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At home I'd like to configure one of my wifi routers to serve as a WI-FI signal extender. Since my main router is OpenWrt-based (Backfire 10.1.3), I'd like to use it for that purpose.

I've looked into the problem and found that there is "Access Point (WDS)" option available in wifi interface setup. I thought this looks promising, especially since I've managed to configure my other router in that mode, too.

However switching that option "on" doesn't do a thing. I've tried manually adding BSSID of the other side (WDS client) to /etc/config/wireless, but it didn't work. I still don't know where to configure security settings for the networks to pair (my network is WPA2 encrypted).

The modem that would become a WDS client isn't running OpenWRT and I'm unable to get it installed there, so I'm trying with its current OS. But still, the main issue is with configuring OpenWRT side.

Any ideas?

EDITED: Found this two links:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/atheroswds
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=11849

The first one gives not too many information, the second is rather outdated. Doesn't seem to work :(

DJCrashdummy
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Marcin Cylke
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2 Answers2

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I got a tp link 740N with openwrt and atheros chip working as a wireless repeater by using this tutorial as a reference.

basically, you need to connect your wifi router as a client to your main one, create a new virtual wifi interface and bridge the two via relayd (repeater package)

In my case I'm using two identical tplinks with same version of openwrt so I'm not sure if it will work with different chips or router models.

RoseHosting
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Look at the dd-wrt pages for repeaters. On dd-wrt you have to configure the wireless as a client, the you add a virtual wireless interface that is an access point. I got this to work on my dd-wrt atheros based DIR-601.

Kevin Szabo
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