Using extra router for a wired connection away from primary router

[cutcopypaste]

I am staying in a place temporarily, my room is not accessible to the modem/router via ethernet, but I do have my own RT-AC66U. I am hoping to use it to relay the wireless connection to my desktop computer, but I'm not sure how to approach it -- I see a lot of talk about repeaters, or access points etc.

I know the router can act as an Access Point, but that requires a LAN connection still.

What I think I want is to use my RT-AC66U as a Wireless Bridge. Is it possible to do that using the default firmware? There is an option for running the router as a 'media bridge' but I'm not sure that's what I want and I would rather not install new firmware on the router if I don't have to.

 

[jnewegger23]

I also have an RT-AC66U (main router) but I am currently using my extra RT-AC52U as a "repeater". You can use the default firmware; I've included pics below:

Simply click on "Administration" and the click on "repeater":

Because of 192.168.1.1 will most likely be taken by the primary router you will need to utilize the asus device discovery software:

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=RT-AC66U&p=11&s=2&os=30&hashedid=LzShv8ma7TrQB4eO

Click on utilities and it should be the second option to download ver 1.4.6.5 (I usually click on the green icon that says global)

It should then later show the ip of your main router and the repeater so you can go configure any other details/settings you need to tweak as needed.

When you are all done your configuration should look something like this:

But of course for you it will be the ac66u as the repeater and whatever the main router is for your situation. It does half the mbs speed (ie you pay for 30mbs and will now get 15mbs from your AP) so keep that in mind but it works solid for me. Hopefully this helps!

 

[cutcopypaste]

I also have an RT-AC66U (main router) but I am currently using my extra RT-AC52U as a "repeater". You can use the default firmware; I've included pics below:

Simply click on "Administration" and the click on "repeater":

...

Thank you!!

Is media bridge mode the same as repeater? That's the only option I have in my admin backend.. But it specifies that both routers need to be RT-AC66Us so I am not totally sure it will work..

The Device Discovery Utility is apparently windows only, but I was able to grab the MAC address of both routers using arp -a in the terminal.

I tried to set it up as a media bridge.. and then at some point it said my IP address had changed and I needed to run the device discovery utility. It had me set up a new network name (which seemed weird) and now I have the original wireless network 'original' and 'newnetwork' that i set up, but I dno if I have the right stuff set up. 'newnetwork' doesn't have any internet access (well... I can load the admin dashboard but then it stops responding after a couple minutes).. doesn't seem to be working..

 

[jnewegger23]

I'm not sure what the pros/cons are of media bridge over repeater and I'm in no way insisting that you change your approach but I find it odd that you say you can't find the "repeater" option for your AC66u, here's a screen shot of my ac66u admin options:

Perhaps you need to do a firmware update to get this option? I'd check how behind you may be on that.

 

[cutcopypaste]

Hm I haven't consciously updated firmware for a while now.. that could be it.

Yup.. looks like they added repeater mode last September, so I guess last time I updated was before that

Unfortunately in my travels I've made it so I can't connect to it anymore, so I'll have to figure that out .. I can connect to the network of my asus router, but i don't get an IP address and the router doesn't appear on my network.

Edit: reset, installed firmware, and I think it's lookin' good! just gotta get my desktop setup and confirm I can connect

 

[bill001g]

As you say Asus has been updating things so its hard to say which options you have. You if at all possible want to run in media-bridge ie client-bridge mode. You want to avoid running in repeater mode. Since you do not need your device to retransmit the radio signal out to your PC you want to disable this function if possible. You pay a massive performance penalty when you do this because the signal interferes with main signal coming from the router.

...A USB nic card would have been much simpler solution.

 

[cutcopypaste]

ha apparently.. i just thought i might as well use what i have..

from what i can tell 'repeater' sounds like more what i need.. 'media bridge' shows the router with an ethernet cable connecting it to the main network, so I'm not surrre.

It was kinda working, but, as you mentioned.. interfering with the established network like crazy.. conflicting IPs, things not working etc. But in repeater mode it looks like I *can* set up a different network name, so maybe I will try doing that and give it a different name and just ignore that network..

or by interfering do you mean it may damage the signal of the other router?

 

[bill001g]

When you run in repeater mode you normally must have exactly the same SSID and same passwords and use the same radio channel. This is just how WDS works. It transmits a copy of what it received out a second time including back to the main router which reduces the time the main router can be sending. Problem is the work "repeater" is used way too loosely lately.

What you want is a media-bridge or client-bridge. This pretty much acts as a nic card with a ethernet port. It only supports a single mac address.

The only way you can use a different channel/ssid is in a mode everyone used to call "repeaters" before the 29.99 special "range externder" devices came on the market. This type of repeater use 1 radio to talk back to the base station and a second radio to talk to the clients. This sorta appears as a client-bridge device hooked back to back with a AP. It is still the best way to build a repeater to use 2 separate devices. I know this mode is supported on dd-wrt but Asus could have put it in their code they have been incorporating many of the dd-wrt features since their code is based on dd-wrt.

 

[jnewegger23]

ha apparently.. i just thought i might as well use what i have..

from what i can tell 'repeater' sounds like more what i need.. 'media bridge' shows the router with an ethernet cable connecting it to the main network, so I'm not surrre.

It was kinda working, but, as you mentioned.. interfering with the established network like crazy.. conflicting IPs, things not working etc. But in repeater mode it looks like I *can* set up a different network name, so maybe I will try doing that and give it a different name and just ignore that network..

or by interfering do you mean it may damage the signal of the other router?

You won't damage the signal. It at worst will conflict and not work at all. The main router will just take priority. By going in repeater you are basically extending the network to where you are at the cost of half the band width but the signal should be consistent, strong, and reliable.

 

[bill001g]

ha apparently.. i just thought i might as well use what i have..

from what i can tell 'repeater' sounds like more what i need.. 'media bridge' shows the router with an ethernet cable connecting it to the main network, so I'm not surrre.

It was kinda working, but, as you mentioned.. interfering with the established network like crazy.. conflicting IPs, things not working etc. But in repeater mode it looks like I *can* set up a different network name, so maybe I will try doing that and give it a different name and just ignore that network..

or by interfering do you mean it may damage the signal of the other router?

You won't damage the signal. It at worst will conflict and not work at all. The main router will just take priority. By going in repeater you are basically extending the network to where you are at the cost of half the band width but the signal should be consistent, strong, and reliable.

But it does damage the signal if you want to use that term. That is why it is 1/2 the bandwidth and it can be much more. The signal may be strong but it is not anything else. This is a fundamental issue in the collision avoidance. There is no control on who transmits when in wireless there is no priority for the main router in any way. Each device listens and if can't hear it begins to transmit. If you are using a repeater you would assume the device talking to the repeater can only detect the repeater and not the main router and the main router would be the same. So when the main router has a packet to send and the end device has a packet to send they listen and hear nothing and begin to transmit. They have no way of knowing if the other device is transmitting at the time or not. BUT at the repeater it CAN hear both signals and they overlap destroying each other. This can happen with 2 devices talking just to the main router that each independently can hear the main router but not each other. When you use repeaters you greatly increase you chance the end devices can not hear each other and collide.

This is one of the key reason repeaters work so poorly. The more devices you have the more overlapping transmission you have.

 

[jnewegger23]

I see the validity of your point but in my experience a repeater doesn't work poorly but rather well actually. My repeater setup has the same network id but different ip address and dchp range assignment capability. In effect, I am not sure how that causes conflicts but I am open to believing it can happen. I just haven't experienced it. To the op I am not insisting that you use repeater mode; just sharing how my home network actually works and it has been very solid but I can respect theoretical reasons for errors that can be very real. Thank you bill001g for this clarification but I can see how it will cause the op to be more hesitant to go into repeater mode. I recommend you do what makes the most sense and I see bill001g's argument. Hopefully you can get media bridge mode working then if this is not a valid solution for you. Best of luck!