How do I add a repeater to my network?

The best way to get a repeater is to get a router that will easily use ddwrt and then you can follow inductions on the ddwrt site for a wifi repeater

Just buy a good wireless router and plug it directly into your current one and then disable the built-in wireless. The wireless on the included routers is normally pretty horrid.

Another thing to do is log-in and change the channel that it is using, you might be getting interference from your neighbor.

Is your ISP provided router providing wifi? And you want to use another wifi router to provide adittional coverage?

All you need to do is turn off DHCP on the regular router then it will act as a standard wifi hotspot. You don't plug anything into the WAN port on the regular router just plug your Ethernet cable coming from the ISP router to a standard switch port.

Now if both are wifi capable then you most likely won't be able to have both running the same SSID or the same wifi channel. Just setup you devices to use the strongest signal they recieve and use that separate SSID.

Find your default gateway by going to command prompt and typing ipconfig /all. Type your default gateway into your web browser.

As Puwaha mentioned you will have to disable dhcp on one of the routers. Make sure you use a LAN port on both routers.

To clear up as much as possible, you have a residential gateway acting as a modem, router, switch, and voip adapter

This is the Arris TG862. Leave it alone, don't try to apply any of the suggested changes to it

If you want more LAN ports, connect a switch

If you want to increase wireless coverage you'll be connecting a different router in "repeater mode." This router is where you want to apply the changes. You can sometimes configure all of this manually. If the router was linksys, look for the menu option called "Repeater" mode. Belkin routers have this feature as well. If your router doesn't, look it up in the DD wrt router database to see if you can flash it's firmware. Then you'll have the repeater mode in the dd-wrt or tomato firmware

Never heard of open source support for 2wire, but it's not a known-incompatible device

Yes, you'll simply connect an ethernet cable from the Arris into the WAN port of the "repeater" router

Without buying anything just yet, check this out and see if it works

http://www.ehow.com/how_10066805_configure-2wire-2701-repeater.html


Note on router configurations: This is easy to do, just learn the appropriate ip address, username, password. Connect the router (the 2wire in your case) to power, and connect a PC to the first LAN port. Your PC will tell you that you have no internet connection, but open up your browser anyway. Make the changes suggested in the article and reboot. Then plug the network cable from the other router's LAN port into the 2wire's WAN port

I just went through all this myself...It is pretty easy to set up, with ddwrt. You should have a bit of networking experience, but if you can follow directions, it is pretty well laid out on ddwrt's website. There are WAY more than one router on NewEgg's site that accept ddwrt/opensource. Just look at the descriptions and reviews on the ones in your price range. Typically, you will NOT use the WAN port on the repeater. (You can turn it on later in the router's web page, if needed)
Remember that the device connected to the repeater is only operating at half capacity/bandwidth, since the first router is handing your DHCP to the repeater, and the repeater is handing the connection to the wireless device.

No, your repeater is eating half the bandwidth for that channel, and the wireless device will be utilizing the other half. It has not been noticeable to me for a little less than a week uptime...

I am not familiar with the 2-wire, but, good to know you got it going. Anything to save a few bucks, if you can these days...

Step by step:

1. Don't connect anything to your new WiFi router at first except for a laptop or desktop that has DHCP turned on, so it will get an IP address from the new WiFi router. Connect that laptop or desktop to one of the LAN switch ports on this new wifi router.

2. Log in to this new WiFi router with that laptop or desktop... setup the WiFi with a new SSID name that is different than the one provided by your ISP's router. Configure the SSID name, password, etc. Now, turn off the DHCP server on the new WiFi router. You have just now made it a wifi repeater.

3. Now, run an ethernet cable from a LAN switch port on your ISP provided router to the new wifi router's LAN switch port.

4. Done! Connect your wireless devices to either wifi router now based upon signal strength.

Remember, nothing will ever be plugged into the WAN port of the new Wifi router in this mode.

What channel? The repeater and router are broadcasting the same SSID. Nether are eating bandwidth, they're hardwired to each other so the second sends any DHCP reservation (and for internet connectivity the DNS requests) back to the main router.

The OP is not trying to create different networks

They already have it working

For boosting wifi coverage in your house, you connect a second router (somewhere in the house where range/coverage from the first is cruddy) by running ethernet from 1st routers LAN to 2nd routers WAN. Then turn off DHCP in second router and give it the SAME SSID and security/password as first. Or just use bridge mode in DDWRT/Tomato f/w. OP already stated they don't have open source router available and would've had to purchase
http://homekb.cisco.com/Cisco2/GetArticle.aspx?docid=28cee6a2fb0d4176a2210942d1d5836c_Setting_up_the_Linksys_E4200_in_bridge_mode.xml

The test is do you have wireless coverage where before you did not? If you'd followed the link I posted earlier when setting up your 2wire, then you only have one network. You should be able to plug into the 2wire lan ports as well, but it's other purpose was to further blanket your home with wifi. (i.e. they shouldn't be sitting next to each other)

Sorry, I am not explaining it well, as it is new to me also. From DDWRT's wiki on creating a repater from an old WRT 54G :


As mentioned, I JUST completed this project, so it is fresh in my memory...I followed the "how to" step by step, and had no problems making everything work...took about an hour and a half. (including downloading the ddwrt firmware.)
There may be multiple ways to do this, but in my setup it was explained to DEFINITELY NOT use the WAN port....( I have since turned the WAN port on, in the ddwrt web page...but have not used it as another port...)

WLAN repeating is intended to take a wireless router and bridge it's connection to another wireless router. Then you're connecting wirelessly to a wirelessly connected router, and on a single band router yes you'd be theoretically taking halves of your SoCs ability to receive requests and route requests

Sorry to all, I should clean up my terminology understanding to prevent confusion.

What I was describing (and I believe what the OP was attempting to do) is take a wired connection from your main router, run it somewhere obscure without wireless coverage, and connect a router to act as a wireless access point from that location.

So, access point for wired connection between the two, repeater for wireless connection between the two.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_Routers

Thank you for this, I had incorrectly set my network up utilizing the second router as a repeater, and wired in to one of the LAN ports (I thought this was what I needed...). It was acting as a hybrid of the two, I think...
I had a separate connection that I could access, labeled: "bridge". If the main connection got weak, the new connection would take over, and that was ok...but from your post, I believe I have it set up correctly, as an access point, on a different channel. I do not see it on my wireless network, but I do see the device as a switch.

Having it on a second channel should give you better total coverage.

Well, I must not have something set up right just yet...I have a couple devices (phone/tablet) that I can see the signal drop as I move upstairs to where the AP is located. It does not switch over automatically.
How can I determine that the AP is actually working?
As mentioned the AP doesn't show up on my device list...
Any suggestions?

Dreadful, I've read of people having to toggle their wifi to reconnect (not ideal). Do you receive better signal near the AP if you toggle wifi and then worse as you move back downstairs?