Help needed using a spare router as a WiFi extender...

[StevieP]

I live in a 3 storey house and I've got a spare Linksys WAG160N router that I'd like to hook up to improve the WiFi signal on the top 2 floors.

Can anyone give me any pointers on how to go about doing this as I've never dabbled with a second WiFi device before!

I use 1200mbps powerline adapters to feed my internet to my main PC in the top room - is there a way to plug the additional router in upstairs via ethernet and then have it act as another WiFi source? (I'm assuming that the Linksys router is suitable to be turned into a "gateway"(?))

Thanks for any advice or guidance?

 

[Steveocee]

Absolutely!

If you plug the power line adapter and use it to link into the router WAN, the router just needs giving an IP (in your current range and not in the dhcp pool) and setting for no firewall and no NAT. Wifi you can set as you like.

 

[StevieP]

Hmmm, thinking I might need a bit more detailed guidance than that! (sorry!)

I've plugged the ethernet cable from the powerline adapter into the Linksys router and then another from that into my PC and the internet is still being piped through, so that's something!

However, when I browse to "Network" on my PC, nothing extra in terms of hardware is showing up and the default IP address (192.168.1.1) is the IP or my main TP Link router downstairs - how do I access the Linksys router to make the necessary changes? (btw, there isn't a port labelled "WAN" on the router - I assume this is a bad sign??)

Thanks for all of your continued help!

 

[StevieP]

Update:

Managed to access the Linksys router by unplugging everything else, logged in and charged the encapsulation to "Bridged Mode Only" and pretty much left everything else as-was except for the IP address to something different to my main TP Link router.

Is it pretty much done or are there other settings I should be changing?