Extending wireless range using two e4200 routers

wwratekin · Jan 2, 2014

Hi guys,
So I am trying to extend the range of my WiFi and have tried several things to do the trick but nothing has really met my needs. Our main router is a linksys e4200v1 and I have just recently bought another e4200v1 that should be coming in the mail soon. Originally I was thinking to set the second one up as a repeater but i have read online that my bandwidth will be cut in half and I do not want this because I am extending the WiFi for the sole purpose of gaming on the PS3. Is this correct? I was going to flash it with the DD-WRT firmware but should I make it a repeater, repeater bridge, client, etc? Just want to extend our WiFi and not lose our speed. Thanks for any help!

bill001g · Jan 2, 2014

The only way you are going to extend the wireless and not lose 1/2 your speed is to use a wire to connect the second one as a AP. It then in effect repeats the data from the cable to the wireless so it is only using the wireless bandwidth 1 time and is on a different channel as the main router so it does not interfere.

I had seen some discussion the dd-wrt forums about using 1 radio to talk to the main router ie use say the 5g one and then run the 2.4g as a AP. Here you have 2 different radio signals one for the backhaul to the main router and the second to talk to the clients. Again the same design as a AP connected by cable but this time the cable is a dedicated point to point wireless connection. I am not sure dd-wrt actually does that though. It tends to be simpler to buy 2 boxes 1 to act as the point to point back to the main router and the second running as a AP. There are very expensive commercial AP that have extra radios built in but it is still cheaper to buy 2 consumer devices and hook them back to back.

Unless you are very lucky games on a wireless connection...even a very good one.. tend to get random loss which causes lag in the game.

wwratekin · Jan 2, 2014

bill001g :

Thank you so much for your help. I have tried doing what you said with the current extender router I have been using (WRT54GSv6 running the DD-WRT firmware) and I cannot seem to get it to work. I have set the extender to AP mode and put it on channel 6 because our main router is on channel 11. I connected the extender to a netgear powerline box which is working properly. One of my questions is do I want to connect the extender to powerline box using the LAN or WAN port on the router? I tried both and it still seems to not work. Another thing I came across in the settings was this virtual interface setting. Now I previously had this one set up as a repeater and was not pleased so I didn't know if I should remove the virtual interface now that I have changed it to an AP or do I need to keep that? I have attached a screenshot of this setting. Thanks in advance for any help!! Getting a headache over all this mess.
Screenshot from WRT54GSv6 running DD-WRT

Beezy · Jan 2, 2014

wwratekin :

bill001g :

Thank you so much for your help. I have tried doing what you said with the current extender router I have been using (WRT54GSv6 running the DD-WRT firmware) and I cannot seem to get it to work. I have set the extender to AP mode and put it on channel 6 because our main router is on channel 11. I connected the extender to a netgear powerline box which is working properly. One of my questions is do I want to connect the extender to powerline box using the LAN or WAN port on the router? I tried both and it still seems to not work. Another thing I came across in the settings was this virtual interface setting. Now I previously had this one set up as a repeater and was not pleased so I didn't know if I should remove the virtual interface now that I have changed it to an AP or do I need to keep that? I have attached a screenshot of this setting. Thanks in advance for any help!! Getting a headache over all this mess.
Screenshot from WRT54GSv6 running DD-WRT

had the same router and dd wrt and i got it work wireless as a "repeater bridge". the gains were minimal because you loose speed going through wireless twice latency kinda thing. i ended up just using that router as my PC's wireless network card- hard wired to the PC connecting wirelessly to the main router.

wwratekin · Jan 2, 2014

I had it set up as a repeater before but I bought a e4200 that should get here later today whenever my mail gets here but I was trying out the method of setting the WRT54GS as an AP so I wouldn't lose as much speed but it isn't working out for me. I only had it set as a repeater however, not a repeater bridge, if I set it as a repeater bridge will I gain some of that speed back?

Beezy · Jan 2, 2014

yeah i dont know cuz i only did repeater bridge, it was the easiest method and the only one that really worked for me.

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Extending wireless range using two e4200 routers

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