Just moved to a bigger house (yay!) and am having an odd network problem (boo!).
My cable modem/router is at one extreme end of my house, and I was get no Wi-Fi signal at the other end.
The prior owner had run Cat 5 Ethernet from the router location to a point located about half-way across the house.
He also left an old Netgear router, which I thought I could set up as a Wireless Access Point, or WAP.
I’ve done this many times for other people, and never had a problem.
On the old router, I:
- Turned off DHCP,
- Set the password and network name (SSID) to be the same as my primary, and
- Connected the two routers from LAN-port to LAN port. (I did NOT use the WAN port on the Netgear.)
In effect, I’ve turned the router into a bridge.
It kinda works. I now have Wi-Fi at the far end of my house. Some websites (like Google) work normally.
But my default search engine is DuckDuckGo, and it’s unreachable. A DNS check confirmed that I can resolve the address, but the website never loads, it just times out.
I also have some phone apps that complain that I’m “offline” when I’m connected to the Netgear. Presumably what those apps really mean is, “I can’t reach my server!” since I’m clearly able to load content in my browser when this happens.
Any suggestions?
I did something similar, 5+ years ago. I got tired of wondering if I could connect. Ended up spending good money on a new Cisco router for the time. It was worth the 150 and I have full coverage, even 100’ from the house, in the back yard. Still working great and I have ONLY our phones and computers able to gain access thru the router.
Please consider getting a new router and placing it in the center of the house, where you have the WAP. The modem needs to be at the other end of that CAT5… should work great and you should get full coverage thru the house. I’ve found that coverage is better when placed above 6’… YMMV.
HTH…
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Have just been helping my parents setup a pair of Ubiquiti AC Lite access points to provide better coverage in their house.
I think they’ll work well, should hopefully be “seamless” handoffs between the access points, and weren’t too expensive.
These 2 will have CAT5 to the DSL modem.
Probably we’ll add a 3rd AP in the workshop/shed that will have to use “mesh network” to relay back to the modem.
Yes, you can probably use an old router as a WAP. Can even do things with DD-WRT to try to breath life into those old routers.
But sometimes it’s worth it to just spend $200 to get reliable hardware.
Personally, my modem’s wifi has usually been good enough in my house. So I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I’ve been thinking about getting 2-3 AC-Lite APs for my house as well - put one where it’ll reach the back yard better.
In effect, I’ve turned the router into a bridge.
When I did this I just chose the setting that said to make it a bridge. I left the details of what that meant to the router. I did give it its own WiFi name(s), and its own password.
In my old house I ran an ethernet cable to a centrally located closet and used an old Netgear router configured as a bridge. Later I bought a much newer and fancier Netgear router to replace it, again configured as a bridge. When I moved to my current house I brought it with me and plugged it in without making ANY changes. It just worked. I didn’t even have to fiddle with the settings on my phone or laptops.
Why not place a single router with wifi at the center of the house and be done with it?
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Why not place a single router with wifi at the center of the house and be done with it?
Could be any one of:
- That location would not provide adequate coverage of the house/area. (but having 2 wifi points will.)
- Cable/DSL isn’t available in that spot, so can’t locate the modem/router there
- Moving the router would require a number of additional cables to that spot as the current spot is the home run location for the existing network
Or some other reason.
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- That location would not provide adequate coverage of the house/area. (but having 2 wifi points will.)
I think he has one wifi device and the router is elsewhere.
- Cable/DSL isn’t available in that spot, so can’t locate the modem/router there
- Moving the router would require a number of additional cables to that spot as the current spot is the home run location for the existing network
Most today hookup via ethernet and he said the previous owner ran a cable already.
Perhaps some clarification but that’s what I’ve learned thus far from their posts.
If the above is incorrect sometimes doing it right is HARDER and unless this is some massive 10,00 sqft mansion a single router should easily over a house in the 1k-4k sqft range. Yes there are many factors but overall it can do it.
I have become a huge fan of eero. It is drop dead simple - maybe too simple for your skill/knowledge level.
If you want to consider this route, I direct you to a Mesh system. The existing Cat 5 wire could be used as I understand the system. My satellite is close enough to the main unit all works wirelessly.
I have done what you are trying to do. I bought a high end router to connect at the modem. In the middle of the house I set up the older dual band media router as a WAP. On the far side of the house I set up the oldest router as a WAP. They work better than any of the extenders. Keep trouble shooting and googling this problem you are having. A router setting is off on the WAP…doc
…I set up the oldest router as a WAP.
doc, have you ever seen any firmware (*/combatability*) issues? ...or between different vendors?
Is your hardware all from the same manuf? example: Cisco vs Netgear vs Linksys vs **OTHERS**?
[ww.haveseenissuesinthepast.pl/especially.across.vendors/](http://ww.haveseenissuesinthepast.pl/especially.across.vendors/)
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It’s all just 0’s & 1’s, any of the above brands should be happy with each other… I happen to use a Motorola Cable modem, tied to my Apple Airport Extreme and on to an Airport Express as an extender… But in the mix are a couple Linksys switches… The Airport Extreme is the router, the rest are distribution for the needed Cat5’s running about to TVs, AppleTV, computers…
Advantage is the alerts I see if the Airports lose signal, but I’m sure others would work out… My Inlaw gave me this Extreme, 16 years I guess… I think its dead, as far as production, but many are on eBay, later models, but I have backups in the cupboard anyway…
It just takes tinkering sometimes…
weco
I have seen issues with using multiple brands and all my routers are dlink…doc
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