Primary DNS Server: I assume this is the IP of the router dishing out the IPs so I used the main router IP (192.168.0.1)

 

Saved everything and reconnected the long ethernet cable. I'll have to monitor for now but it seems to be working! One thing I noticed is that when I type in 192.169.0.2 i get redirected to 198 instead. I assume that is normal?

[ppydp3]

@T3X4S @BudMan

 

a bit too early to tell, but it looks great so far!!! 

 

Thanks everyone for the help !!

 

I can only guess what I did before was set everything up, try and set the static IP details, and then not save the settings

Is it fair to say that this instability (despite a very strong connection) is due to some sort of DHCP conflict? i.e. the fact that DHCP was enabled for both?

 

Issues I had on my phone, things like:

-Facebook videos taking a long time to load (I assumed it was the app's issue)

-WhatsApp video/audio calls keep getting hanging while it attempts to reconnect

-games that require internet connection keep disconnecting

 

At the moment, videos seem to load fine, and games seem fine too! Will check whatsapp later

[T3X4S]

Here is another tip.

When it comes to DNS on your computers - dont use your ISP DNS servers.  They are normally heavily burdened, and offer little to no security.

On your 2 computers - go to the network connections, and change the DNS settings.

Use Google Public DNS  -

Primary:        8.8.8.8
Secondary:   8.8.4.4

 

Should be a little quicker when resolving HTTP addresses, and provides some extra security in the background.

There is a handy little program called DNS Bench, you can run that - there might be some public DNS that work even better than Google's (OpenDNS, NTT Data's, etc)

[+BudMan MVC]

11 hours ago, ppydp3 said:

IP Address: - set this to an IP within the range of the DHCP server (192.168.0.198)

No that is not what you would want to do..

 

If your main router dhcp server is handing out .100-150 for example... Then ANY static devices you set on this 192.168.0/24 network, would be OUTside the pool ie - lets assume your router is .1 so that would leave .2 to 99 or .151 to .254 for static devices.  You would not want to put a static IP on your network that is inside the range of IPs that a dhcp would think it can hand out.