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Guess I'm becoming too old for technology - TPLink AC750 Extender question

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wahoowad

Regular Contributor
Damn. I thought I used to understand home wifi but haven't kept up and feeling pretty dumb.

My wifi router is at one end of my house at the only spot the cable enters. Coverage is fine throughout the house. But at the far end of my house in my detached garage I occasionally have low or dropped wifi. I bought a TP-Link AC750 Wifi Extender thinking I could plug it in out there to extend the signal. Turns out the AC750 also does not see enough signal to do so - guess I shouldn't be surprised. I have relocated the AC750 back within the house, upstairs closer to the garage. At that location it can hold the signal and am hoping will improve coverage to the garage.

My question is about the SSID. I thought the 750 would use the same SSID but am I supposed to also connect my device to the AC750_Ext SSID and switch between them? Really? Is my device (generally either my iPhone or iPad) then going to auto-negotiate and jump back and forth to the strongest connection? I often stream ballgame audio using the TuneIn app and it likes to reset the audio back 15 to 30 seconds when it reconnects to wifi so worried my streaming will do this when my device auto-switches from my primary SSID to the SSID_Ext. Is this how it is supposed to work?
 
What does the config manual say you can do ?

If you have a coax run between the two locations, you could use MOCA or you can try powerline AV2 devices to extend over wire and place an AP or another Asus in AP mode.

As it is the TPlink using wireless will eat up most of the bandwidth on whichever radio ( 2.4 GHz likely) for your wireless. Not knowing your other wireless router, is the 5GHz band adequate ?
 
What does the config manual say you can do ?

It created a new SSID and I have to connect to that. I don't think my device will auto-negotiate connecting to it unless my primary SSID completely drops. So perhaps it will help me if I have a weak signal one day out in the garage and connect to it but I thought it was going to be more seamless than that.
 
It's a common misconception about "range extenders". First, they can't do much if placed on the edge of the coverage area as they can't amplify or extend a signal that is already really low. Second, keep in mind that most use a small internal antenna, so reception of the primary signal won't be great, and also the "new" extended signal won't be great either. Sadly, I fell for this many years ago, and my extender sits in the box to this day, hoping that maybe one day, I'll have an environment that it may be useful in.

In general, they can boost the outer limits of coverage to some extent, but an access point (preferably wired) is usually the correct, and better, option.

Most, or at least many, client devices are smart enough these days to pick and switch between authorized SSIDs as you move around so that isn't really an issue, at least in my experience.

A power line adapter may be another alternative for you.
 
This one?


Settings, Wireless, Extended Network, Copy Host SSID button

‘Thanks, did that and now it looks like those SSID_Ext networks are gone. But are they? I am still connecting to either my router or this extender - how is that working with a single named SSID?
 
The client is deciding which physical radio to connect to, depending on the signal strength and other factors. Working as expected.

However, some client devices aren't smart about the above, either (and may hang on to the far router, for example).
 
I now have my AC750 broadcasting a SSID with the same name as the SSID from my router. But I connect an app on my iPhone to a device on my network and they can communicate being on the same network. Today they cannot talk and I suspect my network device is on the AC750 SSID and my iPhone is on the router SSID and they cannot see oneanother. So even though I have named them the same thing they really are different networks, right?
 
I didn't mean deleting it from the router, I'm just saying the SSIDs are now named the same so removing it from the ipad/iphone removes the SSID for both radios.
 
So, the router/ RE are the same SSID and can't communicate then the issue is probably the RE is issuing DHCP to the client devices and it's not the same subnet as the router. If you go into the RE and there might be an option to setup as an AP not a RE it will maintain the same subnet from the main router and thus devices can communicate with each other.
 
probably the RE is issuing DHCP to the client devices and it's not the same subnet as the router.

You are only confusing @wahoowad with guessing.
In post #10 is the GUI simulator of this very same repeater and it shows what configuration options are available.

So even though I have named them the same thing they really are different networks, right?

No. Devices connected to the repeater are on the same network with devices connected to the main router. All devices get their LAN IPs from main router's DHCP server. If something is not working for you, update the firmware to latest available version, reset the repeater and set it up again. It should work transparently. If it loses connection to the main router, you have to move it closer. Nothing much to configure or troubleshoot.
 

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