AP to range extender to bridge to AP won't work!

[barnb]

I think I'm trying to do something that won't work!
Wondering if anyone knows if this is even possible with the hardware that I have?
I have a Netgear R7000 router AP in the middle of the house, I installed a TPLink CPE210 on the barn which then goes into a LAN port of an old router AP to give me WIFI in the barn. It works great! Except the R7000 is sometimes a little too weak from the middle of the house so I plugged in a Netgear Nighthawk X4S range extender to provide better signal to the CPE. I can ping the CPE from the house, I can ping the range extender from the barn but can't seem to be able to drill through the extender to the R7000..can't ping it. If I connect to the extended wifi going to the CPE I can ping everything. thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[bill001g]

I strongly suspect it is because you are running 2 wifi repeaters in the path.

It would be nice if they used consistent names for things rather than calling everything extenders.

I have not used the tplink devices but they appear almost identical to ubiquiti devices I have used.

The huge problem with wifi "extension" is it is designed to not allow multiple devices over a signal encrypted connection. It was from the start designed for a signal client..ie mac address... to connect. They made it so that the encryption keys included the mac addresses of the end devices.

So you either have to run unencrypted or use a hack where they use a field called WDS to carry the mac address. It is not really part of the standard but all manufacture seem to do it.

The problem is this hack does not work when have to do this multiple times on the same path.

To many unknowns really to be sure since it is going to depend on what abilities the nighthawk device has. If you could say run 2.4g radio between the router and the extender and then the 5g radio to the tplink it might work....it all depend on the implementation.

The one method I am fairly sure will work is if you run the tplink as a router with the wifi port being a WAN port. This means all the devices behind it appear as a single mac and a ip address. This also means you are going to have issue connecting between the devices in the house and the barn because there is a NAT function between them.

 

[barnb]

Hi Bill, I just got back from vacation. Thanks for the reply!
As you suggested, today I tried enabling the 5Ghz radio to the R7000 & 2.4Ghz to the TPlink, I had no luck.
My new plan is to leave the extender in place for other devices and I have a second TPlink which I will put in place as an AP - point to point to the TPlink on the barn. I'm guessing that should straighten things out! R7000 wired to TPlink AP to TPlink client wired to old router as AP in barn.