Using an old router as a DIY wireless Access Point

[Earl H]

Re: Using an old router as a DIY wireless Access Point

To do that you would need to setup a wireless bridge, the second AP will need to be close enough to the first so that it receives a good signal, but yet close enough to your node so that it receives good signal as well... basically a signal repeater. Most stock firmwares probably won't support this.

You may want to see of DD-WRT is available for your router.

Thanx for the response. Got everything running, just wanted more of a repeater functionality..no DD-WRT for my netgear rangemax router.

[RonnieT24]

Re: Using an old router as a DIY wireless Access Point

Many thanks for posting the instructions!!! This was a great help to me in accomplishing my goal. I had been using a Linksys WGA54AG gaming adapter to access my Slingbox via the internet and on my home network. Only the signal was not consistent and often froze up on me. When I began looking for ways to improve, I stumbled upon the idea of bridging one of my (many) old routers into my esisting wireless LAN to give me better coverage. Now I knew that bridging is not supported on most of these wireless routers so I had to get creative. When I found this thread, I was initially planning on going out and buying the wall outlet ethernet adapters.. but it occured to me that if I could somehow use the gaming adapter to perform the function of the wall adapters, I could accomplish the same thing with what I had AND not have to run any wires.

I started out by choosing the newest of my old routers.. a Linksys WRT54GC.

First I set his IP address to 192.168.100.254.

I then moved the gaming adapter ethernet cable from the Slinbgox into the old router and confirmed that I could see him on that network. His IP is 192.168.100.250. I could browse into him and see stuff so I was happy there. I disabled his DHCP, Firewall and UpNP settings and pointed him to the main router per the instructions.

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Next I needed to get my Slingbox (192.168.100.237) to be seen by the old router. I plugged him into the router as well and could also see him and could verify that by bringing up the Slingplayer app.

Then I popped back over to my main wireless network to see if I could see the Slingbox and gaming adapter. Once I confirmed that I could I was ready for the next step.

I moved back to the access point WLAN to see if I could connect to the internet. At this point I could see the .254 router, the gaming adapter and Slingbox from my laptop.. but I could not ping the main router.

This problem eluded me for several hours and because I am not entirely sure which one of the following measures fixed it, I will list them all here.


1) Added a static DHCP entry on the main router for the access point router. ( I already had entries for the Slingbox and the Gaming Adapter)

2) Added static DHCP entries on the access point for the Slingbox and the Gaming adapter. Not sure if this was necessary since I killed the DHCP server but what the heck.

3) Edited the network setup on the access point to match the settings on the main router. This was not intuitive to me. I had originally just left it to the default. This was the last thing I did before it started working.. but as I was trying different things at a furious pace it could very well be that something else fixed the problem and I didn't wait long enough for arp table entries to flush out etc.


When I left my house this morning, I also discovered an added bonus. Now that I have established this access point, I was able to plug the NIC on my Satellite HD DVR into the access point and am now able to access the On-Demand content from DirecTV. This is significant because the wife would never allow me to run an ethernet cable from the family room upstairs to the the main router. I tried once and she took it down.. citing something about it "looks tacky."

My initial impression is that wireless performance is WAY faster on my laptop from downstairs than it was before. My family room is a good 30 feet and several walls away from upstairs den where the main router is so the signal was always spotty down there, fluctuating between 5 mbps and 36 mbps but never getting up to 54. Now I get five bars signal and 54mbps all the time. I am ecstatic. Thanks for the instructions and the inspiration and I hope my gaming adapter solution works for others to avoid a) wires and b) the expense of the wall adapters.

Oh yeah, my gaming adapter came free when I purchased the router.. or was the router free when I purchased the gaming adapter? I forget.. Either way I got both for less than $50.

[baddog]

Re: Using an old router as a DIY wireless Access Point

I cannot conect old router to 192.168.0.1. do I need to disconnect current router. to configure old router?