wireless repeater problems

[space1]

Ok, I have been working at this for the past 2 days without success.

I have an old Linksys WRT54G v5 with DD-WRT installed on it sitting here that i want to use as a repeater. AT&T gave me a 2wire 3801HGV gateway which is the host.


I am pretty sure I have been follow the guides word for word but am still having issues.

Guide 1:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge

Guide 2:
http://lifehacker.com/5563196/turn-your-old-router-into-a-range+boosting-wi+fi-repeater


Both those guides are basically the same.

The issue I am having is that i have no internet. though the Linksys.
All the security configurations work fine but have no internet access.


Now what i am wondering is if anyone could help me with this issue OR,
Show me how i can just send a wired ethernet cable from my gateway to the Liunksys and get internet access because I have tried connecting a cable to the internet port on the back of the linksys and then taken another cable from port 1 to my PC and still not had internet.


Would this be caused by both routers not running DD-WRT?

 

[bill001g]

You need nothing special at all to run a "repeater" as you describe. What you are actually wanting is called a AP, it is sorta a "repeater" but it does not actually repeat anything it translates the packets from ethernet to wireless. What is normally called a repeater takes a wireless signal in and retransmits a wireless signal

You want to avoid using a wireless repeater at all costs. You should only use it as a last resort when you have no other options. The theory something is better than nothing, so really bad internet is better than nothing is what you have to accept some times.

AP mode it simple you can use any router with dd-wrt or not. There is a guide in the start of this forum but pretty much you run a cable LAN -LAN between your routers. You set the AP to a different channel and maybe a different SSID..up to you. You turn off DHCP on the new router/AP. And you assign some address to it so you can manage it.

DD-WRT has AP mode but all you really gain is the ability to use the WAN port

 

[eibgrad]

Chaining routers WAN to LAN should always work. However, there's one gotcha that ppl often miss; every router in that chain MUST use different networks (192.168.1.x, 192.168.2.x, etc.). If you don't, routing will not work, and hence no internet access. It’s a very common mistake since so many routers use the same network (192.168.1.x) by default. At least one of the two typically has to be changed.

All that said, configuring the second router as an AP is the better solution since it places both routers on the same network, by design.

As far as repeater bridge mode, the trick to getting it working is to do it in two steps. First configure for “client bridge” mode and get wired clients working over the bridge. THEN and ONLY THEN change the “client bridge” to “repeater bridge”, add the VAP (virtual AP), and add wireless security to that VAP. Now wireless clients will work too. The reason doing it all in one step often fails is that ppl mistakenly STOMP on the wireless client configuration as they attempt to setup the AP. They don’t realize they need to ADD the VAP, not reconfigure the otherwise working wireless client.

 

[space1]

You need nothing special at all to run a "repeater" as you describe. What you are actually wanting is called a AP, it is sorta a "repeater" but it does not actually repeat anything it translates the packets from ethernet to wireless. What is normally called a repeater takes a wireless signal in and retransmits a wireless signal

You want to avoid using a wireless repeater at all costs. You should only use it as a last resort when you have no other options. The theory something is better than nothing, so really bad internet is better than nothing is what you have to accept some times.

AP mode it simple you can use any router with dd-wrt or not. There is a guide in the start of this forum but pretty much you run a cable LAN -LAN between your routers. You set the AP to a different channel and maybe a different SSID..up to you. You turn off DHCP on the new router/AP. And you assign some address to it so you can manage it.

DD-WRT has AP mode but all you really gain is the ability to use the WAN port

Ok so I just do a 30/30/30 reset then plug the ethernet from my gateway into the linksys and set the linksys to AP mode and turn DHCP off and assign a new address like 192.168.2.1?

Thats it right?

I can do the security stuff but this is really my first time messing with routers so sorry for being a newbie.

 

[bill001g]

It is that simple most the time.

 

[space1]

It is that simple most the time.

Well, I must be doing something very wrong here.

Just followed this
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/36406-43-convert-wireless-router-wireless-access-point
and the router rebooted then when i tried to load a website it gave me it did not load, and windows also told me there was no internet access. This is off my PC on a wired connection to the linksys router.
Or do I have to be on WiFi for the net to work?

Just to clarify something, WAN is the "Internet" port and LAN are the other 4 ports for wired connections correct?


See, very inexperienced.


EDIT- Wireless works perfect but I can't use any wired connections off the router which is sorta a downside but oh well, its better than nothing.
Just have to buy a couple Wireless PCI cards.

Thanks for the help my friend!!

 

[bill001g]

The lan ports are just a switch. If you hook lan-lan you should be able to plug your PC into any port on either router and it will be able to get to the internet. The only thing you have to be careful of is not to assign the same IP to both routers. So if your main router is 192.168.1.1 your AP should be 192.168.1.2 or really anything that does not conflict. Some people like to use the top address like 192.168.1.253

It is very rare but it may not negotiate the cable correctly between the routers. Make sure the lights turn on when you plug the routers together.

You should be able to ping your main gateway router of 192.168.1.1 at all times no matter what port you plug into.