Hi,

 

My current setup is ordinary ADSL. One of the ethernet ports of the router goes into a TPLink powerline adaptor, and I have various other adaptors that pull the network connection from the mains.

 

Out of necessity, the wireless router is at one end of my house, and my eldest son's bedroom is at the far end of the house. The wifi signal doesn't reach his bedroom. He has a powerline adaptor in his bedroom which is where the network connection for his PS4 and Sky box come from.

 

I thought I had read somewhere that I could use an old router to provide a second SSID. In other words, at the far end of the network, plug the router into the powerline adaptor via ethernet cable, and the router would provide a second wifi network. This should give us overlapping wifi so in theory the whole house is covered?

 

I found a guide to doing this a year or so ago which seemed pretty simple, but of course now I can't find it. It's not helped by me not knowing the correct IT term for what I'm doing. Is this a bridge? I know a wireless repeater receives one wireless signal and rebroadcasts it; that's not what I'm doing.

 

What's the right terminology for this?

 

thanks

 

Martin

You can use a wireless router for this, you need to configure it as a wireless access point - some routers have an explicit mode for this, some don't but it mainly involves disabling DHCP and setting up the wireless parameters.  Usually adsl or cable routers have four switch ports together, you need to plug one of these into the powerline adapter and then the consoles or any other wired devices can be plugged into one of the other four switch ports.  If it's a cable router with a network port for the WAN/internet connection don't use that port.

 

John

Sorry John could you please be more specific about which router I need to change to what settings?

 

If it helps, I have a Technicolor router connected to the phone line, and it's a Huawei I'm using as the second wifi point, connected to powerline.

 

thanks

 

Martin

Sure, do you know what exact model of router you have?  That way I can look up the manual and give you more specific instructions.

 

John

Hi John,

 

The router being used to extend the network is a Huawei HG523a

 

thanks, I appreciate your help.

 

Martin

There's an excellent guide here on avforums which I followed about a year ago

https://www.avforums.com/threads/faq-using-two-routers-together-extending-wi-fi.1554662/

People were very helpful as well if I got stuck

I have done this recently.

 

1) Main BB router is wired plus WIFI on 192.168.1.1

2) I attached the spare router/extender to my computer (rather than the LAN). I set the spare to base address 192.1689.1.100 and disabled DHCP. Set it up as a WIFI access point with a new name (xxxxx2?).

3) Once setup/security (WPA etc) has been done, attach the extender-router to the LAN.

4) Search for it using wireless devices (phone/tablet etc) and go through the usual security to obtain access.

 

 

 

J.