Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2022 22:30 Post subject: Repeater mode - WBRsG54S
I have a very specific setup which I implemented myself quite easily in DD-WRT+v3.0-r44715, the micro version
I am using a Buffalo WBRsG54S solely to connect a Tivo to the internet. I set it up myself, quite easily as I remember it and connected the Buffalo to my Linksys EA 3200 on a network called DD-WRT. I seem to remember setting it up as a repeater, whereby the Buffalo links to the Linksys, picks up an IP from my network and lets the Tivo connect to its home service. The system worked fine for a few years until someone gave me a Linksys EA6800.I installed it with the same network name, - DD-WRT and the same password, thinking that I should be able to let the TIVO's network setup automatically log in to the new router in the same way as i logged into the old one! No, obviously the MAC address is different but I never really thought I should be able to log the Tivo through the Buffalo into the EA6800 and pick up where I left off.
But my TIVO system has never actually logged through the buffalo into the new linksys router! The Buffalo has never since the change repeated any signal! And what is worse, I can't figure out how within 44715 Micro I can scan around, choose the DD-WRT network, and pick up the Linksys wifi signal to log into it!!
Can someone please tell me what blindingly obvious point I am missing? And even worse, when I went into the Buffalo's wireless settings, I found it mysteriously changed to Client or something and not on REPEATER at all!
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 12837 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2022 5:55 Post subject:
It is possible that the Linksys is on autochannel and is constantly switching channels or is using a channel your Buffalo cannot see (e.g. some regions allow channel 13 but your buffalo migh only go up to channel 11)
So set the EA6800 on a fixed channel and only 20 MHz width no fancy things enabled like TurboQAM.
You can use an app on your phone (e.g. WiFi analyser) to find the best channel (1,6, 11)
It is unclear to me if the Tivo is wired to the buffalo if so you have to use Client Bridge if the Tivo is connected via Wifi to the buffalo you have to use Repeater bridge:
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_Routers
Yes, that was what I was thinking about upgrading with this one-trick-pony usage. I didnt need much and if it was working fine, why change anything?
I am of course using an ethernet cable between the tivo and the buffalo, I can't see why i would connect wirelessly to the bufffalo instead of directly to the Linksys! More specifically I lost my wifi card for the Tivo!
But I still cant see how I link up the buffalo to the linksys without some sort of scan function on the dd-wrt software? Or do I enter the Linksys's MAC address somewhere in the buffalo's software?
The wireless interface on the Buffalo should be in client mode, and the SSID should match the Linksys' AP's SSID and passwords should match. _________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio
Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 11563 Location: Wherever the wind blows- North America
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 11:29 Post subject:
I'd set it up as a Client Bridge. The router will act as the wireless card for your TiVo. Give the Client Bridge the SSID of your router (DD-WRT as you stated earlier)...and the password for the main router. Plug the TiVo into a LAN port of the WBR unit.
Don't configure the router from your current state. Do a reset of the WBR first so your starting from scratch.
You've been around long enough (I remember you from the olden-days...hahaha) to know that you want use the Linking Routers procedure in the wiki. I won't go into great detail since you've done it before.
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 14:34 Post subject: So I was right thinking I could use same SSID/Passwd!
Thank you for that Redhawk and Dale_Gribble, it is very gratifying to be remembered! Even for the wrong reasons, - I am the annoying guy who found a build number which involved the famous promiscuous router configuration and subsequently didn't want to update it to a later configuration which didn't have this feature.
Now it is completely clear how to proceed and this also explains why, while I was trying to repeat the Linksys signal, I shouldn't have been in repeater mode! The Tivo sees the internet through the Linksys if the Buffalo is set to be its CLIENT, - or a bridge as a client to the linksys!
Though it doesn't matter much, my original problem remains, which is that having set it up once, seen it work for a year or so, amd then changed Linksys routers for a more powerful (?) one, I cant understand why the Buffalo didn't just "see" the new Linksys router after I had changed router while carefully maintaining the same SSID and password in the EA6800?
My mistake was to go into the settings when the Buffalo first started not repeating the Linksys' signal and wonder why it had become set to client mode. I changed to repeater signal mode and started going about trying to enter the new MAC address into the Buffalo's configuration files. Things never went right after that catastrophic mistake for obvious reasons!