I have 2 WiFi extenders. They show up as separate WLAN networks.
Some lights which can seemingly only connect to them don’t show up in HA.
Why?
Should they be set as "Bridges” ( they were by default.). If they shouldn’t, why not?
What am I missing?
If they show up as separate WLAN then that is the issue.
How are they connected? With cables or wireless?
WLAN?
What is that?
Is it the SSID or a VLAN?
WLAN = Wireless LAN
Do they have AP mode ?
They are wirelessly connected to my router’s wifi SSID. They show up with a new SSID which is (routerSSID)_ext and (routerSSID)_ext2
I expected them to extend the reach of my router’s SSID, not make their own WiFi networks.
I don’t know what VLAN is. It’s certainly not an option I can see on the extenders’ setup page.
They don’t have AP mode as far as I can tell.
If there is no AP mode then it’s probably hard.
Why or how would AP mode help? Wouldn’t that just completely separate that network?
No, AP mode means the node doesn’t do anything but relay the information to the router.
If they all are in router mode then they all create a own network and nothing above it will alow connection to something below because of the firewall.
But the AP mode means essentially make it dumb.
And that is how large networks are made, like in hotels and companies with one SSID and network but several Access Points
Oh!
I totally misunderstood the the purpose of an AP!
I’ll investigate if I overlooked that option or just dismissed it for this setup.
Thanks very much!
That turned out to be a furphy…
These repeaters all have AP mode and a complete setup page for that. But:
AP (Access Point) mode REQUIRES you to give a new SSID and an IP number - then makes a completely separate network. Just as I understood it.
In Repeater mode it asks which AP to repeat and gives ME its SSID (which I can edit, of course).
So I tried to fool it in AP mode and gave it my current router WiFi SSID - that obviously failed.
I tried giving it the same SSID as my router in Repeater mode - that failed too, probably because they both used the same WiFi channel I suspect and interfered with each other.
So I’m still back where I was…
So HOW do they do that in a hotel with lots of repeaters around the building with the same SSID?
With cables.
With more than 3-5 APs you would need a WLAN controller and APs designed for it.
The APs will have extra radios, so one radio can handle the traffic and the other radio can measure the signal from neighboring APs. The WLAN controller use the measurements to change channel and turn up and down the signal strength, so no APs overlap each other on the same channel.
With 3 APs you can manually set up the channel by placing one on channel 1, one on channel 6 and one on channel 11.
The 3 APs should all have the same SSID and password and they should run in bridge mode, which will mean no DHCP, DNS and router features are enabled.
What AP brand and model do you have?
Do you mean the extenders or the router?
My router is a Telstra DSL Router3 (Technicolor CobraXh)
My Extenders are these:
Not branded, from the local IT store (JB Hi-fi, if I remember correctly)
Ok, that is hard to find a manual for, so try to post some screenshots of the configuration pages.
I have the manual. It’s as helpful as it’s on a bull.
I managed to set all repeaters to the same SSID as my router. That seems to have consolidated the WiFi networks t a single one.
I wasn’t able to make them rebroadcast on different channels. When I did, they also looked for the router on those channels and failed.