How To convert a Wireless Router To an Access Point

[Simonj64]

Hi,

Just registerd with this site and are in a real pickle.

Just had an ethernet backbone put through part of my house and the builders / electricians seem to have not done what I thought they would do which was to enable the main part of the house utilise a wireless router - an ethernet cable from this down into a basement where all the ethernet cables /hub etc are.

What I have got is the phone point coming into my house routed to my basement and this connects into my wireless router. Problem is for the main part of the house (which was to be served using the wireless router) cannot see the router so there is no internet connection in this part of the house. The solution to this I thought, was to use a second router, further upstairs in a part of the house where there is ethernet cabling, as an access point which can then provide wireless access to the rest of the house.

i have followed the sections on how to convert a wireless router to access point - on the AP modem turn off DCHP - I did not have to change the IP address since the address in this was outside the range of the DCHP on the wireless router (and in fact I was unable to change the local IP address on this router since when I tried to change it is said the IP address was invalid).

Anyway I've connected the AP modem via an ethernet cable to the ehternet switch box and then into the wireless router - but I am unable to log on to this AP.

So followed the instructions but nothing works ! What can I try - port light is on the AP, but unless I physically connect a ethernet cable from the laptop to the "AP" router - nothing.

So is there anything else i should be doing (WEP key is required for this modem - not sure if its a facotry setting) but as you may see I am out of my depth on this. AP router is a Siemes Gigaset SE587 WLAN dsl supplied by Tiscali, the current wireless router is a NetgearDG834GT

Look forward to any reples

thanks

Simon

[scotty]

If you've turned off DHCP on the AP, and you try to connect to it by connecting a PC directly to it, you might have a hard time because your PC won't get an IP address (DHCP turned off). You can work around this by manually assigning your PC an IP address in the same subnet as your AP. For example, if your AP is set as 192.168.1.200, and you connect a PC to it, assign the PC anything in the 192.168.1.X range. From there, you should be able to connect to it.

But if you plug the AP into your regular network, you should be able to connect to it regardless. Besides disabling DHCP and making sure it has it's own unique address, remember that you dont plug it in in the WAN/Internet port, you plug it into the rest of your network on a regular switch/PC port (where you would normally plug a PC into it). If it's plugged into the network and has its own address (which correlates to your network), you should be good.

And you say that when you try to assign it an address, it says it's an 'invalid address'? You might be mistyping something or not following basic network addressing rules. To make sure you know what your subnet mask and default gateway are, run an ipconfig on a windows PC. You can essentially copy these settings, just making sure the IP address is unique. If you copy most of the settings, it should work for you (likely 192.168.1.XXX address, 255.255.255.0 subnet, 192.168.1.1 default gateway). Sometimes (rarely) you might see a router ask for an address in CIDR format. In which case, you have to input it as 192.168.1.X/24 (your network is /24 if your subnetmask is 255.255.255.0). This is pretty rare in home user gear though.

Hope this helps.

[Pavel]

I followed the instructions in the article and things seemed to work fine. The only problem is that in the new configuration I have occasional packet loss. It looks like this (10.168.3.104 is one of the devices on the network):

Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 10.168.3.102: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=1433ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.168.3.104: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

It's goes on and off, but it is quite disruptive - it slows down web transfers, it could stall a video playback (from that 10.168.3.104 device).

Any suggestions about what might be the problem? At this point I'm not quite sure where to look.

[thiggins]

This may not have anything to do with the router to AP conversion. Just a typical flaky wireless connection.

[Pavel]

Thank you. Anything I can do about it? I guess I'm not the first one who has to deal with this - I would really appreciate a link to a discussion.

[thiggins]

Sure try these:
How To Fix Your Wireless Network - Part 1

How To Fix Your Wireless Network - Part 2: Site Surveying

How To Fix Your Wireless Network - Part 3: Increasing Coverage

[Pavel]

Thank you very much!