Cannot Setup Wireless Extender

[aspen63]

Guys, I desperately need your help. I've just bought Asus RT-AC5300 as my main router and RP-AC68U to use as a wireless extender. It turned out to be tricky enough.
First, I configured the repeater to connect to the router only through 5 GHz and use the same SSID and password as on the main router. I manually assigned the router 192.168.1.2 address and DHCPed the extender to be 192.168.1.1 in router's DHCP section. It worked fine until I noticed that the extender actually created two new wireless networks with the same name in 2.4 and 5 GHz ranges. That didn't satisfy me because my devices connected to 2.4 band which wasn't my goal. I wanted to extend 5GHz network to keep all my devices there.
So I configured the repeater to extend two networks created by the router - one from 2.4 band and one of 5 GHz. However when I configer the extender this way I get IP conflicts. No matter if keep the same SSIDs on the extender or add _RPT suffix after it, my iMac and MacBook start spamming me about IP already beeing used, that such computer is already on the network and automatically changing network names. When I switch off the extender it becomes quiet. After some googling I couldn't find out where I went wrong.
Please give me advice or direct to some decent manual for Asus fails to provide working one. Thanks in advance!

 

[aspen63]

I found the conflict starts the very same moment I connect my MacBook to extender's network. So what should I do to my router's and extender's DHCP settings?

 

[aspen63]

One more observation. The problem seems to occur when both the router and extender occupy the same channels. One time they happened to use different ones and it worked ok. Since I cannot set specific channels on the extender, what should I do?

 

[aspen63]

Please, somebody help!

 

[TheManFromUncle]

Firstly, I would love to know what firmwares you use respectively. Secondly... I've tried the same configuration and others and always found the AC68U wouldn't work properly as either a Wireless Extender or a Media Bridge. I've tried with many other primary routers as well. I did, though, find that the AC68U does a brilliant job as an Access Point.

Edit: OOPS - my bad. Saw that you're using the RP. I miss read. Thougth you were using the RT.

 

[thiggins]

I have no experience using the configuration you are describing. So these are general observations and suggestions.

What mode are you setting in the RT-A68U? WDS repeating, media bridge?

If you are using WDS, router and bridge MUST be on the same channel. MAC addresses must also be set properly on each end so that the router and bridge point to each other. Wireless security may also be limited to certain types. Check the documentation.

Start by enabling only one radio on both ends of the connection.

The router should be the only DHCP server. I would leave its default IP address as 192.168.1.1 and let the bridge get its IP via DHCP. You can then look it up in the router's DHCP table and set a reservation to access the bridge.

Be patient for responses. You can't expect answers within hours.

 

[aspen63]

Sorry for my emotions. It was just annoying to spend all Saturday and half of Sunday trying to sort things out. I'm running the latest versions of Merlin's and ASUS' firmwares on my router and extender respectively. I didn't use WDS, will read about this. I don't know what happened, I had my usual problems with IP addresses, decided that I had had enough headaches, just switched it off and went to the gym. Upon my return I just powered it on and it works since then. Have no idea what happened.