Using an old router as a DIY wireless Access Point

[Comment Bot]

Please feel free to comment about our story entitled "Using an old router as a DIY wireless Access Point"

[Grims]

If DHCP is enabled on the main router, and you plug it into a lan port on the second router...it should basically work as a wireless switch...so DHCP should work over it as well. The IP range of the second router wouldn't matter...because it isn't used...just turn off DHCP. This has worked great for me many times and lets you retain DHCP.

You can also setup the second router up on a different subnet, and plug the main router into the sub routers WAN port. The sub router pulls a DHCP address over the wan, and then supplies a DHCP over the wifi on it's separate subnet....much like you would get it from an ISP.

[xirrus]

quoting the article:

54Mbps (or 6.75MB/s) and at close range (within the same room), we should go pretty close to hitting that speed or at least around 36 – 48Mbps (or 4.5 – 6MB/s), which is enough to stream audio and even 720p HD movies.

Actually you will be lucky to get more than 25 Mbit/sec over an 802.11G or 802.11A connection. Even tho it says 54 megabit that is more marketing schpiel than real world performance. There is so much overhead, it is a half duplex and contention based medium.

Also as the other poster mentioned, adding another wireless access point in AP mode will essentially act as a layer 2 bridging device. Any services on the LAN are bridged to the clients connecting to the AP. So if it is set up properly, DHCP will still work.

[T-Bones]

Now set it up without using a cable to connect the 2 routers together as this would be the situation for most users, as the idea is to bridge two areas a distance apart without cabling, otherwise you may aswell just run cables all over the place.

[Grims]

Originally Posted by T-Bones

Now set it up without using a cable to connect the 2 routers together as this would be the situation for most users, as the idea is to bridge two areas a distance apart without cabling, otherwise you may aswell just run cables all over the place.

Well for most cheap APs you would need third party firmwares that may not be available...so I understand why they didn't go there in this article. Their solution of Ethernet over power should work fine for a simple setup like this.

[Mr.Tweak]

Yep - I made a big mistake.

I'm not sure what happened during my testing at the time but it wouldn't assign an IP from the main router DHCP but it does now.

[Grims]

Originally Posted by Mr.Tweak

Yep - I made a big mistake.

I'm not sure what happened during my testing at the time but it wouldn't assign an IP from the main router DHCP but it does now.

I also noticed this

Listen up here... the last number cannot go above 256 OR wherever the DHCP IP range on the main router begins at. Our D-Link router begins its DHCP IP range at 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.199, so don’t select an IP in the range between 100 and 199, to avoid conflicts with other networked devices. Set the subnet mask as 255.255.255.0, although it should do that for you automatically, once you’ve entered in the IP.

I guess either I'm reading it wrong or you made a typo...As I'm sure you know networks can only go to 255 on the last octet, and 255 is the broadcast IP. So, it would not be able to go above 254.

[chizcurl]

Hello,

I followed the instructions to the letter, computer status shows that the computer is connected but I still cannot access the internet. Is there anything else that I can do? My main router is dlink dir 655 and the access point is dlink di-524.

Thanks in advance

[Ronreb]

Originally Posted by Mr.Tweak

Yep - I made a big mistake.

I'm not sure what happened during my testing at the time but it wouldn't assign an IP from the main router DHCP but it does now.

So, what did you correct? Please explain? My wireless Internet radio device assigned itself its own IP address effortlessly but my daughter's laptop cannot access the Internet using the AP router. Yet, I see the new network with 5 bars when searching for available wireless networks.

I've tried everything and also followed your advice to the letter. Many laptops have two alternative programs for accessing the Internet and discovering available wireless networks.One is offered by the wireless card and one is offered in Windows XP. Which one should I be using? Must I assign an IP address? That will cause her laptop problems elsewhere on other free wireless services throughout town in which she uses the program offered by her wireless card. Also, is it really acceptable to use the WAN Port on the old router or not?

[Mr.Tweak]

If you are having trouble accessing the Internet, this is when you could try setting the manual IP rather than relying on DHCP.