Setting up a router as a repeater?

July 24, 2010 7:55 PM

I want to use my Belkin N+ router as a repeater for a wireless-G router. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure the N+ is supported by DD-WRT. Can anyone either tell me an alternative way to do this?

My only requirement is that two separate networks remain; one being pure N and the other being G. That way, I don't have to compromise the full capability of an N network without restricting wireless devices that are strictly G-compliant.

I've considered both Connectify and bridging the two routers, but my research tells me that both of those methods would require me to give up ^that.

Currently, I'm thinking something along the lines of plugging in the router to a computer connected to a wireless network, and then simulating the hardware of a router on my computer.

Any ideas?

I'm using 64-bit windows 7.
Thanks in advance.

posted by fizzzzzzzzzzzy to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

a repeater isn't going to get you where you need for this. really, what you want to do is have two separate wireless networks - one N and one G - that exist on the same network. essentially, a router like that has a tiny switch in it with 6 ports - the 4 you can plug stuff into, one for the wireless radio, and one for the computer bits that do the routing. you can hook switches together fine, so you just have to do that and tell the router bits to be quiet.

I do this exact thing with my (NetGear, which does support DD-WRT through a convoluted process, and which I didn't really need to install on there to do this) N router and my (Linksys DD-WRTed) G router. to make it work, I:
* logged into the N router's web page thing and turned off its DHCP server
* set up the N network like I wanted (different network name, turned off broadcasting and set it for N-only)
* gave the N router an internal IP address that was valid on my network
* connected a cable between one of the N router's LAN ports and one on the G router
* turned it on and enjoyed N wireless

you don't even really need DD-WRT for this - most routers have the ability to turn off the internal DHCP server, and you can pretty much always set the internal IP address. the Belkin has both of these built in - see page 36 in the manual; it's under "LAN Settings". if you have to unplug something from your G router, you can just plug it into the N router.

two things to keep in mind: when you give your N router an IP, it needs to be one that's not used by anything and won't be given out by your router. your G router should be able to tell you what IPs it'll give out; just grab one that's outside the pool. (for example, my home network is 10.43.0.1-254 and my router gives out IPs between 10.43.0.100-200, so my N router is 10.43.0.2.) you may also need a crossover network cable - it should figure it out and work when you hook the two routers together, but, if it doesn't, you'll need the crossover cable.
posted by mrg at 10:17 PM on July 24, 2010

Response by poster: I do want repeater functionality in the sense that the N router and G router are going to be a rather significant distance from one another. As a result, I'd prefer if the N and G router didn't have to be connected with a cable in order to work. Is there a way for this connection to be formed wirelessly?
posted by fizzzzzzzzzzzy at 10:52 PM on July 24, 2010

I don't think you can get what you want unless the Belmin router supports having multiple networks. For example, on some new routers, like the Apple Airport Extreme, I believe that they support separate networks for N vs G.

The problem you have is that if you set up your Belkin route to act as a repeated for the G network, the Belkin route will drop to G speeds. This is standard N router behavior, unless it supports multiple networks.

So, one thing you could do if the Belkin router doesn't support multiple networks and you are "stuck" with it is to get another cheap G router that's supported by DDWRT and have the new router act as your G repeated while the an router serves up it's N signal.
posted by reddot at 3:16 AM on July 25, 2010