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III. Wireless LAN

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Setting up a DrayTek Router and Vigor AP in Universal Repeater Mode

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Products:
Vigor 2135ax
Vigor 2620Ln
Vigor 2760
Vigor 2762
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Keywords:
extend wireless
increase wireless range
wireless range booster
wireless repeater

If the Vigor access point is in Universal Repeater mode then it can be configured to connect to and repeat a wireless connection. This can be used to increase the overall wireless coverage by locating the Vigor AP at a position where its signal can be received in places where the original signal was weak.

In practice it is best to locate the Vigor AP at a location that picks up a good signal from the original access point so that the quality of the connection between the two is good. This will allow a higher bandwidth link to the original access point and reduce the possibility of throughput issues because even if a WLAN client has an excellent speed connection to the Vigor AP, the actual throughput obtainable is determined by the connection speed between the VigorAP800 and the original access point.

This example will show how to set up the wireless connection on a DrayTek Vigor 2860n router and a DrayTek Vigor AP900 Access Point will then connect to it wirelessly Universal Repeater mode. The steps are the same for the DrayTek Vigor AP800 and AP810 as well.

 

  1. Connect your PC directly to one of the LAN ports on the Vigor 2860n. Log in to the router's web interface and browse to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [General Setup].
    Set the name of the wireless network in the SSID field and set the 2.4GHz wireless Channel:

    Universal Repeater Mode Image 1

    Click OK to apply the settings.

  2. Now browse to [Wireless LAN] > [Security]. Select the security mode WPA2/PSK and enter the password for the wireless connection as the Pre-Shared Key(PSK):

    Universal Repeater Mode Image 2

    Click OK to apply that setting change.

  3. Now connect the access point from LAN port A1 to one of the LAN ports on the Vigor 2860n. Check this article for details on how to locate the access point on the network.
    Browse to the access point's web interface web interface then login using the default username of "admin" and password of "admin".
    Go to [Operation Mode] and set the operation mode as Universal Repeater, click OK to apply the change and wait for it to complete:

    Universal Repeater Mode Image 3

  4. Browse to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [ General setup].
    Untick the Enable 2 Subnet option because it should not be used with this configuration (it is still possible to use multiple SSIDs though).
    Delete the text in the SSID 2 field if the access point will only be using a single SSID. Edit the SSID 1 field with the wireless network name that the access point will use - this can either be the same as the router's SSID or different:

    Universal Repeater Mode Image 4
    Click OK to apply the setting changes.

  5. Go to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [Security]. The access point can have different security settings from the router's wireless network or it can be the same if required. In this example, set the Mode to WPA2/PSK, select AES as the WPA Algorithm and set the Pre-Shared Key in the Pass Phrase field:

    Universal Repeater Mode Image 5

    Click OK to apply the security changes, it will then pop up a warning:


    This can be ignored, it is warning that setting the security type to WPA/PSK or WEP will limit the speed of 802.11n wireless to 54mbps. WPA2/PSK, WPA2/802.1x or no security will allow the full 802.11n throughput.

  6. Go to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [Universal Repeater] page to view the settings required for the access point to connect to another wireless network. These can be entered manually if required or can be found using the access point's AP Discovery feature, which scans for nearby wireless networks and can fill in the SSID/BSSID details of the network to connect to:

    Universal Repeater Mode Image 6

  7. To pair the 2 devices in universal repeater mode, browse to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [AP Discovery]. Click on the Scan button, this will scan for nearby wireless networks:

  8. Select the network to connect to from the list by clicking the radio button next to the network name and click Select:

  9. This will go back to the [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [Universal Repeater] page with the details filled in:

    Please note that this method will auto select the Wireless Channel of the router to connect the AP to the router - the wireless channel needs to be the same on both the AP and the DrayTek router for the Universal Repeater link to work.
  10. It is now necessary to fill in the security details for the wireless connection. Change the Security Mode from its default of Open (no security) to WPA2/PSK and set the Encryption Type to match the network it is connecting to. WPA uses TKIP, WPA2 uses AES.


    With the security details filled in, click OK to apply the Universal Repeater settings, the AP will now attempt to connect to the wireless network of the DrayTek router.
  11. To check the status of the wireless link between the two devices, go to the [Online Status] page, which will show the wireless link status:

  12. The wired link between the AP and the router can now be removed and the access point can be placed in its intended location. Clients connecting to the access point will then have internet access through the DrayTek router's wireless link and internet connection.

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First Published: 16/04/2015
Last Updated: 17/12/2021