Wirelessly connect WAN?

[Tom B]

The room with the phone line is at the opposite side of the house to where all my devices are. Here's my setup:

-ISP WiFi router is in modem mode
-Asus RT-AC3200 is connected via ethernet cable from the modem to the WAN port on the router
-Wireless Devices then connect to the Asus router and the router handles DHCP and all network filtering

This setup works but the speeds I'm getting between devices are not great. They're faster than the internet connection but seem to be about 100mbits.

While it's fine for the internet, file transfers are quite slow.

What I'd like to do is move the router into another room closer to my HTPC, desktop and where we use phones, giving better speeds between the devices.

The problem: The router can no longer access WAN.

Is it possible to have the RT-AC3200 connect wirelessly to the router I got from my ISP? This would let me use the router exactly as I do at the moment, only in another room. Instead of connecting to the ISP's router via ethernet, using wifi to do so?

 

[ColinTaylor]

I don't think the RT-AC3200 has a "wireless client" mode for the WAN (but I might be wrong).

You might be better off buying a pair of cheap powerline adapters and connecting your ISP modem (Virgin Media?) to the WAN of your Asus through the mains wiring. From one end of my house to the other I get about 130Mbps through my powerline adapters. YMMV

 

[jegesq]

No, it's not possible with the RT-AC3200. It does not have "Repeater" mode available in the firmware. To my knowledge only a couple of Asus models have Repeater mode (e.g., the AC66's, and a couple of others).

You can use the AC3200 as a "Media Bridge", but then that will essentially disable the wifi for anything other than backhaul (i.e. connecting to the cable co's wireless modem/router). In other words, in Media Bridge mode you can't connect any client devices (phones, computers, etc) to the AC3200's wireless at all, and would be limited to connecting to its LAN ports via Ethernet cables.

You can also set up the AC3200 as an "Access Point" but that would require you to either run an ethernet cable from where you are now accessing it (in which case, why not just leave it set up in Router mode), or, as Colin suggests, perhaps you could use Powerline to connect the AC3200 to your modem, thereby allowing you to reposition it closer to where you will be getting better wifi coverage. Just be sure your household wiring allows you to use Powerline. Some of the newer Powerline stuff is quite fast and should be more than adequate as long as your home wiring cooperates.

Or, you could just call the cable company and ask them to relocate the cable drop....