Wireless Repeater Woes

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pbix
Developer
Posts: 1373
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:09 pm

Wireless Repeater Woes

Post by pbix »

I have had occasion recently to try the Gargoyle wireless repeater function. After many hours of working with it I have had limited success.

The first this I want to mention is that the "SCAN" function on the Connection->Basic screen does not seem very sensitive. My laptop can see a dozen APs and the scan function lists 2-3.

Second. I see that there is no way to enter a separate SSID for the repeater bridge. OK I guess but when I configure everything it seems that something is wrong because I do not see a new AP signal with my laptop. I was expecting to see the SSID with a strong signal since my laptop is sitting right next to it. Instead I only see the remote AP with the weak signal.

Should I be seeing a new SSID for my bridge or what?

I can confirm that the repeater is connected to the remote AP because when I hook to it with a wired connection I can write this post.

I have the "Repeater Enabled" and I am using Gargoyle v1.0.9.
Linksys WRT1900ACv2
Netgear WNDR3700v2
TP Link 1043ND v3
TP-Link TL-WDR3600 v1
Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH2
WRT54G-TM

Eric
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:14 pm

Re: Wireless Repeater Woes

Post by Eric »

Hmm.. yeah I just tested this, I see what you mean.

It's rather hard to debug this issue for broadcom routers (I think that's what you're using... right?) because the wireless driver is proprietary. Of course, I've been having a lot of problems with the open source madwifi driver too, since the complexity of the thing makes debugging somewhat difficult.

I think the best solution to this issue is going to be adding a box to set an alternate SSID for the repeater signal. I should get to this in the next few weeks.

pbix
Developer
Posts: 1373
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:09 pm

Re: Wireless Repeater Woes

Post by pbix »

Yeah I am using a WRT54G-TM.

You have my sympathy on the proprietary driver. Whats your opinion on the scan sensitivity issue that I mentioned?

There are some notes in the DD-WRT Wiki http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge about trying to use a common SSID in repeater mode. Maybe you should check them. Its a clue i guess.

A couple of other comments. When I setup in these repeater modes there is no indication anywhere on the status screens that the repeater router is connected to the AP. Is there something you could add to the main status screen that would indicate that the SSID and security parameters are accepted by the AP or not? I think on the status screen is says the mode is "repeater bridge". Maybe your could just add "-connected" or "-connecting" or "-connection denied" to the end of this string. Something simple.

The "SCAN" button function does provide some useful signal strength but it would be cool if you could squeeze the channel number of the detected SSIDs in as well.
Linksys WRT1900ACv2
Netgear WNDR3700v2
TP Link 1043ND v3
TP-Link TL-WDR3600 v1
Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH2
WRT54G-TM

heuristic
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:00 pm

Re: Wireless Repeater Woes

Post by heuristic »

I am not having any success with WDS or Bridge mode, I had this working fine when both my routers at my home location were running Tomato, so not sure what the problem is, both WRT54GLs and .10 Gargoyle.

When I do a scan I can see the gateway AP (which is on my main floor connected to the cable modem), but cannot see any confirmation on the AP side that indicates the bridge router (down in basement) is connected, nor can I get any throughput to the LAN from in the basement, no DHCP either. Tomato passed this through the bridge no prob.

Anything I can do to help, please let me know! Thx
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Heuristic
WRT54GL x4

heuristic
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:00 pm

Re: Wireless Repeater Woes

Post by heuristic »

Okay, some update! I can get connected in bridge mode but not WDS, however I had to do a heap of rebooting and fussing to get here and it is not clear what setting made the difference!

Regardless, I have connectivity now - cool!

Thanks again Eric... will try to do a paypal thin this weekend.

Robin
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Heuristic
WRT54GL x4

Eric
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:14 pm

Re: Wireless Repeater Woes

Post by Eric »

I'm sorry for your troubles... I'm doing my best to handle configuration of wireless repeater mode (and right now wireless issues are at the top of my to-do list). In version 1.0.11 I implemented allowing a separate SSID for the repeater, but it turns out that (at least on brcm hardware), that doesn't help much.

Bridging works, but getting the repeater working is proving a bit tricky.... I released 1.0.11 anyway, with this feature even though calling it buggy would be a bit of an understatement, since I wanted to release a couple other updates/bugfixes I've added. (Though as I said the bridge works fine -- it's just the repeater that has issues).

So... I guess all I can say right now is that I'm working on it, and it has very high priority.

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