access points to extend range of BT hub?

[munmohan]

hi all

have the latest bt home hub but there is wireless signal dropout in some parts of the house.

luckily, house is hardwired for ethernet, so i was wandering....

can i connect several access points to the bt home hub via the ethernet ports so creating a strong wireless network....

what access points are good ?tp link?

will it be easy.... i am not a computer wiz.....

thanks for any help

 

[munmohan]

TP-Link TL-WA901ND Advanced Wireless N Access Point

will this be the answer, could i connect two of these to the bt hub?

 

[beerhunter]

can i connect several access points to the bt home hub via the ethernet ports so creating a strong wireless network..

Yes you can, it gets discussed here weekly.

You can either so it via wired Ethernet of HomePlugs.

 

[munmohan]

thnaks mate, i assume that configure the unit as an access point rather than as a wifi extender?

 

[kevismit]

Hi, i have recently done this very cheaply. Bought a Tenda W306R AP from Amazon for £20. Existing Netgear router (gateway) gave poor signal at other end of house. The 2 devices should connect via the LAN sockets only. I installed a 20 metre Cat5 cable from one end of the house to the other - a pig of a job! The set-up for the Tenda was almost identical to the Netgear, however you must ensure that DHCP and DNS are off as these are handled by the router. Set SSID the same as the router, the security also should be identical i.e. WEP/WPA/2 etc. Set the network key identical to the router as well. However DO NOT use the same wireless channels. Took me 2 weeks to find that out. The only other thing you need to do is ensure you set the AP IP address different to the router say 192.168.01/2 and ensure that the router DHCP range is from say 192.168.0.10/254 so it doesnt interfere with the AP and router IP addresses. When all set up you can roam the house without needing to add another WIFI connection because the SSID is identical on each device. There are a number of websites that explain this, but somehow always miss out something vital.
Hope this helps. KSS

 

[beerhunter]

thnaks mate, i assume that configure the unit as an access point rather than as a wifi extender?

Yes, or you will lose half of the WiFi bandwidth.

 

[munmohan]

hi guys, AP's arrived today, just one last check....

only the ap's and the bt hub need fixed ip addresses right...... i should make the bt hub static first, then programme the ap's connecting directly to the computer before connecting to the hub via ethernet.... thanks

 

[Warpaint]

The BT hub will already have a static address. You only need to set the Access Point to static IP so you can easily get to its setup menu. The Access point should still work perfectly without a fixed IP address. It is good practice to use a fixed IP though.

 

[ArcAngel78]

How did u get on? I need to do the same thing as my wifi is crap in the new house - lots of steel, brick walls and insulation...

Was going to go for netgear access points but to link look good value. Would prefer something as small as possible though to hide down the back of furniture. Anyone know of any Poe powered ones as my switch provides Poe?

 

[munmohan]

How did u get on? I need to do the same thing as my wifi is crap in the new house - lots of steel, brick walls and insulation...

Was going to go for netgear access points but to link look good value. Would prefer something as small as possible though to hide down the back of furniture. Anyone know of any Poe powered ones as my switch provides Poe?

this product is awesome..... just fitted it at a friends..... bt home hub 3 was next to bt master in a boiler cupboard, and wifi could only be obtained in one half of the house..... with this access point in the same cupboard, full strength signal throughout the house!!! via ethernet, we placed it on the other side of the house, and signal is full 5 bars in every room....

setup is easy.... follow instructions as per quick setup guide and make sure router is off at the time..... as below, need a static IP address for the access point and ssid/passwords matched, so seemless roaming around the house..i left the bt hub on channel 11, set this to channel 13.....

highly recommended....

only criticism, has a t100 ethernet, and not gigabit.... only matters if you have gigabit on your router and a NAS...might be fixed by getting a tp link wireless n gigabit router for a few quid more....

and this one i brought, the 901, is power over ethernet....

 

[munmohan]

you must ensure that DHCP and DNS are off as these are handled by the router. Set SSID the same as the router, the security also should be identical i.e. WEP/WPA/2 etc. Set the network key identical to the router as well. However DO NOT use the same wireless channels. Took me 2 weeks to find that out. The only other thing you need to do is ensure you set the AP IP address different to the router say 192.168.01/2 and ensure that the router DHCP range is from say 192.168.0.10/254 so it doesnt interfere with the AP and router IP addresses. When all set up you can roam the house without needing to add another WIFI connection because the SSID is identical on each device. There are a number of websites that explain this, but somehow always miss out something vital.
Hope this helps. KSS

hellped loads mate, many many thanks...

 

[ArcAngel78]

Ok, getting past the boundaries of my limited knowledge - am out of my depth now so need some help

I bought the TP link TL-WA901ND which comes with its own POE injector. I thought however that I shouldn't need to use this as I blew the budget and bought a netgear GS748TP switch (48 port switch, all ports are POE).

I haven't installed the management software that came with the netgear, just plugged and played and everything has worked fine so far (dont think I need any of the features)

I expected that when I plugged it in top the wall socket (which is cat6, cat 6 cabling back to cat 6 patch panel and above switch) and turned it on it would power up, but nothing..

Is the POE on the switch live all the time (you can press a button to have the LEDs shows connections which are working fine, the other setting is live POE connections which didn't light up)

Cable runs aren't that long (this one is 39.1m and passed cat6 testing)

Thanks in advance

 

[ArcAngel78]

Apparently the tp link wap uses some kind of passive Poe which isn't the norm (for netgear switches anyway). My ip cams all worked fine so will just have to locate it near a socket too which isn't really a problem.

 

[munmohan]

Apparently the tp link wap uses some kind of passive Poe which isn't the norm (for netgear switches anyway). My ip cams all worked fine so will just have to locate it near a socket too which isn't really a problem.

didnt u get a POE widget in the box, which you could place anywhere between the switch and the AP, to provide POE....

 

[ArcAngel78]

I did, but preferably wanted to use my own poe switch.

Could use their injector, but as its beside a socket not much point