Recycle and old wireless router and turn it in to a Wireless Access Point

If you have a Spare router and wish to configure it as a Secondary hub or wireless access point to strengthen your existing wireless signal, (or both) the easiest way to do this is by linking it to your current existing router via the Ethernet.

For this walk through i will be using a Thomson speed touch ST585v6sl but the process is the same with any router however the User interface may vary with different routers, Thomson's are the easiest and most clearly laid out.


WARNING
Do not connect it directly to your existing router at this stage while the settings are default. you will either end up with no connectivity to the secondary router or if the TCP/IP Settings are the same as your current one they will conflict and the whole network will loose internet connectivity. (if you do this by mistake simply unplug the secondary router and reboot the primary router.)

Phase 1 - TCP/IP Settings

For this to work, we have to change the TCP/IP settings on the secondary router so they

A. Match the current subnet settings of your primary router,

B. Do not conflict each other by having the same IP address.

First off, disconnect a PC from your primary router and plug it directly in to the secondary router directly leaving no connectivity to the first one.

then you need to access the Router's Configuration page.

By default on this router this is http://192.168.1.254/

then on the left you can see the Navigation, follow the links:-

Home Network -> Interfaces

Then on the body of the page click LocalNetwork

At the top left theres a link titled Configure

Click that and you should see the Edit options next to the TCP/IP settings.

Edit the relevant settings, in this case my default router uses 192.168.1.254/24 so thats the one I want to edit.

Change the last 'Octet' (digit) of the IP address (254) to something else, I changed it to 253 in this case, and leave the subnet mask as it is (255.255.255.0)

so now it looks like this: ([ ] denotes text field)

[192.168.1.253] [255.255.255.0] Static Apply Cancel

Click Apply.

The router page will now time out and you will receive a connection time out error on your browser, this is because the IP has now changed and the bowser is still pointing to the old one.

simply change the URL on the browser so its pointing to the new correct IP address.

You may also wish to turn off the DHCP server as there is already likely to be one running on your primary router and this feature is not necessary, leaving it on may cause some issues when computers on your network obtain an IP addresses and can affect the performance of NAT (Network address translating)

It is now safe to interconnect the 2 routers but to save a bit of fuss lets leave it plugged in while we configure the wireless (if the router your using has wireless, else you can ignore the rest of this post.)

Phase 2 - The wireless

Now to change the Wireless settings

To keep things nice and tidy, we can set up whats known as a distributed wireless network, by having multiple access points all configured with the same wireless settings, this allows for seamless transition between access points and also saves a bit of hassle when connecting. this also makes them all appear to the client computer like one big wireless network, so you wont have a list to pick from but the computer will automatically connect and show the access point with the strongest signal (the one your closest to).

If your old router doesn't have the same wireless settings as your current primary one, they need to be changed so they match the primary router's wireless settings. Changing this is simple, If you don't know how to already, then read on

On the left click on the red box titled home network

In the body of the page, click on the section with the routers Wireless name on, in my case this is

WLAN: Rons Network

(54Mbps)

Again in the top left corner is a link Configure

Click that so you are able to change the wireless settings.

Make sure you have your primary routers Wireless settings available on a peace of paper or something, so you can enter that information in on this page. The 2 peaces of information you will need are the 'ESSID' and if your smart, the Currently used Wireless encryption key.

Enter the ESSID making sure you include all capitals etc as they are on your primary router as this is CaSe SeNsItIvE. this is important if you want seamless transition between the 2 access points to work.

The encryption key must be the same also, else again seamless transition will not work.

The channel is not important, and can be left. (its better left alone) if you for whatever reason decide to put them the same the router will most likely change it later anyway so you'll just be waisting your time, if it doesn't do that then they will conflict and most likely hang (crash).

Click apply where needed to save changes.

you're done!

if you haven't already, you can now plug your newly configured Hub/Wireless access point in to your primary router and enjoy the advantages of having more ports or a better wireless signal if you place the secondary router at the opposite end of the property. (assuming you have a cable that reaches)