• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Home network repeater issues

omnius

omnius

Android Enthusiast
I have a weird situation. I have an SMC8014W-G modem/router at my upstairs desktop and D-Link DAP-1360 Range Extender on the main floor. I can connect from wifi being initially turned off to either spot no problem. BUT I cannot move my phone or tablet from one of their locations to another unless I turn off my Tablet`s WiFi for about 5-10 minutes before turning at back on at the new location, or it will not connect. This is a problem with my network, because the same thing happens on my android phone. Still working on it. I`ve seen others across the web talk about this problem with other mobile devices, while saying the problem doesn`t happen on PC type devices like laptops.

To test that out, I turned my phone's hotspot on. Using my tablet I was able to switch between my home connection and my phone's wifi signal back and forth with no delay at all. But moving from my router's location to my repeater's location could not be done unless I waited 5-10 minutes whether it's on my phone or my tablet.

The entire network is on "802.11 G" (can't used mixed mode or N, that's a whole other story we're not going to get into here) and both router and repeater are set to exactly the same gateway, DNS, network name etc. Encryption is WPA2. The only difference between them is that my main router is set to be a DHCP server, while the repeater is not (it says I can leave DHCP Server off if the router's is on. Perhaps that's wrong, I still have to try that). And my router settings only shows WPA2-PSK while my repeater has more detailed options showing WPA2 Cipher Type: AES PSK/EAP: Personal.
 
Okay, bear with me a moment while I try to understand this...

You have a wireless router, with say, SSID something along the lines of 'omnius'. Then you have that bridged to the repeater that is rebroadcasting the same ssid of 'omnius'.

Your phone can connect to either network, but you cannot roam between the two. (correct?)

Those devices can switch between two distinct wireless networks though, hotspot vs. router. (correct?)

Now, if I am understanding everything here, I have some follow up questions for you.
1) What channel are the devices using? I'm guessing that it won't make much difference, but maybe.

Now, I'm also guessing that DHCP, DNS, gateway.. all that jazz is irrelevant. Now, that's my guess.
What happens when you drop the encryption? With open networks does the issue still happen?
 
My "Educated Guess" I'm wondering if the device is having difficulty realizing that the network is the same. It could be getting a Signal from both and only after a few minutes it drops the weaker signal. This area isn't one of my strong points so guess is all I can really do.
 
9to5cynic said:
Okay, bear with me a moment while I try to understand this...

You have a wireless router, with say, SSID something along the lines of 'omnius'. Then you have that bridged to the repeater that is rebroadcasting the same ssid of 'omnius'.

Your phone can connect to either network, but you cannot roam between the two. (correct?)
Click to expand...

yes that's correct. My phone or tablet will show as being connected to the network still, but I lose all actual access to the internet. I have to turn off the device wifi for about 5-10 minutes at the new location, and then back on again in order to get internet access.

Those devices can switch between two distinct wireless networks though, hotspot vs. router. (correct?)
Click to expand...
correct. If I have both my home network running, and I turn my phone's mobile hotspot on using my mobile network, I can hop back and forth between the two using my tablet.

Now, if I am understanding everything here, I have some follow up questions for you.
1) What channel are the devices using? I'm guessing that it won't make much difference, but maybe.

Now, I'm also guessing that DHCP, DNS, gateway.. all that jazz is irrelevant. Now, that's my guess.
What happens when you drop the encryption? With open networks does the issue still happen?
Click to expand...
I'm on channel 1. My repeater's channel is 6, but that field is greyed out and disabled when it's on repeater mode, I'd have to put on access point or bridge mode or something to access that field. Both of those modes require my range extender to actually be wired into the LAN though instead of wirelessly repeating, so that's not the right configuration for my network.

Even with encryption completely dropped I had the same problem.
 
hmmm... I'm not really sure. I would see if you can get the AP to channel 6, and see if that helps.

Right now, I'm thinking that the connection just isn't being handed off. that the device may be still connected to the AP despite the repeater having a higher received signal.

Just my two cents though... I'm no expert.
 
Maybe, and N does have several benefits, though three years ago n was around....

But still, it could help... and, then you might be able to rig the old router up to act as an intermediary bridge. If that works, then the commercial repeater wouldn't be needed ;)

And I think N has much better ranges.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom