Need some help setting my access point to repeater mode

[Yamikun]

OK i've been searching around the net for some time now and this site pops up in many of my search terms so i thought i'd try asking here

I have a Linksys WAG300N router connected to my pc via ethernet. I have set it to broadcast wirelessly and everything is working fine but the thing is that the signal reception is bad in the living room resulting in unstable connection when i try to use my laptop in the living room. I think the main reason for that is that between my room and the living room interfere a lot of walls (two of which are outer walls so they are thicker). I bought a netgear wireless-N access point the model is WN802T v2. In its setup there is a wireless bridge option with two submenus. One is "wireless point to multipoint bridge" while the other is "repeater without wireless client association". However i can't seem to find a way to make it work. Both the router and the access point have their default firmwares installed i haven't messed with anything there.

Thanks in advance for your time any help will be apreciated ^^

[+BudMan MVC]

Well for starters I would surely update the firmware to the latest, I show 3.11 out for that access point and Ver.1.01.07 for the router -- are you running these latest firmwares?

For wireless repeating to work you will have to make setting on both your router and your accesspoint. SSID will match, security settings will match, etc..

On your router under WDS you would setup repeating with client access, and you would put in the mac address of your accesspoint.

On your repeater/accesspoint you would put in point to point bridge and also enable client associations.

I would highly suggest you go over this guide from netgear and repeating with your accesspoint.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12848

Now its using a different router (netgear one) But the details of what you have to do will be the same, just on your router the setting might called something slightly different or in a different section of the UI, etc.

[Yamikun]

OK i have two questions about that. First of all i don't know if my linksys router supports WDS and i can't seem to find something about that in the net.

Secondly i can't seem to find where i can download the latest firmware and i think the 07 version is still in beta.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well for your linksys the firmware is here.

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/UK/en/support/WAG300N/download

firmware

* Ver.1.01.07 (ETSI) Annex A

Download 7.46 MB

(Firmware)

Release Notes

Firmware

* Ver.1.01.05

Download 4.66 MB

(Firmware)

Not sure if the 1.01.07 is your model? Not sure what (ETSI) Annex A means exactly.. But they newer than initial firmware from the release notes, and do have bug fixes. As to WDS support, yeah just looked at the manual -- and did not see any mention of it either.. If your wireless router does not support this mode - it might not be possible to use your accesspoint as a repeater? Which is why is always a good idea to use same manufacturer when wanting to do stuff like this.. And from my personal experience the Gateway models seem to be more limited in features than the stand alone routers. And they really limit your ability to run 3rd party firmware that will add features, like WDS for example.

If your router does not support WDS mode - then you would need to use your accespoint as jut a wireless client in bridge mode.. Sometimes you can only use wired clients this way.. Depends on the firmware feature set.. I just looked and does not look like dd-wrt is supported on either of these devices.. Too bad since it does support WDS for starters and does have a wireless bridge with wireless client support.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge

The limitation with standard bridging is that it only allows wired clients to connect to your secondary router. Wireless clients cannot connect to your secondary router configured as a standard bridge.

New in DD-WRT v24 is Repeater Bridge mode. This extends your primary LAN via secondary router (bridge router) and also allows wireless clients to connect to your secondary router. This extends the range of your wireless network while simultaneously allowing wired clients to connect to your secondary router.

From the quick look I did at your accesspoint this feature did not jump out at me - maybe it supports it, maybe it doesnt. According to the doc I linked to seems to show only WDS mode to allow you use wireless clients with the accesspoint and also maintain a wireless connection to the main router.

You might want to look into getting the netgear gateway (modem/router) listed in the doc I listed - as this clearly supports the mode your after. Your other option would be to run a wire to the accesspoint and use it as a normal accesspoint.

Good Luck!