Connect 2.4G device to 5G AP

[Pyneappel]

Hi, I live in an apartment and connect to the internet through a DLink DAP-2553. The DAP-2553 is physically in, and only used by, my apartment, but I do not have any of the login credentials. When they set this up, for some reason they only set up the 5G band and not the 2.4G band for my unit, although other units are broadcasting both bands. I have tried to contact their support, but do not hear back. I have a few devices that do not support 5G (internet TV, older laptop, chromecast) that I would like to be able to connect to the internet. I realize I can buy a 5G adapter for the laptop, but is there some WiFi AP/Repeater type device (hopefully simple to set up) that would let me connect to it with the 2.4G devices and it would route that traffic through the DAP-2553 over the 5G band? It does not have to have much range. I just don't know what to search for or what feature to look for. Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

The device you are looking for used to what was called a repeater. Now that the mass market idiots have gotten involved and price is more important than function almost all things called repeaters or even worse "wireless extenders" do not work that way. They only use a single radio, even though some will receive it on one radio and then transmit it out on both.

Even if you were to find one of these that sends it out on both it may not work, many times you must enable the WDS feature that makes repeaters work on the main router which you have no access to.


I would look at companies like engenius or ubiquiti they sell equipment more toward the commercial side but it is still fairly inexpensive. You are going to have to read the fine print. You want the 5g radio to run as what is called a backhaul.

If you have the tech skills you can load third party firmware like dd-wrt on a compatible router. It is a messy config but you can run 1 radio as the WAN port and the other on the lan. This method will work with any system because it does not use WDS.

Now if the AP they put in your apartment is powered via a wall outlet you would insert a switch in the cable and then add another AP of your own to provide wireless. If they run PoE it will be harder.

Maybe just buy a different ap or maybe your own dlink and remove their and put yours in its place.

 

[Pyneappel]

Maybe just buy a different ap or maybe your own dlink and remove their and put yours in its place.

Ah , thanks for simplifying. For some reason I thought there was more going on over the wire between the DAP-2553 and however the internet was coming into the building (encryption, load balancing, proxy server, whatever). I unplugged the AP and took my laptop and just plugged it into the ethernet cable from the wall and could surf right away with no additional config. So, yeah, it looks like I could just replace it with my own AP. Doh. Thanks.