Networking with a Wireless Range Extender

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crimsin

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Nov 13, 2013
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I live in an apartment complex that's near my grandma. She is awesome enough to let me use her WiFi. After I installed an Asus RT-AC66R (Wireless AC router) the connection just BARELY reached my apartment. So I went out and purchased an additional Range Extender ( Netgear WN2000RPT-100NAS). With the range extender in my apartment and the nice router in hers, the signal provides adequate coverage.

My only problem is that I am having almost daily IP conflicts. The DHCP server on the Asus Router seems to be having problems keeping tabs on everything. I've tried upping the lease time to a week, but that isn't helping because even my tablet (which I use over the wireless every day) still sometimes has trouble acquiring an IP address.

All these things are fixed when I restart the range extender. I'm not sure what else I can do to get the Netgear range extender to sync well with the Asus router. I do have the SSID's different, would that have anything to do with it? I'm assuming not since it gives you the option to keep it the same or make it different.

Any feedback you guys could provide on this would be much appreciated because I'm at a loss.
 
Solution
RealBeast
Did you setup the range extender using WPS or the configuration at www.mywifiext.net? I would not use DHCP on the extender, but would leave that to the router, but would insure that it is set for N only (unless you must support legacy G devices) and uses WPA2/AES security that will enhance the speed of the connection to help prevent it dropping. I assume that you are connecting to the _ext SSID with your devices, which you should be as it will be more stable rather than the original SSID from your grandma's router.

Since you are using 2.4GHz N for the link, you might want to look to see if there are any interfering networks on the same channels with the free wifi analyzer inSSIDer from HERE as that could cause intermittent issues.
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Sep 13, 2010
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I am not totally clear on your set up -- does your grandma also have an ASUS AC router and are you attempting to create an AC media bridge to your apartment? How many feet away would you estimate that her router is from yours and are there buildings in the way?

The Netgear device is only an N range extender and will not really help as it is only an N wireless device and the advantage of AC is that it covers much greater distances than N.
 
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C

crimsin

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Nov 13, 2013
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Setup: Two devices: The router, which is in my grandma's apartment. And the range extender, which is in my apartment. They reach fine. The extender works fine.

My problem is not the connectivity but the IP address distribution. It works for a while, but then it (seems) to have an IP conflict and cannot connect until I reset the Range Extender. The Range extender repeats the signal through our apartment just fine. But it just has problems staying connected. Do I need to turn the DHCP server on the range extender on?
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

Titan
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Sep 13, 2010
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104,790
Did you setup the range extender using WPS or the configuration at www.mywifiext.net? I would not use DHCP on the extender, but would leave that to the router, but would insure that it is set for N only (unless you must support legacy G devices) and uses WPA2/AES security that will enhance the speed of the connection to help prevent it dropping. I assume that you are connecting to the _ext SSID with your devices, which you should be as it will be more stable rather than the original SSID from your grandma's router.

Since you are using 2.4GHz N for the link, you might want to look to see if there are any interfering networks on the same channels with the free wifi analyzer inSSIDer from HERE as that could cause intermittent issues.
 
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Solution
C

crimsin

Honorable
Nov 13, 2013
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10,510


The connection itself seems to be strong and not dropping, though. It's that my devices cannot obtain an IP address at all (until I reset my range extender) I can see the connnection is strong no matter what, and when the devices ARE connected the speed and signal strength are all great.

I didn't set up the router with WPS, and I only use WPA2. Thanks for the response :)
 
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