A New How-To, Dual RADIO / repeating

[demo999]

Hi

Since so many router now have dual RADIO and band (not only band) and so many want to repeat/extend wireless/wired devices why not make a guide with actual tested hardware configuration. It doesnt have to be 2 routers could be 1 router and 1 extender/repeater/airstation etc.
Im sick and tired of trying to get dd-wrt to work with broadcom/Atheros and whats not.

So make a guide (or actual buying advice) to make it simple for none network experts to take advantage of this.

I uploaded a pic of what im looking for (hope meaning its clear).

 

[bigben]

EnGenius ESR7750 features this out of the box. You can bridge two of these via 5GHz using WDS, while being access points on the 2.4GHz band - or visa versa.

You can bridge virtually any dual-radio DD-WRT compatible device in a similar way, no matter what chipset: set up one band as "Client Bridge" and the other band as "AP".

Whoever looking for dual 2.4GHz radio's: Hawking HW2R1
Or do it yourself using OpenWrt (like this).

Why not discuss any setups or issues in this thread? Then you can distill your own tutorial.

 

[demo999]

Thanks for input

The solution you surgest could be a new how-to. I sure have failed to find any info on how to do that.
I tried to simultaneously do client bridge on 5ghz and repeater bridge on 2.4 ghz in order for all network devices to be on same subnet ( as in drawing).
Lots of problem getting it to work solid.

/edit
Btw, my routers are netgear wndr3700 AP/AP and wndr3300 CB/RB

 

[sfx2000]

Hi

Since so many router now have dual RADIO and band (not only band) and so many want to repeat/extend wireless/wired devices why not make a guide with actual tested hardware configuration. It doesnt have to be 2 routers could be 1 router and 1 extender/repeater/airstation etc.
Im sick and tired of trying to get dd-wrt to work with broadcom/Atheros and whats not.

So make a guide (or actual buying advice) to make it simple for none network experts to take advantage of this.

I uploaded a pic of what im looking for (hope meaning its clear).

Perfectly clear... some folks may not like Apple, but their Airport Extreme's can do this with little effort...

Home the first AP Extreme on the WAN connection, set it to allow the network to be extended. Set up the second AP Extreme to "extend a wireless network", select the first AP Extreme, pop in the credentials, and you're good to go... Apple's approach here is that the extended AP is a bridge, it uses the primary, or home, AP for DHCP, DNS, and Authentication - yes, they support WPA2 over the hop...

Caveats with the Apple Approach:

1) Guest Networks cannot be extended - they do support dual band on guest networks however
2) Apple's approach is only good for one hop - from the home AP to the extended AP - you cannot hop from there to another AP

With the current generation of Airport Extremes and Time Capsules that support simultaneous dual band operation - the extended AP Extreme will find the best band to connect to the home AP Extreme, and they both will provide dual band and ethernet connectivity.

It can be done with DD-WRT on other hardware, but it does take patience and fiddling, along with finding the right hardware...

 

[demo999]

Perfectly clear... some folks may not like Apple, but their Airport Extreme's can do this with little effort...

I dont think I will EVER use an Apple product.
Im sure there is alot of product that can do what I request, but I will not be in the pocket of Apple like all the lemmings.

Just all torturials have seen is only regarding single radio (sometimes with dual band) but never with dual radio dual band.
A tutorial would be best if there were pictures and EXACT description on what to do, and ofcourse it should be tested.

 

[DaveMcLain]

I've never tried to do that using DD-WRT but if I'm understanding you correctly you would like to use one box to pick up the signal with one radio and then rebroadcast it using the other radio. It seems like it would be pretty easy using Client bridge mode on one radio and then AP mode on the other one.

I've used this example setup for years here where I work in order to extend a wireless network from one building to another using all cheap hardware purchased off of E-Bay. Right now the main AP is a Linkaya WRT610N, my client bridge is a Netgear WGR614 V8 that's been modified with an external antenna connector, mounted in an outdoor enclosure and attached to a high gain dish style antenna. A wire goes inside of that building and there I have a Linksys WRT320N which serves as an AP and switch for several wired and wireless PC's, a NAS and a print server. It all works great and it's been very reliable. If the buildings were closer together no antenna "hacking" would be necessary to make it function.

 

[demo999]

I really appriciate the comments, I do.

But still none is a toturial with tests.
And much sounds simple for people who got it to work.

There is some topics to pick up when doing this.
Like , if you use WDS it would normaly mean only wep security...not desired. So i use dd-wrt to get better security.
Like, how does different hardware/software handle multiple clients.
Like, how much speed you get in reality when doing 2 radio.
Like, how stable is hardware/software.
Like, how well does hardware/clients handle roaming.

So yes, you can make it work, some better than others.

Ps, atm. I have it working with dd-wrt on both. Netgear wndr3700 as main/dhcp/AP and the repeater is wndr 3300. But not all have this equipment so again a buying guide or another form that fits best in smallnetbuilder would be great , also for newcomers.