RazRsf wrote

1. I have two apartements set very near to each other and I have decided to use the pharos devices to bring the Internet of the first apartment and to the second one's. 2. First CPE in the first apartment (on the balcony): Uses ACCESS POINT mode, connected at the port with a LAN cable which is connected to a router. So it's an Access Point who uses the LAN connection from the router and brought it at the second CPE. Second CPE in the second apartment (on the balcony, facing the first apartment): Uses BRIDGE (or CLIENT) mode to bring the Internet from the first CPE to an other router which is connected via LAN at the second CPE. The Router placed in the second apartment spread the WI-Fi connection over the whole place. Also, since I really need the internet inside the second apartment

Hi Fabrizio,

1. How near is it between the two apartements?
2. Your configuration is basically ok but not good enough. See my solution below:
Router-------(lan)CPE210/510( AP mode)　）））（（（CPE210/510 (Client mode)-----SOHO AP with omni antenna(inside the house) ))))) ((((( Wi-Fi Clients

1. Avoid to configure bridge or repeater mode because of their obvious dis-advantage(cutting bandwidth in half)
2. Align their antennas to face each other in an appropriate angle.
3. Line of sight should be clear.
4. 2.4 GHz frequency band is overcrowded, so i would recommend CPE510 in a P2P link.

Hello Carat

The two apartments are basically less than 1km. I think they are roughly 500 meters far from each other; also, the line of sight is completely clear of any obstacle.

I have tried this kind of configuration that you are suggesting but the signal doesn't even start. Now that I am sure that this kind of configuration is the correct one I'll try again and maybe do a factory reset to both the CPE to make sure.
Also, the problem is that when I use this kind configuration, sometimes, the internet in the first apartment is blocked or really really slow and only the wi-fi connection between the two cpes is working.

That's why I have thought that using the wifi connection of the network-mac instead of the lan connection of the router in the first apartment could have been better in term of band connectio. And it actually works but still there is at least 1 day in the week that the wi-fi connection between the cpes is completely and utterly blocked. Than, without really no apparently reason, after 1 day it works again with no problem, at least for an another amount of time.

I'll see after a factory reset what happens but my odds are not high

Thank you

R1D2 wrote

I once had two radio links with 2x CPE210 and 2x CPE510 between two apartments over 560m using AP/client mode. While the 5 GHz link was working fine with a throughput of 75 to 85 Mbps for data, the 2.4 GHz link could only achieve around 3 Mbps constantly although the CPE210 did successfully negotiate 150 Mbps wireless speed in 802.11n mode.

Reason for this bad throughput was the small amount of AirTime in 2.4 GHz band available for the CPE210 in a dense populated area. In my setup, the CPE210 saw over 120 neighboring APs, which caused a very limited AirTime (amount of time the device could allocate a channel for sending data) for the CPE . You might want to check how many APs are around your installation. If there are too many APs, this could be the cause for the problems you describe.

Hello R1D2

Well, you do actually have a point. My neighborhood is quite crowded as well, so there are at least 60-80 APs that are visualized in the survey of the CPE in client mode. Did you manage to solve the problem of the large amount of APs in the area in some way, like, changing the speed connection or something else?


Anyway, I resetted both the CPE with a factory restore and setted the first one in AP mode and the second one in CLIENT mode. For now, seems everything works fine; I'll see how long this will last or affect the main connection of the first apartment and let you know. Fingers crossed.

Many thanks to both of you for your help

Right know I don't have the CPEs on my hand so I am not absolutely certain, but I think the CPEs are already configured in 802.11n at 20MHz. Also, Max stream is operative and the wireless speed is setted to the fastest.

The only thing I'm not quite sure is right is the distance setting, since there is no 'auto distance' option in my menu, for what I recall. You see, the distance is clearly less than 1km so I setted the distance between the two CPEs with a value of '0'. Is it correct or should I set it to at least 1 km in order to avoid this problems?

R1D2 wrote

Maybe, upgrade to firmware V2.1.6 helps (you can upgrade HW V1 to firmware V2.1.6, too).As for distance settings, set 0.5 or 0.6, not 0. Using Auto settings will automatically calculate with higher precision then what is possible to specify.

I just come back from the second apartment and nothing, I can't connect to anything. The weird thing is that if I login using the ips of the two CPEs both the one in Client mode and the one in AP mode, at the status page, the values of "wireless signal quality" or "radio quality" are displayed. I don't know if this means nothing and even if this values are displayed there is still no connection between the two. I'll try getting the new firmware for both the devices and set the distances value at 0.5 as suggested. Tomorrow I'll see if this change something. Good God this is hard

Hello and happy 2018!

Sorry for not being around for so much time but I really had less time in this days. Also, I wanted to run more tests on the CPE to be sure what are the problems.
So, long story short, still nothing. I haven't been able to make it work properly if not for short time. Like, 2 days straight short time.

The basic scenarios of the problem I find out every time are this:

First one: If I ever decide to use the ethernet cable on the CPE setted as an Access point nothing happens. On the status' page everything seems fine but it doesn't even
remotely works. The wierd thing is that if i reach via Wi-Fi the CPE setted as an AP the line is dead. The status is fine but is like the connections doesn't even happen.
Here's the screenshot of the status page of the CPE AP:




Second one: Since the was to way to let the CPE on AP mode working I have tried a different route. I used the first CPE on BRIDGE mode with an existing WIFI in the first house
and then I setted the second CPE on BRIDGE/CLIENT mode (I have tried both options, none of them worked) with, as suggested, the N mode only 20 mhz etc. Guess what?
In a matter of 2 days the signal is lost and still no connection.
Here's the second evidence (lol) :



Third and last one: The most recent scenario just happened some couple of days ago. So, after the first test where one CPE is in BRIDGE mode and the second on CLIENT/BRIDGE mode i have seen that the signal was working for 5 days straight so I tought it was all ok. Well. of course after the 5th day the signal got lost again and I have tried changing the ip of the first CPE ( I use a static one, like 192.168.0.254 (245,145,25, etc) and it works again. The wierd (and annoying) thing is that just yesterday I had to change the ip of the first CPE every 2 hours in order to make the internet work.
I tought maybe there is an Ip conflict if I set the ips on the cpe on "static". So I have tried to set them on "dynamic" and for now everything seems fine...but only for now

I'm really out of ideas here. My biggest questions are:

-Why in hell it doesn't work on AP mode when I use the Ethernet cable if the status page shows that everything is fine? Do you have any idea?

-Since whenever the signal doesn't work anymore and if change the ip of the first CPE works again could there be an ip-conflict somewhere around?

-Also, my tplink modem that I use inside the second house to spread the signals is full of this logs: V2 igmp router occured! Not matching ours V3. Could this be something meaningful?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I couldn't upgrade the firmware of any of my device. My version is 1.0 and seems nothing of any in the list on tplink site works. I don't understand if something is wrong with the site since I cannot find a 1.0 version working

This as just become like a philosophical research for me