Some time ago, I purchased a generic 802.11n Wireless LAN repeater, after having issues with receiving a reliable wireless connection to my ADSL residential gateway/router due to interference from neighbouring networks, and the signal propagating poorly throughout the back of the house.

I ended up buying it as a “cheap workaround”, after getting frustrated with being unable to maintain a reliable connection on my laptop, or various phones – despite trying things like switching to less congested channels (usually 9, or 13), increasing transmission power rates (at the expense of battery life); and decreasing maximum bitrates to ridiculously-levels.

Technically, the bridge is a small, embedded Linux-based device with a RealTek RTL8186 MIPS-derived system-on-chip, supporting Ethernet, and 802.11; PCI, and even PCM audio. (Which seems like overkill – but I suppose that it’s probably cheaper to design, and distribute a universal, multipurpose chipset, than it would be to produce cut-down variants).

Common complaints that buyers on Amazon had were that the firmware was buggy, the device was unreliable, and that the device’s Web-based configuration tool supposedly became inaccessible, post-configuration.

However, I found that if I ignored the supplied instructions, and attempted to configure the device by using a direct connection to my PC using Ethernet, I was able to configure it in a reliable manner that allowed for continued access to its administration server, as well as roaming throughout the house using the same SSID…

Please note that the values in the screenshots are specific to my home network, and are not factory defaults.

Unfortunately, since I have discarded the packaging, I can’t provide photos of its contents – although I’m sure that they consisted of at least:

• The device itself
• An instruction leaflet
• A short Ethernet cable
• A detachable 3-pin UK mains plug

To begin with, I unpacked the product; plugged into a power outlet, and connected the Ethernet cable to my laptop.

Next, I temporarily disabled the use of my laptop’s wireless LAN chipset, using the hardware kill-switch, to ensure that requests for multiple IPv4 addresses via two hardware interfaces won’t be made.

The bridge ships configured with a DHCP server enabled by default, issuing IPv4 addresses within the 192.168.10.x range, and reserving 192.168.10.1 for itself – but we’ll change this, later.

First, navigate to the default configuration URL (http://192.168.10.1), using your preferred browser:

Next, select the “Wireless” option from the “Professional Setup” category:

Here, set the following options:

• “Mode”: “Repeater”
• “Network Type”: “Infrastructure”
• “SSID of Connect to” (sic): Enter the SSID of your primary access point
• Check the “Enable Universal Repeater Mode (Acting as AP and client simultaneouly” (sic) checkbox
• “SSID of Extended Interface”: Enter the SSID of your primary access point again

If you have configured your primary access point to enable operation in 802.11n mode, then select either “2.4GHz (N)”, “2.4GHz (G + N)”, or “2.4GHz (B+G+N)” from the “Band” menu. Otherwise, “2.4GHz (B+G)” should deliver satisfactory performance for most WAN-based activities.

In order for seamless handover between access points using the same SSID to work well, it is then necessary to set the default 802.11 channel of your primary access point to 11. (This seems to be a hard-coded, preset value).

It may also be necessary to configure WEP, or WPA keys for your primary access point on the “Security” page; and I also recommend changing the configuration tool’s access credentials to something more secure than their default values.

After configuring these settings, the bridge will reboot automatically…

Once the bridge has rebooted, return to the “LAN Interface” page:

On this page, set the “DHCP” setting to “Client”, and apply changes. At this point, because the bridge will attempt to obtain its configuration IPv4 address from your primary access point/gateway’s DHCP server, it’d be a good idea to disconnect the Ethernet cable, and re-enable the PC’s wireless LAN interface.

Hopefully, at this point, a successful WLAN connection will have been made.

However, in order to maintain future access to the bridge’s configuration server, it is necessary to assign a static IPv4 address to its MAC address (printed on a sticker on the case – but it’ll probably also appear in system/DHCP server logs) using the configuration tool of your primary access point.

After configuring this, power-cycle the bridge, and attempt to access its configuration page via the newly-set IPv4 address. If successful, you should be presented with an authentication dialogue, and be able to see the configuration tool’s status page, as at the beginning.

Hopefully, this will be of assistance to other owners of these devices, or folks contemplating purchasing one.