Wireless repeater hell

Bryn

Registered
Dear friends,
I have set up a long-range WiFi system with this configuration:

Netgear Router/DSL modem -> USRobotics 5454 WiFi Access Point -> Panel antenna -> 2nd Panel antenna -> 2nd USR 5454 AP -> Apple iMac with built-in WiFi Card

After a long struggle, I finally discovered that I must enable the "Range extender" (repeater) mode on the second AP in order to get wireless Internet access from the remote computer (the iMac). The computer surely does recognize and can connect to the wifi network, but it can't connect to Internet. Please note that if I switch off the 2nd AP and put the Mac on the balcony, I can get the much lower signal sent by the 1st AP though its antenna, and with this connection I can surf the Web with no problem whatsoever. But of course keeping a computer on the balcony isn't very practical...

I have also discovered that if I configure the Mac to get the TCP/IP config via DHCP, when it connects directly to the 1st AP it also gets an IP address, the right subnet mask and the right router address. On the other hand, when the 2nd AP is switched on, and the Mac connects to the repeater, it does get a different IP, the same (correct) subnet mask but NO IP address for the router. And I believe that is a clear sign of the problem.

I'm sure there is something hidden in the configuration pages of the 2nd USR AP that somehow prevent any connection to Internet, but I really don't know where to look for. Please note also that I'm using WEP security on both the APs and I have also tried to use fixed IPs instead of their dynamic assignation. There are no active firewalls either.

Does anybody know how can I solve this problem?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Hi

Make sure you have WDS Restrictions enabled on both APs. I think it is automatically enabled on the AP that you set to Range Extender mode.

On the Wireless Tab of the configuration web page, under WDS Restrictions, tick the box beside "I want to specify the devices that can connect to this one". Then add the MAC address of the other AP here.

Basically - AP1 must allow the MAC address of AP2 to connect to it, and AP2 must allow the MAC address of AP1 to connect to it.

Hopefully that helps.

Regards
Kevin
 
Also, can you turn DHCP off on AP2 and allow AP1 to handle it because it seems AP1 has functional DHCP?
 
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