Improving Pavilion WiFi #1
So, in early 2008, I purchased a Linksys WRT300N V1 WiFi access point (AP) and router to ease myself into the WiFi world cheaply. However, this unit appears to utilize a very low-power transmitter – the signal strength falls rapidly as you increase your distance from this AP. I lose one bar even when just one room away on a laptop. Still though, at the pavilion, I get one bar from it and can reliably connect. Its signal seems reliable and strong enough to be a good input to a repeater AP.
Nonetheless, I still wished to further improve signal strength down there and throughout the house up here. So in later 2008, I purchased a full-power (1 watt or 30 DBm) system: The Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000 AP and router. This vastly improved WiFi reception everywhere, including my favorite hang-out spot here on the property; the pavilion, which is 210 feet from the house. Laptops with WiFi now get three to four bars out of five down there, and they reliably play my favorite Internet radio stations.
My passion for Internet radio has grown over the past year. So I decided to purchase a 64 GB iPod Touch with WiFi, hoping to spend some long days at the pavilion listening to stations on it. Unfortunately, while the WiFi signal strength is very useable, it’s still quite weak on the iPod; the touch does not receive as well as the laptops, and so, requires a stronger WiFi signal to establish comparable reception. Further, as I swing with the iPod Touch, apps such as AOL Radio and ShoutCAST often cut out apparently due to the dead spots encountered at the fringes of the “WiFi bubble”. It will work. But once you find a place where the signal is strong, you must keep the iPod Touch quite still to avoid these drop-outs.
This will not do though, because I love to sit on the pavilion swings, and get them really moving as I’m jamming. So for me, it’s no fun sitting still, when listening to the sorts of dance and classic rock music that I so enjoy. Thus, I’ve got to be able to move around without fear of losing the signal. So, I’m seeking a way to get a strong WiFi signal in and around the pavilion, so that my iPod Touch will function flawlessly.
To that end, I attempted to configure my BWRG1000 as a WiFi repeater, and take it to the pavilion while I had the WRT300N V1 up here configured as my root access point. If it worked, I’d have an extremely strong signal on the Touch, as the BWRG1000 would only be a few feet from me. However, I could not make the BWRG1000 repeat the signals from the WRT300N V1, even when I positioned it very close to the WRT300N V1. I tried the following steps without luck:
- Enabled WDS mode on the BWRG1000. No repeating occurred.
- Configured the SID and MAC Ids of the WRT300N V1 as my root access point on the BWRG1000. Still, no repeating.
- Set the encryption format on the WRT300N V1 to WEP. It says on the Bountiful WiFi web site that the BRWG1000, in repeater mode, does not support any encryption except WEP. Aaaaah, I thought. This explains the no-signal situation. Alas however, I still had no signal from the BRWG1000 after this change, even I verified that I could connect to the WRT300N V1 with the iPod Touch using WEP.
- Made sure that the WRT300N V1 was configured for Wireless G mode only.
I also read that often, when the make of the repeater-mode access point (Bountiful WiFi in this scenario) differs from that of the root access point (Linksys here), repeater operation may not work. It could be that this difference is preventing the BWRG1000 from repeating.
Unfortunately, this experiment of employing the BWRG1000 as a repeater for a WRT300N V1 AP has failed, barring any new information that readers provide. I wonder if the repeater solution might work the other way around? That is: What if I configure the BRWG1000 as the root AP and the WRT300N V1 AP as the repeater? That might work. However, I’d probably have to switch to different firmware than the stock software, as the stock software does not allow the user to configure this AP for repeater operation. Still though, I might give that a try.
The Next Day
In fact, I did try this out. Click here for details.