Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 20:56 Post subject: Configuring TrendNet TEW-812DRU v2.x as AP and gig ports.
Tried to get as much as I could in the title....
I currently have a TrendNet TEW-824DRU with the I think it is November 19th (?) build on it working great.
We are doing a home remodel, and my wife wants my switch rack / structured wiring moved off of the office wall, into the closet (2 more walls between the router and wireless devices) I have occasional drops now at the far end of the house, and in the garage that I didn't when it was in the living room... and moving it to the closet will make it worse, thus I ordered, dirt cheap, a second TrendNet AC1750 router, a TEW-812DRU v2.x that is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I want to set it up, cabled to the first router, as an AP, but I want to insure that I keep the gigabit switch ports active so I can hang my smart home hub off of it as well to keep it central in the house...
If I follow the procedure for configuring the secondary router as an AP, will I still be able to use the wired ports? Is there some special configuration I will need to perform?
You can run any router as a wireless access point if you disqble the WAN port, turn off NAT and DHCP, and connect to your main router with an ethernet cable plugged into a LAN port on each device. That will work, and all the LAN ports on each device will work fine. However there will be some processes running that you don't need, so your best bet is to follow these instructions:
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point
You can even connect a another wireless accesspoint into a lan port on the WAP and not see any real degradation in performance. This is a much better arrangement than using a Wireless Repeater, as the WAP can be out of wifi range of the main router, giving you better extended coverage; all the devices on the LAN are able to see each other; and your mobile devices can roam between the access points as they will not be running foul of the way a wireless repeater substitutes the MAC address of connected devices with its own MAC address in communications with the main router.
What you are doing is THE best way to extend your network.
Cheers.
Well, the thought process is, for right nor wrong, I know with the spot I intend on putting the TEW-812DRU v2.x I get full coverage through the house, and out to the end of the driveway, almost to my mailbox. So 100% of my property is covered with my wifi signal, and some adjascent bleed over is there. I have to be careful with setting up channels as my neighbors have the MiFamilia network broadcasting a strong 5ghz signal into my house...
I have read somewhere in the wiki, or maybe seen someone demo it on youtube, but I understand on some routers with dd-wrt you can turn off the WAN function of the WAN port and enable it as a regular LAN port. Not sure if it is worth doing, but it is interesting...
After comparing the specs of my 2 different TrendNet routers, wow, what a difference! I am glad I am using this one as just an access point. I haven't had this little RAM in a computer since the 90s!
Okay it's set up. As a bonus, I have the WAN port now assigned to the switch, thus I connect the WAN port to the patch cable and in turn across the house to the main router, and it works as expected.... And I still have the 4 ports to use for wired devices. This will do what I need it to for sure!