UK diy (uk.d-i-y) For the discussion of all topics related to diy (do-it-yourself) in the UK. All levels of experience and proficency are welcome to join in to ask questions or offer solutions.

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Default Wi-Fi range extender.

My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.

Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.

I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to give
the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.

The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the
LAN present light does come on in that mode.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?

--
*Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
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Default Wi-Fi range extender.

On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 10:45:37 AM UTC+1, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling

goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.



Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for that

and coverage at the top of the house is poor.



Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-



1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.



2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.



3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.



I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to give

the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.



The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the

LAN present light does come on in that mode.



Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


Only the fact the instructions ain't good. I'm no expert on this stuff, but it may mean having a separate SSID etc, and you may want the channels either to match or not to match. Probably a quick Google on the make and model will find you some more user friendly instruction..

Ciao

Chris
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On 16/07/14 10:45, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.

Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.

I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to give
the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.

The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the
LAN present light does come on in that mode.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?

2 is what you should use.

I.e. broadcast from a LAN but not relay via wifi.

The accepted practice is to move it to a (radically) different wifi
channel from the main box and then use exactly the same authentication.

This is supposed to mean that dumb clients just have the one config and
use whatever signal is strongest.



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rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll
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On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN

cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just

fine.


Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place

for that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.



Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-



1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.



2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its

own.


3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.



I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal -

to give
the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to

there.


The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present

- the
LAN present light does come on in that mode.



Any reason why I can't use 2 ?



--
*Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it*



Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.


I've done second access point and WiFi repeater. With access point
mode I gave it a different Sid name and let it sort out the channel
itself. I prefer the repeater mode, using same Sid and channel. You
have to wire it initially to set it up but once done you can put it
anywhere.
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On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.


And knocks throughput in half in the process, only one thing can talk
at a time...

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.


That sentance contradicts itself. An "Access Point" is what you need
placed on the wired LAN in the best place to give good RF coverage in
the places you want.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.


That might be some form of "bridge" mode. A device (printer, PC, WHY)
that has an ethernet port plugs into this box and can then connect to
the WiFi access point provided by something else.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


No I think that's what you want and turn off the WiFi on the basement
router if you don't need it. WiFi has some form of basic "hand over"
but I don't think it's very clever ie the access points don't talk to
each other to arrange a seamless hand over. I thinks it's just signal
strength based, and disconnect from one AP, econnect to another. I
suspect that both APs have to have the same SSID and channel
allocation but don't know that. GIYF...

--
Cheers
Dave.



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On 16/07/2014 11:12, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:



2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.


That sentence contradicts itself. An "Access Point" is what you need
placed on the wired LAN in the best place to give good RF coverage in
the places you want.


I think that's what it means, but isn't worded very well. I think it
means that it uses a LAN connection to create a WiFi hot-spot, but
doesn't receive a WiFi signal per se.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.


That might be some form of "bridge" mode. A device (printer, PC, WHY)
that has an ethernet port plugs into this box and can then connect to
the WiFi access point provided by something else.


Yes, indeed. I used a similar device (branded Tenda) to connect my PVR
to my network, so that I can use it to access iPlayer and to transfer
files to and fro to my computer. [The PVR has an ethernet connection but
no built-in WiFi] Sadly, the WiFi signal from my router wasn't strong
enough at the PVR location for it to work reliably, so I resorted to
using power-line adapters instead. [Wash your mouth out, Roger!]

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


No I think that's what you want and turn off the WiFi on the basement
router if you don't need it. WiFi has some form of basic "hand over"
but I don't think it's very clever ie the access points don't talk to
each other to arrange a seamless hand over. I thinks it's just signal
strength based, and disconnect from one AP, econnect to another. I
suspect that both APs have to have the same SSID and channel
allocation but don't know that. GIYF...


Mode 2 is fine. I'm now using my Tenda device in that mode in order to
provide WiFi to places where I have ethernet but where the router's WiFi
signal isn't very strong. In my case, I'm using a totally different SSID
and passphrase from that used by the router. It means that portable
devices need to remember 2 different setups, but you only have to do
that once. It also means that if you move a portable device from one
area to another, you have to turn WiFi off and on again so that it finds
the other access point. That's not really too much hassle - and at least
then, I know what I'm connected to.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Default Wi-Fi range extender.

In article ,
Lawrence wrote:
I've done second access point and WiFi repeater. With access point
mode I gave it a different Sid name and let it sort out the channel
itself. I prefer the repeater mode, using same Sid and channel. You
have to wire it initially to set it up but once done you can put it
anywhere.


Mr Liquorice reckons in repeater mode:-

And knocks throughput in half in the process, only one thing can talk
at a time...


I take it you've not noticed any difference?

--
*A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
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On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for
that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.

Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.

I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to
give the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to
there.

The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present -
the LAN present light does come on in that mode.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


Sounds like 2 is what you're wanting to do.

If it's anything like the piece of crap ZyXEL extender that is about to
be relegated to a drawer here, though, you'd be better getting a wireless
cable router to do the job, preferably one of the Netgear Linux-based
ones that you can upload aftermarket firmware onto.
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In article ,
Adrian wrote:
If it's anything like the piece of crap ZyXEL extender that is about to
be relegated to a drawer here, though, you'd be better getting a
wireless cable router to do the job, preferably one of the Netgear
Linux-based ones that you can upload aftermarket firmware onto.


Seems to be working just fine and comes with the usual Lidl 3 year money
back warranty. So the receipt has gone into safe storage. But if it's like
most things Lidl, won't be needed.

It was fairly pricey for something the size of a wall wart at 25 quid, but
appears to do what it says on the tin.

--
*Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.


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On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:47:29 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

If it's anything like the piece of crap ZyXEL extender that is about to
be relegated to a drawer here, though, you'd be better getting a
wireless cable router to do the job, preferably one of the Netgear
Linux-based ones that you can upload aftermarket firmware onto.


Seems to be working just fine and comes with the usual Lidl 3 year money
back warranty. So the receipt has gone into safe storage. But if it's
like most things Lidl, won't be needed.

It was fairly pricey for something the size of a wall wart at 25 quid,
but appears to do what it says on the tin.


Yes, that's about the same as this ZyXEL. Until it gets powered off for
more than about five minutes - at which point, it loses all the settings.
And it's a PITA to set up.
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Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Seems to be working just fine


Which mode are you using it in?
I have a Lidl range extender,
and have been unable to set it up in mode 1
(as a WiFi extender).

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

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Default Wi-Fi range extender.

Yes it much depends on whether its got to be seemless or is allowed to lose
one and find another on a different channel group as one moves about the
areas.

I suppose one could just put a suitably long lead of good coax on the aerial
socket of the router and stuff the aerial higher up. Of course if its one of
thaose grotty hub things with no sockets and aerials inside the router, then
you are sunk on that one.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 10:45:37 AM UTC+1, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling

goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.



Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for that

and coverage at the top of the house is poor.



Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-



1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.



2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.



3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.



I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to give

the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.



The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the

LAN present light does come on in that mode.



Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


Only the fact the instructions ain't good. I'm no expert on this stuff, but
it may mean having a separate SSID etc, and you may want the channels either
to match or not to match. Probably a quick Google on the make and model
will find you some more user friendly instruction..

Ciao

Chris


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In article ,
Timothy Murphy wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


Seems to be working just fine


Which mode are you using it in?
I have a Lidl range extender,
and have been unable to set it up in mode 1
(as a WiFi extender).


Yes - that's what I found too if trying to do it using the WPS button on
it and the WPS one on my BT router.

Plug it into your computer after switching off the computer Wi-Fi
connection to your LAN. Your PC should then find it. Then follow the
instructions. It then worked here as a Wi-Fi extender. But I wanted to
situate mine on the edge of my existing Wi-Fi signal, so preferred to use
the cable input.

--
*Sorry, I don't date outside my species.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
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On 16/07/2014 10:45, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.

Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.

I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to give
the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.

The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the
LAN present light does come on in that mode.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?

Anyone wanting to go a step beyond Lidl extender could look at this:

https://www.cloudtrax.com/

--
Rod


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"polygonum" wrote in message
...
On 16/07/2014 10:45, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for
that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.

Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.

3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.

I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to
give
the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.

The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the
LAN present light does come on in that mode.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


Anyone wanting to go a step beyond Lidl extender could look at this:


https://www.cloudtrax.com/


Talk about a **** house web site...

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On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.

Bought a Wi-Fi range extender from Lidl. It has three modes:-

1) Repeater. Picks up the existing Wi-Fi signal and re-transmits it.

2) Access Point. Gives Wi-Fi from a LAN etc with no Wi-Fi of its own.


I'm guessing you mean a LAN with no existing WiFi enabled router.


3) Client. Connects devices which are network enabled to Wi-Fi.

I'd like to situate it where existing Wi-Fi coverage is marginal - to give
the best results at the top of the house. I have the cable LAN to there.

The instructions ain't clear if 1) will use a cable feed if present - the
LAN present light does come on in that mode.

Any reason why I can't use 2 ?


No reason. That's just how you should set it up. Give it its own SSD
and channel. You can use the same passphrase if you like (if it's a
longish but memorable one, it'll make it easier to connect your WiFi
enabled devices to it).

You could try using the same SSID and passphrase but this seems to me
to be a recipe for confusion even without sharing the same channel.
Sharing the same channel will exacerbate co-channel interference
between them in locations of signal overlap.

I'm using a cheap, throw away, LinkSys WRT45GW (the crappy one that
you can't install the ddrt firmware to) as an AP. It's just a case of
setting it up to use a unique IP address in the same range as your
existing LAN, plugging one of it's lan ports into your existing router
or ethernet switch, disabling its own DHCP service[1] and configuring
the WiFi to suit your requirements (the wan port is left unused in
this case).

Ignoring the wan port on a WiFi router being used to provide an
additional WiFi AP works because the WiFi AP part of the router is
effectively just hanging off of one of the six lan ports of the
ethernet switch integrated into your 4 port router.

You only see the 4 exposed lan ports, the other two are internally
connected to the router itself and the integrated AP. The internal
connections won't necessarily be wired as ethernet connections, more
likely as a pair of simple single serial data line PCB tracks between
the chips or perhaps even within a single router/ethernet switch chip
(the WiFi AP will most likely be a seperate chip, or at least the
transciever bit handling the wireless signals will be).

The point is, topologically, a WiFi capable 4 port router is
indistinguishable from a single port router hanging off of a 6 port
ethernet switch with a seperate WiFi AP hanging off one of the other
ports of the switch. The only integration as such is down to the
webmin interface in the router that also allows you to program the
WiFi module as well as itself.

AFAIK, pretty well all wifi routers can be used as simple WiFi APs
which can save you money if you already have a spare or retired WiFi
router to hand.

[1] You'll need to directly connect a PC or laptop to one of its lan
ports in order to log onto its webmin page (normally the same as the
gateway address) in order to configure the wifi and change its IP
address and then disable its DHCP service before connecting it to your
LAN. If it all goes tits up and you end up with a "Catch 22"(c)
situation, it's a simple enough task to reset it back to its factory
default configuration and try again.

It's been that long since I set the Linksys up as an AP, I can't
recall its IP address in order to access its webmin pages. Still, I'm
sure I could discover the IP address if I really put my mind to it.
:-)
--
J B Good
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On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 09:05:54 +0100, Mark wrote:

And, if your neighbours use wifi, then you might find difficulty finding
any free channels.


Our wifi doesn't even manage to reach the whole house - there's roughly
zero risk of next door's interfering!
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Mark wrote:

And dare I suggest Homeplug devices as an alternative?


I agree.
But there are a lot of devices that don't have an ethernet socket,
eg smart phones and tablets.

I've found the Lidl WiFi extender more or less impossible to set up
as a WiFi extender;
I have another extender (WN518N, not sure where it came from)
which works fine as an extender,
so the problem does not lie entirely in my head.


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

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In article ,
Mark wrote:
I'd run network cables everywhere.


Given how many TVs etc now have a network connection, that starts
getting very complicated.


True. But it's worth doing IMHO.


In the last 6 months or so, I've acquired half a dozen things that can
make use of a network connection. To cable all that lot to my (neat ;-))
standards would be a vast amount of work. And given they all seem to be ok
using Wi-Fi, I'm not going to bother.

And dare I suggest Homeplug devices as an alternative?


See above. ;-)

--
*Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
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On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 09:55:19 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

And, if your neighbours use wifi, then you might find difficulty
finding any free channels.


My phone is showing 19 Wi-Fi access points here - and it's an old phone
and not particularly sensitive.


if I turn off our AP there won't be any other APs visible. B-)

I'd run network cables everywhere.


Given how many TVs etc now have a network connection, that starts
getting very complicated.


It's the TV's that may well cause a problem with WiFi when they are
streaming/buffering something as fast as your 'net connection will
allow. Bit of email and web browsing isn't a great user of bandwidth.

--
Cheers
Dave.



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On 17/07/14 14:34, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for
that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.


I had a similar situation. After faffing about with extenders, proxy
servers with a second SSID, and more powerful routers, the only reliable
fix was a homeplug.


What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).

You know where you are with Wifi - so just curious...


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On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 14:59:31 +0100, Tim Watts
wrote:

On 17/07/14 14:34, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN cabling
goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for
that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.


I had a similar situation. After faffing about with extenders, proxy
servers with a second SSID, and more powerful routers, the only reliable
fix was a homeplug.


What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


I doubt enough signal would leak into another house unless there's
something weird with your wiring. Homeplugs do some kind of
encryption but I don't know how good it is.

You know where you are with Wifi - so just curious...


Yes. You know GCHQ is listening.....
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

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In article ,
Johny B Good wrote:
[snip]
I'm using a cheap, throw away, LinkSys WRT45GW (the crappy one that
you can't install the ddrt firmware to) as an AP. It's just a case of
setting it up to use a unique IP address in the same range as your
existing LAN, plugging one of it's lan ports into your existing router
or ethernet switch, disabling its own DHCP service[1] and configuring
the WiFi to suit your requirements (the wan port is left unused in
this case).


Ignoring the wan port on a WiFi router being used to provide an
additional WiFi AP works because the WiFi AP part of the router is
effectively just hanging off of one of the six lan ports of the
ethernet switch integrated into your 4 port router.


Thanks for that, Johny. I do have the old router - redundant since BT
supplied a new one when I changed to them and fibre.

So since flushed with success in getting the Lidl one working I had a go
at it using your instructions and it's fine. Also allows me to loose a hub
at that location and use it instead. So two birds with one stone.

Anyone want a Lidl range extender? ;-)

--
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Dave Plowman London SW
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On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 17:04:24 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Thanks for that, Johny. I do have the old router - redundant since BT
supplied a new one when I changed to them and fibre.


You have FTTP from BT?

The vast majority don't they have VDSL and FTTC. Bit of ****er here,
new duct pulled in under our forecourt this week to get fibre down to
the cabinet in the village 2 km further away from the exchange. Our
line takes a different route back and is already 3 km long a loop
down and up adding 4 km I don't fancy on the ali... Also VDSL @ 2km
is only about 15 Mbps, we already have 6 Mbps on ADSL2 (2 not 2+, 2+
might get to 7.5 Mbps).

Plus point there is going to be a joint in the 24 fibre cable 200 m
away in the direction of the exchange. Extra duct drawn in, 20 yds of
trench across our carpark. FTTP. B-) Bet it'll still cost an arm
and a leg to install.

Anyone want a Lidl range extender? ;-)


Tempted, a relatively cheap "one box" solution AP. Coverage here is
not very good but the AP is in a very sub-optimal location. (Back of
desk downstairs).

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In article ,
Jethro_uk wrote:
What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring, and they won't work past an RCD. Either way they are paired by
encryption, so not casually hackable.


Be useless for my purpose then since I have one ring per floor. And the
router is on the ground floor one. The Wi-Fi reception problem on the top
floor.

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In article ,
Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:07:40 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


In article ,
Jethro_uk wrote:
What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring, and they won't work past an RCD. Either way they are paired by
encryption, so not casually hackable.


Be useless for my purpose then since I have one ring per floor. And the
router is on the ground floor one. The Wi-Fi reception problem on the
top floor.


Run a CAT6 *outside* the house ?


Don't need to. Already have a CAT6 cable to the top of the house - run
internally.

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Dave Plowman London SW
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In article , Dave Plowman (News)
scribeth thus
In article ,
Mark wrote:
I'd run network cables everywhere.

Given how many TVs etc now have a network connection, that starts
getting very complicated.


True. But it's worth doing IMHO.


In the last 6 months or so, I've acquired half a dozen things that can
make use of a network connection. To cable all that lot to my (neat ;-))
standards would be a vast amount of work. And given they all seem to be ok
using Wi-Fi, I'm not going to bother.



And dare I suggest Homeplug devices as an alternative?


See above. ;-)


Ooooh!, Nasty don't want to go there, the interference they cause;!!...
--
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On 18/07/2014 15:57, tony sayer wrote:
In article , Dave Plowman (News)
scribeth thus
In article ,
Mark wrote:
And dare I suggest Homeplug devices as an alternative?


See above. ;-)


Ooooh!, Nasty don't want to go there, the interference they cause;!!...

Looks innocent Put some RFI suppression on them, then. Grin

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John.
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On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:00:30 +0000, Jethro_uk wrote:

What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring


They certainly do. My pair aren't only on separate rings, they're on
separate consumer units (well, one's hanging off the other, but)
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On 18/07/2014 12:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
wrote:


I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring, and they won't work past an RCD. Either way they are paired by
encryption, so not casually hackable.


Be useless for my purpose then since I have one ring per floor. And the
router is on the ground floor one. The Wi-Fi reception problem on the top
floor.


My Devolo equivalents re definitely ok across more than one ring (no
RCDs on the relevant consumer unit), and I'm pretty sure I've tested
them across CUs (I've got 3 - the other two of which *have* got RCDs!)

But everything apparently needs to be on the same meter.

They have quite good encryption - and default pass-phrases which would
take a long time to guess, even if automated. [An apparently random
string of 16 letters - so an automated system would need up to 16^26
attempts - about 2 x 10^31 - and even more if it didn't know the length
of the pass-phrase or the fact that they're all alpha caps].
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On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:13:00 +0000, Adrian wrote:

What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring


They certainly do.


Oh, look, here's the missing "n't"...

My pair aren't only on separate rings, they're on separate consumer
units (well, one's hanging off the other, but)


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Jethro_uk wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 14:59:31 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

On 17/07/14 14:34, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

My router is in the cellar for historic reasons. So all the LAN
cabling goes there, and I'd rather not change things since it works
just fine.

Of course now I've got Wi-Fi from it, it's not in an ideal place for
that
and coverage at the top of the house is poor.


I had a similar situation. After faffing about with extenders, proxy
servers with a second SSID, and more powerful routers, the only
reliable fix was a homeplug.


What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring,


One *phase*, not ring.

Tim
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Jethro_uk wrote:

Tim Watts wrote:

What's the security like on a Homeplug? (When it leaks into the
neighbour's house).


As jethro said, you pair them by pressing buttons on each unit within a
couple of minutes of each other.

I'm not sure of the exact details, but they seem to be limited to one
ring, and they won't work past an RCD.


I've avoided powerline networking kit so far, but visiting my parents
over the weekend, Dad mentioned he'd like to watch youtube in his
pottery - at the bottom of the garden, furthest from WiFi, several brick
walls and the steel clad roof in the way.

I tried repositioning the AP and changing to a less congested channel,
but could only get a marginal signal, no easy way to run ethernet down
there, but he has power for the wheel/pugger/kiln.

Dismissed the powerline wifi extenders as too expensive for occasional
use at £75-80 PCWorld/Maplin distress purchase prices.

But for £20 a pair of powerline adapters worth a try, with the option of
taking them back if they don't work, 45 minute drive to PCworld, as we
entered they were starting to close the roller-shutter doors.

The tortuous route for the signal is

ethernet from router
powerline adapter
10 way surge filtered power strip
triple adapter cube
ring circuit
ye olde Wylex fuseboard
henley blocks
50+ yards of 16mm^2 SWA
small consumer unit with RCD/MCBs
radial circuit
powerline adapter
ethernet to laptop

I half expected it to not work, and the only thing worth trying would
have been to remove the triple adapter and surge strip, but it worked a
treat and now he can watch potters while he potters :-)

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In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Thanks for that, Johny. I do have the old router - redundant since BT
supplied a new one when I changed to them and fibre.


So since flushed with success in getting the Lidl one working I had a go
at it using your instructions and it's fine. Also allows me to loose a hub
at that location and use it instead. So two birds with one stone.


Anyone want a Lidl range extender? ;-)


Lidl one returned for a refund, so thanks once again.

--
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Dave Plowman London SW
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Hi. I bought the new Lidl Dual-Band wifi extender, model SWV 733 A1.
I'm not a newbye, I do things like this everyday at work and for hobby, but I can't make it work.
I need it as AP, but I can't find how to change its IP, default gateway and disable dhcp. So when I connect mobile to it I get a 192.168.10.x useless IP (my lan is 10.0.0.x) and I can't communicate with my lan and router.

I can just setup wifi configuration, but nothing more.
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