Billion 7800N and Wifi Extenders

[Simon]

This is driving me up the wall!  I've got a wifi extender (TP Link) that is up and running with my router (as above), but coverage is still patchy, so I wanted to try another extender.  I bought a Netgear WN3000RP, but had all sorts of problems setting it up.  It would get as far as the last stage, ie, connecting to the internet, then that stage would fail, and the extended would report that it was too far from the router, even though I was setting it up in the same room.

I had a look on Google, and found several people with the same problem, so I sent the WN3000RP back as faulty, and now have a BT Dual Band Wi-Fi Extender 600, but have run into the same problem.  The extender seems to connect to the router initially, but as soon as I enter the wifi password, it all goes to pot, and although the light is on on the extended to indicate it's connected, it doesn't appear on the list of Wi-Fi sources on either my phone or my laptop.

So, it seems something is happening when I try to connect to the internet via the extender.  It has to be something to do with the router, but, to be honest, the settings are quite complex, and I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Any assistance would be appreciated!

[Steve]

Sorry Simin I use it between a couple of Apple products and it works straight off. However check your using the same WiFi channels and bandwidth settings, and are you using a different SSID

[Simon]

Yes, it worked straight off for the TP Link extender, which is why I can't understand why I've had trouble with two others.  I think it might be something to do with the security setting.  What's 'AEP'? 

[Den]

Arse End People     

[Steve]

It's a Wifi encryption , I suppose one way is to remove Wifi security and see if it works and then add.

[Simon]

Sorry, I meant AES.  The extenders encryption type for the password says WPA-TKIP[AES].

[Simon]

Well, call me stupid, but it was working all the time!      It's just that once it's set up, the wifi extender doesn't display as a selectable network, as it does initially, but instead, displays as the router SSID. 

[Steve]

Do you not have the option to use an alternative SSID?

[Simon]

Doesn't appear so.

[pctech]

Simon, once it is set up it should be transparent to your client devices such as your phone which will display the SSID of the 7800N and not the extender.

All you should notice is an improved signal.

[Steve]

Whilst I agree with the above there are situations where  a device will connect to the extender instead of  the router, this may not necessarily give the best performance.

Looking at the BT instructions it appears that it may be possible to set a different SSID for the extender , so in certain locations it maybe beneficial to pick and choose.

http://btsupport.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/46301/c/6619

[Simon]

I'll have a look at that later, Steve.  I did go through the settings last night, and whilst there was an option to change the 'name' of the extender during the set up, this is only the name that appears on the list of devices (DHCP?) in the 7800N settings.

I think this set up has good and bad points.  The good point is that I won't keep checking whether the phone is connected to the router or the extender.  The bad point may be as you mentioned. 

[JohnH]

Simon, which model TP Link extender did you end up buying? I have exactly the same problem in connecting a Netgear WN3000RP extender to my Billion 7800N router and have wasted most of today trying to do it.

From what you say, adding the TP Link was easy.

Thanks

[Simon]

It was this one, John:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AHXXJVW/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But, I found it made rather a noticeable high pitched 'whistling' noise, which is quite well documented if you Google it.  It was easy to set up, though.

I now have one from BT, which works slightly differently, in that once it's set up, it doesn't show as another SSID, but integrates 'seamlessly' into your existing network.  That threw me for a very long afternoon, as I didn't think it was working, but it was!  I'd say that the BT one is probably more stable then the TP Link, in that your device doesn't appear to have to keep switching from one 'network' to the other, but both actually do what they say on the tin.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D84GVN0/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[JohnH]

Simon, thanks very much for this.

The BT one appeals because of not having to switch between networks. Is it easy to set up with the Billion 7800N?
The Netgear one seems to involve messing around with the Billion settings which are beyond me, frankly.

Thanks again.

[Simon]

Yes, once I knew how it behaved, the BT one is fairly easy to set up.  You get an initial login to it's own SSID (with the username and password they give you), then, once it's 'married' with your router, that SSID disappears, and you just log in with your usual router wifi password.  I don't remember having to change any settings on the Billion, but I was looking, while trying to work out what was going on.  A clear case of RTFM on my part!   

[JohnH]

Well, in the end I decided I was mug enough for another challenge. I bought a Billion BiPac 3100SN extender and it involved me having to set up a static IP address on my laptop, just so I could get into the extender interface. But miracle of miracles, I did it without wrecking the laptop.

Basically, I had to add the MAC address of the router (and in the router interface, the MAC address of the extender). Then I had to make sure the channels on the router and extender were the same and that the security settings were the same on both devices. I couldn't believe it when it all worked.

When I can pluck up the courage, I am going to upgrade the firmware on the extender to the latest version. There's the capability to save the existing configuration beforehand which I'll do in case things go wrong.

[Simon]

Some people just like to make things difficult. 

[JohnH]