Problem with TL-WR710N in REPEATER mode
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Problem with TL-WR710N in REPEATER mode
Region : France
Model : TL-WR710N
Hardware Version : V1
Firmware Version : 3.14.9 Build 130419
ISP : Orange (ex France Telecom)
Hello - and sorry for the loong post I don't know how to explain this precisely in fewer words :-(
I just bought a (brand new) TP-LINK TL-WR710N pocket router, and have tried to set it to work in Repeater mode without full success so far.
My setup is as follows
[Internet] ------ [Orange Livebox ADSL modem+wifi router] === (thick) WALL === WR710N repeater --- portable PC (Win7 x64) and recent (Android) smartphone
The wifi signal from the "root router" (Orange "Livebox" router) is weak due to the thick walls, but still allows to connect to it and to the Internet (this may be important for what follows), however the bitrate is very low and the connection unstable (e.g. no way to watch video), therefore the idea to use a wifi repeater box.
I have followed the instructions in the "Quick User Guide" and am able to :
- connect my pc (wired or wirelessly) to the WR710N in its defaults AP settings (i.e. out of the box)
- modify the settings in the web console to set it to Repeater mode (and it does clone the root router SSID, security, ... settings automatically, I just have to enter the root router passphrase)
- then after reboot the pc does "see" the amplified router signal (not immediately though, it tends to want to connect to the root router first although its signal is weak)
- connect my portable pc to the repeater via Wifi
- HOWEVER : no way to access the Internet (which is confirmed by the red cross in the Wireless properties panel drawing)
After some research, I found out that the Livebox (root router) is set to 192.168.1.1, while the repeater is by default using a 192.168.0.x range, and that the DHCP should be disabled in the repeater to avoid conflicts with the root router DHCP server (that's what I've read anyway). Therefore after resetting the WR710N I modfified the settings accordingly :
- set the Network/LAN to 192.168.1.254 (i/o 0.254) and reboot (it then reboots automatically to that new IP address to get back to the admin console)
- disable the DHCP (and set the Gateway to 192.168.1.1 which is the Livebox router IP) and reboot (since it asks to)
- set the WR710N to Repeater mode, click on Survey, etc etc... then reboot
- (note that the pc wireless adapter is set to get its IP/Gateway/DNS settings from DHCP, i.e. no static IP's)
A note here: after reboot I notice it tries to access again the 192.168.0.254 IP address i/o the newly set .1.254. Humm...
Anyway, I then scan the wireless network with the pc, initially only the weak signal appears, I connect to it and after a while the weak signal is automatically replaced with the strong one from the repeater (without me doing anything), and at this point everything SEEMS to be working Ok. However when checking the wifi properties, I figure out that while the IP and gateway IP's are correctly set to 192.168.1.1, the DNS server IP is set to 192.168.0.254, which is by no mean s'thing I have set myself, neither in the root router nor in the pocket router/repeater (except fbut look at the note above...).
And guess what ? While the Network Properties does show an apparently working connection to the Internet (no more red cross), whenever I try to access a web site it gets nowhere (I have the "Looking up ...." status in the browser status bar and it stays there forever).
A strange thing is that my smartphone is sometimes able to get a proper 192.168.1.x IP from the repeater when connecting to it (wifi) and browse the internet without any problem, but if I repeatedly stop/restart the wifi on it after a couple of times it gets a 192.168.0.100 IP address (!?!) and then no way to browse the internet anymore.
Another important thing to note is that I have no problem whatsoever when connecting the pc to a LAN port on the WR710N, then I do get a full internet access with good bitrate (much better than what I get when I connect to the root router via wifi), which proves that the WR710N does its job of capturing the root router wifi signal).
At this point I don't know what else to try. Why does the router seem to revert back to a 0.254 IP when it reboots after I set it to Repeater mode ? Is this normal ? But then why does it set the pc wifi adapter DNS to this 192.168.0.254 value while it should have a 192.168.1.1 value (I think, not sure, I don't set any value when setting DHCP to disable, I leave the 0.0.0.0 values there). What else should I try ?
Thanx you very much in advance for any help you can provide. :)
Model : TL-WR710N
Hardware Version : V1
Firmware Version : 3.14.9 Build 130419
ISP : Orange (ex France Telecom)
Hello - and sorry for the loong post I don't know how to explain this precisely in fewer words :-(
I just bought a (brand new) TP-LINK TL-WR710N pocket router, and have tried to set it to work in Repeater mode without full success so far.
My setup is as follows
[Internet] ------ [Orange Livebox ADSL modem+wifi router] === (thick) WALL === WR710N repeater --- portable PC (Win7 x64) and recent (Android) smartphone
The wifi signal from the "root router" (Orange "Livebox" router) is weak due to the thick walls, but still allows to connect to it and to the Internet (this may be important for what follows), however the bitrate is very low and the connection unstable (e.g. no way to watch video), therefore the idea to use a wifi repeater box.
I have followed the instructions in the "Quick User Guide" and am able to :
- connect my pc (wired or wirelessly) to the WR710N in its defaults AP settings (i.e. out of the box)
- modify the settings in the web console to set it to Repeater mode (and it does clone the root router SSID, security, ... settings automatically, I just have to enter the root router passphrase)
- then after reboot the pc does "see" the amplified router signal (not immediately though, it tends to want to connect to the root router first although its signal is weak)
- connect my portable pc to the repeater via Wifi
- HOWEVER : no way to access the Internet (which is confirmed by the red cross in the Wireless properties panel drawing)
After some research, I found out that the Livebox (root router) is set to 192.168.1.1, while the repeater is by default using a 192.168.0.x range, and that the DHCP should be disabled in the repeater to avoid conflicts with the root router DHCP server (that's what I've read anyway). Therefore after resetting the WR710N I modfified the settings accordingly :
- set the Network/LAN to 192.168.1.254 (i/o 0.254) and reboot (it then reboots automatically to that new IP address to get back to the admin console)
- disable the DHCP (and set the Gateway to 192.168.1.1 which is the Livebox router IP) and reboot (since it asks to)
- set the WR710N to Repeater mode, click on Survey, etc etc... then reboot
- (note that the pc wireless adapter is set to get its IP/Gateway/DNS settings from DHCP, i.e. no static IP's)
A note here: after reboot I notice it tries to access again the 192.168.0.254 IP address i/o the newly set .1.254. Humm...
Anyway, I then scan the wireless network with the pc, initially only the weak signal appears, I connect to it and after a while the weak signal is automatically replaced with the strong one from the repeater (without me doing anything), and at this point everything SEEMS to be working Ok. However when checking the wifi properties, I figure out that while the IP and gateway IP's are correctly set to 192.168.1.1, the DNS server IP is set to 192.168.0.254, which is by no mean s'thing I have set myself, neither in the root router nor in the pocket router/repeater (except fbut look at the note above...).
And guess what ? While the Network Properties does show an apparently working connection to the Internet (no more red cross), whenever I try to access a web site it gets nowhere (I have the "Looking up ...." status in the browser status bar and it stays there forever).
A strange thing is that my smartphone is sometimes able to get a proper 192.168.1.x IP from the repeater when connecting to it (wifi) and browse the internet without any problem, but if I repeatedly stop/restart the wifi on it after a couple of times it gets a 192.168.0.100 IP address (!?!) and then no way to browse the internet anymore.
Another important thing to note is that I have no problem whatsoever when connecting the pc to a LAN port on the WR710N, then I do get a full internet access with good bitrate (much better than what I get when I connect to the root router via wifi), which proves that the WR710N does its job of capturing the root router wifi signal).
At this point I don't know what else to try. Why does the router seem to revert back to a 0.254 IP when it reboots after I set it to Repeater mode ? Is this normal ? But then why does it set the pc wifi adapter DNS to this 192.168.0.254 value while it should have a 192.168.1.1 value (I think, not sure, I don't set any value when setting DHCP to disable, I leave the 0.0.0.0 values there). What else should I try ?
Thanx you very much in advance for any help you can provide. :)
