Access point to extend wifi

[guy10]

Cannot get any wifi upstairs towards the front of my house (gateway is unavoidably WAY downstairs). Am trying to install an access point (using a cheap Winstar N300 device). I can setup the “second” wifi network with great coverage upstairs, but it will lose internet connection soon after. In theory this should be ok - is Telstra blocking the “second” network (because only one is allowed)? Should the wifi networks be the same name? Am I just missing something obvious?

[Jupiter]

It is not being blocked by Telstra.

The problem with this sort of setup is that the wireless repeater needs quite a strong connection to the modem to work properly. It could just be that the signal strength at the repeater is not strong enough and it is dropping the connection.

You might need a better quality dual band repeater to maintain the connection.

Also, if you can set the repeater up in Access Point mode, this makes life easier for you as it will use the same network name and your devices will just choose the strongest signal.

[guy10]

Thanks Jupiter. I am using a power line adapter with Ethernet connected to Gateway and other end in the bedroom. Ethernet goes into the Winstar, then it creates wifi network upstairs. So it is setup as an access point (not repeater), and strength is excellent (via the lan). The network name is different. Could it be an ip addressing problem?

[Jupiter]

It is possible that it could be an IP address issue.

Try setting a device with a fixed IP address and see how that behaves (I do that at home - I have defined ranges for types of devices - makes it easier to track down the device I'm looking for - Routers all end in the 240-254 range, storage in the 140-160 range, phones in the 1 to 20 range, etc).

[eAJ2015 · Accepted solution]

Have you tried :

Router/gateway - powerline - powerboard (non surge protected) - powerline - AP  to check it isn't an issue with the powerline component?

I did find powerline devices a bit temperamental when i had a similar setup. you might want to also consider some of the wireless mesh based devices like netgear orbi or google wifi. they aren't cheap but i have been very happy with the orbi devices.

[cf4]

For best results the access point should have the same SSID and password as the Telstra Gateway but use a different Wi-Fi channel. As you move about a house a device should then connect to either the access point or Telstra Gateway depending on which has the strongest signal.