In the ongoing effort to get stronger WiFi signal at my pavilion so that my wireless devices like the iPod Touch function more reliably down there, I thought that today, I’d do the reverse of what was done yesterday. At that time, I configured my high power access point (the Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000) as a repeater of the root access point, which was my lower power AP (the Linksys WRT300N). However, I could not get the BWRG1000 to repeat the WRT300N V1s signals after several hours of reading, trial, and error.
So, later yesterday and today, I investigated configuring the WRT300N V1 as the repeater instead. Unfortunately, the stock firmware from Linksys that ships with this AP does not support repeater or repeater bridge functionality. But a Google search revealed a neat firmware system, called dd-wrt. This package is open software (so it is free), and it contains the additional functionality I need for repeating. Check out its web site at http://www.dd-wrt.com/, for more information.
After locating the correct firmware for the WRT300N V1 (not a trivial task, mind you), I downloaded it and installed. I may post details about this experience in another piece if I can remember everything I did. It took a couple hours to read the site, locate the software, then read some more in order to convince myself that I did in fact, select the correct version.
Anyway, as it turns out, I chose correctly, because I experienced no dead (or bricked) router problems, and after more trial and error into the wee hours of this morning, I finally got WRT3000N V1 to repeat here in the office! More details on that effort later.
Then, an hour ago, I took the WRT300N V1 down to the pavilion (it’s cold and rainy outside today, but I was determined.). It worked like a champ. In fact, I was amazed at the enhanced reliability and range of it.
There are still a few kinks to work out – could not get DHCP to work through this router when configured as a repeater bridge. So I program a static IP address for the iPod Touch to use when it connects to this particular (repeater) SID. But I’ll tinker with that more this afternoon and hopefully will discover a solution; I avoid hard-coding of IP addresses where possible.
After playing around and changing parameters, I resolved the DHCP problems by configuring the WRT300N V1 as a repeater; not a repeater bridge. This means that all clients on the WiFi side of the router as well as those plugged into the LAN ports on that same router, get their dynamic IP address from the DHCP server in that router (the WRT300N V1). Additionally, the WRT300N V1 also acts as a client on my BWRG1000 AP, which gives the WRT300N V1 its IP address via the BWRG1000 DHCP server. Funny that this server grants dynamic IP addresses to the WRT300N V1, but I couldn’t get it to grant to the clients on that router. People talked on the dd-wrt forums about the software not forwarding DHCP broadcast packets to the Ethernet side of the router. If that’s true than nothing less than a firmware update will fix it.
The repeater solution, after a day’s work to get it going, works well when repeating an open system (no wireless security turned on), although it does cut the effective throughput of the entire WIFi network in half. This is not a problem for me listening to Internet radio and surfing, because the bandwidth is still around 27 megabits per second. Since even the best stations only require 128 kilobits per second, there’s still plenty of capacity available.
So once everything was working in open-system mode, I attempted to turn on security. I tried WEP, WPA Peraonal, and WPA2 Personal between the two routers. However, all of these broke the repeater; while turned on, the repeater router would not repeat. In fact, it would not connect correctly to the primary (BWRG1000) router at all. So it appears that I’d have to keep my security on the BWRG1000 turned off; not an acceptable solution.
Also, I noticed decreased stability on my WRT300N V1 after applying the dd-wrt firmware. Specifically, when you change various parameters, oftentimes they do not take effect, even when you save them, apply them, and finally, reboot the router. Sometimes, you must set them two to four times before they actually modify system behavior as they should. I’m not sure why this is so. It could be that the dd-wrt firmware has bugs. So I suppose I could try earlier versions and see if they’re any better. But I’ve already got way too much time in this. This firmware works well when operating the WRT300N V1 as a straight access point (no repeating or bridging). Thus it might be wise to investigate how to use it to solve the pavilion WiFi weakness problem in this basic mode.
Just for purposes of experimentation and edification, it would be nice to devise a solution that does not impact available network bandwidth so much, and that would also solve my security problems. Further, the WRT300N V1 router is only designed for indoor use. However, I’d like to get an outdoor unit that could be permanently mounted in the pavilion, to save me from having to cart the router down there to listen to the radio, and then bring it back up to the house when I’m done. Hmmm. Time to set up some saved searches on eBay for cheap outdoor WiFi equipment. I’ll look into this and write more about those possibilities in other pieces later.
So again, stay tuned.
Tom Hesley
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