Two repeaters on same network?

[JPWhite]

I've got 4 RT-N66U's

One setup as the main router, another hard wired as an access point.

The other two I want to connect wirelessly as repeaters. Try as I might, I can only get one repeater to work. The second one will see my network and seemingly repeat the signal but the throughput and connection is very iffy and often weakens the connection of the first repeater, they seem to be in competition with each other.

I used to use DD-WRT in WDS mode on some old Buffalo routers and it worked very reliably. I want to use Merlin or stock ASUS firmware since they are being maintained well by ASUS and Merlin. I understand WDS on ASUS firmware requires WEP security and won't work with WPA/2. So I am stuck with repeater mode.

Anyway to configure two repeaters?

 

[sfx2000]

Are you trying to repeat the repeater (aka wds)?

 

[JPWhite]

Are you trying to repeat the repeater (aka wds)?

I could do it that way, I'd prefer the two repeaters repeat off the Access Point which has a wired connection back to the primary router and avoids unnecessary ethernet hops. At this point repeating off the repeater or the AP are options I'd consider.

I'm beginning to think I may have to change SSID's to something unique to be sure I can target which router the repeater(S) end up connecting to. Shame with DD-WRT WDS I was able to have the same SSID on all routers and target using mac addresses.

It occurred to me this morning that I have a "Spare" router in a box. I set that up as an access point connected to the first of the repeaters and a Cat5 cord. Using a unique SSID I then attached the second repeater to the unique SSID and it works fine. The second access point is next to the first repeater and is therefore a waste of a router just to accommodate the second repeater. It works despite the fact that the routers are daisy chained in a Heath Robinson fashion, the second repeater has to go through 2 access points and one repeater before it gets to the primary router. I'm surprised it works at all with that many hops. No more buffering with KODI on my RPi

 

[sfx2000]

Have you consider powerline (HomePlug AV), much better solution, and more stable than trying to do a wireless distribution system - not quite a fast as ethernet, but for most purposes, should be sufficient.

Ethernet would be the preferred method.

BTW - seem to recall some issues with repeating off an AP-only vs. repeating off the main router.

 

[thiggins]

I'm beginning to think I may have to change SSID's to something unique to be sure I can target which router the repeater(S) end up connecting to.

WDS depends on MAC address and channel. SSID should not matter. SSID and channel matter for "universal" repeaters / wireless extenders that don't use WDS.

 

[JPWhite]

Have you consider powerline (HomePlug AV), much better solution, and more stable than trying to do a wireless distribution system - not quite a fast as ethernet, but for most purposes, should be sufficient.

Ethernet would be the preferred method.

BTW - seem to recall some issues with repeating off an AP-only vs. repeating off the main router.

Thanks for the tip on using a powerline device. (I think I have one lying around in the garage and I can experiment with).

I presume you suggest I use powerline devices for the ethernet backbone and hang AP's off the powerline devices for where I need both wired/wireless internet.

I should be able to reduce the number of RT-N66U's down to 3. One main router as now and two AP's attached to the powerline devices. Loss of throughput on the the powerline should be regained by eliminating the loss of throughput using repeater mode. It's certainly worth a try and see if I can stream those 1080p videos reliably.

 

[JPWhite]

WDS depends on MAC address and channel. SSID should not matter. SSID and channel matter for "universal" repeaters / wireless extenders that don't use WDS.

I *was* using WDS with DD-WRT on old 2.4G routers. DD-WRT is not well supported anymore and ASUS and Merlin seem to do a much better job keeping up the ASUS firmware, so I upgraded my hardware to ASUS with dual band. However the ASUS or Merlin software can only do WDS if you use WEP security.

So I am trying to do the same with AP and repeater modes which do depend on SSID rather than MAC as you rightly point out.

 

[Xelas]

Another option (that I used for a while) was with DD-WRT, but to set up 2.4 GHz for a "backbone" (using a normal SSID with WPA2), and use only 5GHz for the clients. DD-WRT supports using 2 radios differently - one as a 'bridge" and one for WiFi services. That way, the 2.4GHz frequency was not fighting with the clients for airspace. Worked well for the few months I needed as a stop-gap solution - I had my ASUS rt-N66U as my main router, and a Linksys WRT600N and something else as my "remote" APs.
For the long term, Ethernet, MOCA, or Powerline are vastly superior and more stable (speedwise).

You may also want to look at something like OpenMesh - their devices are specifically designed for wireless meshing, and are REALLY easy to set up. I have several locations with several of them in each location (5-10), and there are some areas where I was not able to get cabling installed, so I have 1-2 at each location connecting back to a wired one via WiFi. They work really well because the meching is automatic, and it "heals" - if a wired one goes offline for some reason, they will find a way to connect back anyway. They've been quite resilient. The setup and configuration is done through a cloud account, but none of your actually goes out to the cloud, just the setup and configuration.