Wireless Bridge? Repeater? using ASUS RT-AC66U. have Netgear N300 v.3 router.

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Matilda57

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May 22, 2014
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Wireless Bridge? Repeater?
I have, in a rural location, a 1Mbps connection to the internet. Currently using ASUS RT-AC66U with some devices connected with ethernet cable and other devices using N-Wireless. I wish to extend range, with wireless, to a shed 90 feet distant. (Shed is not metal.) All devices around shed will be using N-Wireless. I also happen to have a Netgear WNR2000 (N300) v. 3. Can this be done? What about security?
Thanks!
 
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You can do what I managed to do- find a cheap router (or check for yours on the site) that you can flash with DD-WRT firmware. This will allow you to create a wireless, repeating bridge. I used an el-cheapo Linksys E1500, which now picks up the signal from my main house & not only repeats it, but gives me working, physical ports as well. I do PC repair & I needed the ports to hook up desktop PC's I work on (not many are wi-fi). It took a bit of fumbling with the info on the site, but I eventually got it all running.

Distance? I'd say that the main Netgear DGNF3700 modem/router in the house, is about 50-60 ft. away in total (& is behind the kitchen wall of stove/oven/cabinets + a tall metal fence outdoors- before travelling...
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Best is to run ethernet and use the netgear as a AP in the shed. Other options are going to depend how much signal you get outside the house and outside the shed. You might be able to use the netgear as a repeater if you put it a water tight enclosure...most any plastic box works the main issue is overheating and getting power to the unit.

Otherwise you need to look at outdoor bridge devices, examples of companies are engenius or ubiquiti.
 
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Matilda57

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May 22, 2014
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Thank you very much for your suggestions.

I really do not wish to go down from WPA2-psk, so I am no longer looking at a simple wireless bridge using the Netgear box as a repeater. I posted this question because I had seen some similar situations posted and I thought, but was not sure, if using a spare router as a repeater might be a good solution, however, it looks like that would be using WDS, and WEP and MAC address filters are insufficient.

I also posted because I probably know just enough about wireless networking to get into trouble and cause my network to get too noisy or burn up my equipment.

It is just that the signal is so close to being good enough that I think I should be able to do something wirelessly without much effort or expense. Looks like I'll have to go ahead and shell out a little dough for some equiptment. I think maybe a range extender from Engenius might work. I had not realized it would be so very reasonably priced. I'll check out Ubiquiti.

There is a window at the end of the shed near the house, so I do not think I would even need to hook up some sort of outdoor antenna. I don't spend much time at that end of the shed and I need something to move the signal further down the shed. I will be using the wireless access for internet connection, and as long as I have even barely decent signal on the LAN, my internet connection will probably be my bottleneck with the current tech.

I might in the future end up running the cable for an AP.

Thanks!

[edited a tiny bit in a.m. for clarification]
 
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Matilda57

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I see suggestions on other threads for using the second router as a repeater using WDS, but aren't they stuck with WEP for encryption? Am I missing something? Is the repeater not using WDS?
 
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bill001g

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That has been fixed it uses WPA2 now also. Since it is a security issue the main router normally must have the mac address of the WDS router hardcoded. Some accept anything and don't care about security.

The one that likely will never work with WDS is going to be enterprise mode since radius can use one time passwords and certificates.


 
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Girl_Downunder

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Feb 27, 2012
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You can do what I managed to do- find a cheap router (or check for yours on the site) that you can flash with DD-WRT firmware. This will allow you to create a wireless, repeating bridge. I used an el-cheapo Linksys E1500, which now picks up the signal from my main house & not only repeats it, but gives me working, physical ports as well. I do PC repair & I needed the ports to hook up desktop PC's I work on (not many are wi-fi). It took a bit of fumbling with the info on the site, but I eventually got it all running.

Distance? I'd say that the main Netgear DGNF3700 modem/router in the house, is about 50-60 ft. away in total (& is behind the kitchen wall of stove/oven/cabinets + a tall metal fence outdoors- before travelling another 20- 30ft. to this granny flat). The signal is very good, I'd say. The flat has it's own LAN name, but it uses the same password as the main router. I'll also add that I have an old, metal strainer shaped like a cone that I have behind the main router to boost the signal (parabolic-ish). Believe it or not, it does work quite well. :)

Cheers!
 
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farengi

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Sep 1, 2014
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Hi,
I'm trying to do the same thing. I have a newer Linksys router running factory s/w and an older Belkin router which I flashed with dd-wrt. I have setup the Belkin as a repeater bridge, however the speeds you get when you connect to it are very slow. Not sure how to diagnose this?
Shahab




 
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