Trouble making TP-Link N600 router an access point, please help me out and I'll paypal you $5

[Jon Mendez]

If you can walk me through this process I can PayPal you $5. Here's my situation.

I am in the back corner of the house and the router (Asus N66U) is on the complete opposite side of the house so I do not receive signal. I tried a WiFi range extender but that was near useless. Recently I bought a power line adapter and it works magnificently, I am so happy! I would use the ethernet port on the power line adapter to connect my computer to internet. Now I need WiFi in my room, I tried connecting my WiFi range booster to my powerline adapter via ethernet but for some reason it didn't work, and if it did the speeds were extremely slow.

I want to keep my computer wired and avoid having to use WiFi on it if possible, so I bought a TP-Link N600 router for my room. I read about how I needed to turn off DHCP on the TP-Link router and copy the name of the IP address and subnet mask of the Asus router over to the tp link and some other stuff but I am extremely confused on how to do this. I can't log into the routers IP address because it won't load or it'll redirect me to the Asus router log in page. I am running windows 8 and I do not have a cd drive so I downloaded the windows 7 (I couldn't find 8) installation driver from the tp link website and it worked just fine.

I'm really lost and don't know how to proceed. Any and all help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[ingtar33]

with your computer wired into the network, without the new router (connected to the asus router)

hit (windows key)+S
type CMD
in the new command prompt screen
type ipconfig

ipv4 = your current IP (you don't need this)
subnet = subnet (you need this)
default gateway = your asus router's ip address

it will look something like this
ipv4 = 192.168.1.X
Subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.1.1

now then, plug that ethernet cord into your new router's LAN port, then run a lan cable from the router to your pc.
don't worry, you'll have zero internet at this time
in a web browser navigate to the new router's ip address (it should be 192.168.0.1)
log into the router per the instructions in the manual

now navigate down to the LAN settings
Change the IP address to mirror the ip address of your ASUS router which you found in the origional step, then do the same with the subnet
then save, your router will probably require a reboot

lets set up the wifi shall we?

go to the wireless->wireless security page
set the wireless SSDI and password and security

then go to DHCP; disable it; save and reboot the router

you should be set up at this point.

If for some reason you don't have internet access at this point, reboot your asus router as well.

 

[Jon Mendez]

with your computer wired into the network, without the new router (connected to the asus router)

hit (windows key)+S
type CMD
in the new command prompt screen
type ipconfig

ipv4 = your current IP (you don't need this)
subnet = subnet (you need this)
default gateway = your asus router's ip address

it will look something like this
ipv4 = 192.168.1.X
Subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.1.1

now then, plug that ethernet cord into your new router's LAN port, then run a lan cable from the router to your pc.
don't worry, you'll have zero internet at this time
in a web browser navigate to the new router's ip address (it should be 192.168.0.1)
log into the router per the instructions in the manual

now navigate down to the LAN settings
Change the IP address to mirror the ip address of your ASUS router which you found in the origional step, then do the same with the subnet
then save, your router will probably require a reboot

lets set up the wifi shall we?

go to the wireless->wireless security page
set the wireless SSDI and password and security

then go to DHCP; disable it; save and reboot the router

you should be set up at this point.

If for some reason you don't have internet access at this point, reboot your asus router as well.

Hey! Sorry for the late reply. I can't seem to connect to 192.168.0.1 (it wont load and when it does it tells me the web page is not available) but, 192.168.1.1 seems to work and it loads me to the Asus router log in? When going through the set up process of the tp link router it asks if I want a dynamic or static IP, which one?

 

[ingtar33]

sounds like you have something twisted

ASUS ROUTER------>PC = this result
ASUS ROUTER------>TP-Link N600------>PC = will not (in theory)

the only way this might happen, is if by pure chance the TP-Link N600 has the EXACT SAME ip/subnet by pure chance. in which case you should have net connection at the moment.

 

[Jon Mendez]

sounds like you have something twisted

ASUS ROUTER------>PC = this result
ASUS ROUTER------>TP-Link N600------>PC = will not (in theory)

the only way this might happen, is if by pure chance the TP-Link N600 has the EXACT SAME ip/subnet by pure chance. in which case you should have net connection at the moment.

Still a little confused. Right now, I have an ethernet cable running from my powerline adapter into my computers ethernet port. Let's call that cable A. The second ethernet cable is plugged into TP link routers LAN port (asus router is on the opposite side of the house) and the other end of ethernet cable B isn't plugged into anything yet.

What I previously did was I unplugged cable A from my computer and plugged it into my TP link routers LAN port. From there, I plugged cable B that is in a LAN port into my computer and couldn't access 192.168.0.

 

[ingtar33]

ok. we know the asus router is at
192.168.1.1; guaranteed the subnet is 255.255.255.0

now what you need to do is...
connect the asus to the powerline adaptor, from the powerline adaptor to the TP link, and from the tp link to the pc.
jump into command prompt, and type ipconfig
write down the ip gateway address (it should be something like 192.168.0.1)
then use your web browser to navigate to that address. that should log you into the tp link router.

then follow my instruction on what to do once you get into the router.

 

[Jon Mendez]

ok. we know the asus router is at
192.168.1.1; guaranteed the subnet is 255.255.255.0

now what you need to do is...
connect the asus to the powerline adaptor, from the powerline adaptor to the TP link, and from the tp link to the pc.
jump into command prompt, and type ipconfig
write down the ip gateway address (it should be something like 192.168.0.1)
then use your web browser to navigate to that address. that should log you into the tp link router.

then follow my instruction on what to do once you get into the router.

I logged into the TP-Link's router log in! Now, in order to edit the IP address and subnet I need to change it from dynamic ip to static. Is this okay?


-EDIT-

I found LAN I was on WAN. Subnet is already on 255.255.255.0, changing IP now

 

[Jon Mendez]

ok. we know the asus router is at
192.168.1.1; guaranteed the subnet is 255.255.255.0

now what you need to do is...
connect the asus to the powerline adaptor, from the powerline adaptor to the TP link, and from the tp link to the pc.
jump into command prompt, and type ipconfig
write down the ip gateway address (it should be something like 192.168.0.1)
then use your web browser to navigate to that address. that should log you into the tp link router.

then follow my instruction on what to do once you get into the router.

I received this error code when trying to edit the TP link ip address

Error code: 5008
WAN IP address and LAN IP address cannot be in a same subnet. Please input another IP address.

 

[ingtar33]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

you must be entering the info in the wrong place...

 

[Jon Mendez]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

I can screen cap my screen and upload to youtube? Would that help?

 

[Jon Mendez]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

you must be entering the info in the wrong place...

Uploading to youtube right now, if you can help me set everything up I can double the $5 to $10

 

[ingtar33]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

I can screen cap my screen and upload to youtube? Would that help?

the basic issue is this, maybe if i try to explain what you're trying to do it will help you understand a little bit.

FORGET everything to do with internet "IP" addresses, that will just confuse this

home network IP addresses
-the home network ip address works as a "phone number" or "address", in an internal network.
-there are 2 parts to this network, 1) the ip address, and 2) subnet mask
-all devices sharing the same 3 sets of numbers in the ip and same subnet mask will share the same network
-any device sharing the EXACT same ip address (4 sets of numbers) and subnet mask with another will suffer an ip conflict (in general)
-the home ip address/subnet mask are dictated by your
1) modem
2) router
-devices which do not dictate ip address/subnet masks are called
1) switches
2) access points

now, what i can tell from your home network

1) you have a modem with a DHCP home network setup, not a STATIC IP setup
-i know this because you've not set up your asus router in any way whatsoever, and the only way a router will work plug and play, is if you don't have a static ip, and your modem is working DHCP
2) this means your ASUS router is dictating the ip gateway and subnet for the whole network
which means all devices connected to the ASUS router will have ip addresses starting with 192.168.1 and ending in some random number, usually simply counting up from 1 based on the order they joined the network.
so your home network will look like this
192.168.1.1 = Asus Router
192.168.1.2 = home pc 1
192.168.1.3 = home pc 2
192.168.1.4 = home network printer

or something like that... it will depend whats on the network, and frankly it doesn't really matter

so what does this mean for your situation?

1) your powerline adaptor has no network id in this situation, it's functioning as a type of "switch" so it's irrelivant to this setup
2) your TP-Link ROUTER however is throwing a monkey wrench into the setup
you see it's a router by default, not an access point or switch, which means it has it's own IP address and subnet, different from the asus router. Which means all devices connected to that router will NOT talk to the asus router (they're not, by definition on the same network, or to go with the earlier phone analogy, they're all on a different conference call

So how do we fix this?

This is where it gets a little dicey, you see... some routers are a little more user friendly then yours is, you can simply tell them to function as an access point and they'll forget they even have an IP address and that will be the end of the story. However yours isn't quite so simple

according to the manual on your router, in order to make it work like an access point, you need to do the following

log into the router per the instructions in the manual

now navigate down to the LAN settings
Change the IP address to almost mirror the ip address of your ASUS router 192.168.1.X, however, pick a number for x that is silly large so as to not conflict with the asus router, i like to pick a number 150<X<156, so 151 is nice and random. it should also be within the DHCP range of your asus router
-to be specific, change the LAN ip address to 192.168.1.151
then MIRROR the subnet (It should be 255.255.255.0)
then save, your router will probably require a reboot
THEN
go to the wireless->wireless security page
set the wireless SSDI and password and security

then go to DHCP; disable it; save and reboot the router

in theory this should make everything work properly.
in theory. router setup can be both stupid easy and hair pulling frustrating at times.

 

[Jon Mendez]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

I can screen cap my screen and upload to youtube? Would that help?

the basic issue is this, maybe if i try to explain what you're trying to do it will help you understand a little bit.

FORGET everything to do with internet "IP" addresses, that will just confuse this

home network IP addresses
-the home network ip address works as a "phone number" or "address", in an internal network.
-there are 2 parts to this network, 1) the ip address, and 2) subnet mask
-all devices sharing the same 3 sets of numbers in the ip and same subnet mask will share the same network
-any device sharing the EXACT same ip address (4 sets of numbers) and subnet mask with another will suffer an ip conflict (in general)
-the home ip address/subnet mask are dictated by your
1) modem
2) router
-devices which do not dictate ip address/subnet masks are called
1) switches
2) access points

now, what i can tell from your home network

1) you have a modem with a DHCP home network setup, not a STATIC IP setup
-i know this because you've not set up your asus router in any way whatsoever, and the only way a router will work plug and play, is if you don't have a static ip, and your modem is working DHCP
2) this means your ASUS router is dictating the ip gateway and subnet for the whole network
which means all devices connected to the ASUS router will have ip addresses starting with 192.168.1 and ending in some random number, usually simply counting up from 1 based on the order they joined the network.
so your home network will look like this
192.168.1.1 = Asus Router
192.168.1.2 = home pc 1
192.168.1.3 = home pc 2
192.168.1.4 = home network printer

or something like that... it will depend whats on the network, and frankly it doesn't really matter

so what does this mean for your situation?

1) your powerline adaptor has no network id in this situation, it's functioning as a type of "switch" so it's irrelivant to this setup
2) your TP-Link ROUTER however is throwing a monkey wrench into the setup
you see it's a router by default, not an access point or switch, which means it has it's own IP address and subnet, different from the asus router. Which means all devices connected to that router will NOT talk to the asus router (they're not, by definition on the same network, or to go with the earlier phone analogy, they're all on a different conference call

So how do we fix this?

This is where it gets a little dicey, you see... some routers are a little more user friendly then yours is, you can simply tell them to function as an access point and they'll forget they even have an IP address and that will be the end of the story. However yours isn't quite so simple

according to the manual on your router, in order to make it work like an access point, you need to do the following

log into the router per the instructions in the manual

now navigate down to the LAN settings
Change the IP address to almost mirror the ip address of your ASUS router 192.168.1.X, however, pick a number for x that is silly large so as to not conflict with the asus router, i like to pick a number 150<X<156, so 151 is nice and random. it should also be within the DHCP range of your asus router
-to be specific, change the LAN ip address to 192.168.1.151
then MIRROR the subnet (It should be 255.255.255.0)
then save, your router will probably require a reboot
THEN
go to the wireless->wireless security page
set the wireless SSDI and password and security

then go to DHCP; disable it; save and reboot the router

in theory this should make everything work properly.
in theory. router setup can be both stupid easy and hair pulling frustrating at times.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227VOrjE5eg&feature=youtu.be

reading over your comment now

 

[Jon Mendez]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

I can screen cap my screen and upload to youtube? Would that help?

the basic issue is this, maybe if i try to explain what you're trying to do it will help you understand a little bit.

FORGET everything to do with internet "IP" addresses, that will just confuse this

home network IP addresses
-the home network ip address works as a "phone number" or "address", in an internal network.
-there are 2 parts to this network, 1) the ip address, and 2) subnet mask
-all devices sharing the same 3 sets of numbers in the ip and same subnet mask will share the same network
-any device sharing the EXACT same ip address (4 sets of numbers) and subnet mask with another will suffer an ip conflict (in general)
-the home ip address/subnet mask are dictated by your
1) modem
2) router
-devices which do not dictate ip address/subnet masks are called
1) switches
2) access points

now, what i can tell from your home network

1) you have a modem with a DHCP home network setup, not a STATIC IP setup
-i know this because you've not set up your asus router in any way whatsoever, and the only way a router will work plug and play, is if you don't have a static ip, and your modem is working DHCP
2) this means your ASUS router is dictating the ip gateway and subnet for the whole network
which means all devices connected to the ASUS router will have ip addresses starting with 192.168.1 and ending in some random number, usually simply counting up from 1 based on the order they joined the network.
so your home network will look like this
192.168.1.1 = Asus Router
192.168.1.2 = home pc 1
192.168.1.3 = home pc 2
192.168.1.4 = home network printer

or something like that... it will depend whats on the network, and frankly it doesn't really matter

so what does this mean for your situation?

1) your powerline adaptor has no network id in this situation, it's functioning as a type of "switch" so it's irrelivant to this setup
2) your TP-Link ROUTER however is throwing a monkey wrench into the setup
you see it's a router by default, not an access point or switch, which means it has it's own IP address and subnet, different from the asus router. Which means all devices connected to that router will NOT talk to the asus router (they're not, by definition on the same network, or to go with the earlier phone analogy, they're all on a different conference call

So how do we fix this?

This is where it gets a little dicey, you see... some routers are a little more user friendly then yours is, you can simply tell them to function as an access point and they'll forget they even have an IP address and that will be the end of the story. However yours isn't quite so simple

according to the manual on your router, in order to make it work like an access point, you need to do the following

log into the router per the instructions in the manual

now navigate down to the LAN settings
Change the IP address to almost mirror the ip address of your ASUS router 192.168.1.X, however, pick a number for x that is silly large so as to not conflict with the asus router, i like to pick a number 150<X<156, so 151 is nice and random. it should also be within the DHCP range of your asus router
-to be specific, change the LAN ip address to 192.168.1.151
then MIRROR the subnet (It should be 255.255.255.0)
then save, your router will probably require a reboot
THEN
go to the wireless->wireless security page
set the wireless SSDI and password and security

then go to DHCP; disable it; save and reboot the router

in theory this should make everything work properly.
in theory. router setup can be both stupid easy and hair pulling frustrating at times.

I assumed this tp link was harder to work with than others, it's just a pure headache. Can I just buy an access point and plug and play? Which would you recommend under $120?

 

[Jon Mendez]

mmmmm... that doesn't seem possible.

I can screen cap my screen and upload to youtube? Would that help?

the basic issue is this, maybe if i try to explain what you're trying to do it will help you understand a little bit.

FORGET everything to do with internet "IP" addresses, that will just confuse this

home network IP addresses
-the home network ip address works as a "phone number" or "address", in an internal network.
-there are 2 parts to this network, 1) the ip address, and 2) subnet mask
-all devices sharing the same 3 sets of numbers in the ip and same subnet mask will share the same network
-any device sharing the EXACT same ip address (4 sets of numbers) and subnet mask with another will suffer an ip conflict (in general)
-the home ip address/subnet mask are dictated by your
1) modem
2) router
-devices which do not dictate ip address/subnet masks are called
1) switches
2) access points

now, what i can tell from your home network

1) you have a modem with a DHCP home network setup, not a STATIC IP setup
-i know this because you've not set up your asus router in any way whatsoever, and the only way a router will work plug and play, is if you don't have a static ip, and your modem is working DHCP
2) this means your ASUS router is dictating the ip gateway and subnet for the whole network
which means all devices connected to the ASUS router will have ip addresses starting with 192.168.1 and ending in some random number, usually simply counting up from 1 based on the order they joined the network.
so your home network will look like this
192.168.1.1 = Asus Router
192.168.1.2 = home pc 1
192.168.1.3 = home pc 2
192.168.1.4 = home network printer

or something like that... it will depend whats on the network, and frankly it doesn't really matter

so what does this mean for your situation?

1) your powerline adaptor has no network id in this situation, it's functioning as a type of "switch" so it's irrelivant to this setup
2) your TP-Link ROUTER however is throwing a monkey wrench into the setup
you see it's a router by default, not an access point or switch, which means it has it's own IP address and subnet, different from the asus router. Which means all devices connected to that router will NOT talk to the asus router (they're not, by definition on the same network, or to go with the earlier phone analogy, they're all on a different conference call

So how do we fix this?

This is where it gets a little dicey, you see... some routers are a little more user friendly then yours is, you can simply tell them to function as an access point and they'll forget they even have an IP address and that will be the end of the story. However yours isn't quite so simple

according to the manual on your router, in order to make it work like an access point, you need to do the following

log into the router per the instructions in the manual

now navigate down to the LAN settings
Change the IP address to almost mirror the ip address of your ASUS router 192.168.1.X, however, pick a number for x that is silly large so as to not conflict with the asus router, i like to pick a number 150<X<156, so 151 is nice and random. it should also be within the DHCP range of your asus router
-to be specific, change the LAN ip address to 192.168.1.151
then MIRROR the subnet (It should be 255.255.255.0)
then save, your router will probably require a reboot
THEN
go to the wireless->wireless security page
set the wireless SSDI and password and security

then go to DHCP; disable it; save and reboot the router

in theory this should make everything work properly.
in theory. router setup can be both stupid easy and hair pulling frustrating at times.

Just tried that, no diced. I'm just going to return this piece of trash.

 

[Strannik_au]

So I know the OP has probably already returned the router, and is happy enjoying his new one, but for the poor sods like myself that come here from google I'm going to post the solution to save them hair pulling.

When you follow the instructions above, make sure that the cable connecting two routers is not plugged in into WAN port of your TP-LINK.
Then it will all work smoothly, and TP-LINK will act as a simple switch/access point. If you connect it via the WAN port, it will act as a router, creating a separate subnet for all the devices connected to it, and you will get all the problems described above.

 

[ingtar33]

So I know the OP has probably already returned the router, and is happy enjoying his new one, but for the poor sods like myself that come here from google I'm going to post the solution to save them hair pulling.

When you follow the instructions above, make sure that the cable connecting two routers is not plugged in into WAN port of your TP-LINK.
Then it will all work smoothly, and TP-LINK will act as a simple switch/access point. If you connect it via the WAN port, it will act as a router, creating a separate subnet for all the devices connected to it, and you will get all the problems described above.

or just buy an access point when you need an access point.

:\ still i'm glad you got it sorted.

 

[Strannik_au]

for me the problem was slightly different to that of OP. my tp-link was my main router, but for some reason ADSL stopped working today, so I had to temporarily plug my old router in to act as a modem. i didn't want to re-setup all the devices in the house until i resolve the ADSL issue permanently, so just switched tp-link to act as a switch/AP for now.