[SeanBest]

Friend has this AP:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833704048
http://www.tp-link.com/en/support/do...del=TL-WA701ND

Has his modem/router upstairs. His BD Player uses a crappy USB dongle which gets horrible signal. Want to use this AP hopefully to pick up the wireless signal and turn that signal into a wired connection to his TV.

That should work yes?

All other wireless devices get 80%+ signal downstairs only the Samsung USB dongle sucks. Hoping to repurpose his AP he doesn't use anymore. Gonna try and set it up on Sunday/Monday, but was hoping for some input beforehand.

It can do AP, Client, Bridge, and some others. Client and Bridge sound similar though so I'm not sure which I would use.

[mbentley]

One thing you will want to do is read all of the fine print in regards to the bridged mode. For example, with my old Linksys WAP54G, it would only act as a bridge with another WAP54G or WRT54G (If I remember right). Others might be similar as to what they are able to support in bridge mode. From looking at the manual for that WAP really quickly, I didn't see anything right off hand that mentioned requiring specific hardware for bridged mode to work.

*edit: Sorry, I misunderstood what you were trying to accomplish. After reading the manual a bit more, it actually looks like you do want to set it up in client mode. Bridge would be two access points connecting to each other (think of it as replacing a network cable but just over wireless). Client should just connect to an AP just like another device would.

[SeanBest]

What he's got is:

Modem/Router -> Desktop/Laptop/BD Player

What he wants:

Modem/Router -> Desktop/Laptop
-> AP ->BD Player

Hopefully that diagram makes sense lol.

Basically want to use the access point as a wireless antenna for the blu ray player using it's ethernet port.

The manual for the tp-link access point is worded strangely. It does sound like I want to use client mode, but I've never heard of that, only ever heard of bridged mode. That's why I'm kinda lost as to where to start.

[Mooyo]

I've only had experience doing this in DD-WRT on a Linksys WRT54GL, so this may be slightly different than what's in front of you, but I used repeater mode. It more or less joined the "master" access point and anything cabled into the Linksys would get DHCP leases from the master AP/network.

The other option was 'repeater bridge' which also allowed wireless clients on the Linksys get leases and function on the master AP's network.

Honestly you may need to play with the settings a bit to get it figured out. Even on the same firmware, such as DDWRT, every piece of networking equipment may function slightly differently. I've had a bit of problem getting ASUS units to perform the same kind of bridging that the Linksys did.

[DBZ]

Take Tomato for example, there are wireless client bridge and wireless ethernet bridge.

Wireless Ethernet bridge (DHCP disabled) - received wireless/IP address from main AP and distribute internet via the ports on the back of the router

Wireless Client Bridge (DHCP enabled) - same as ethernet bridge except it have its own subnet which distribute IP address.

Your choice would be the first one, less headache. There is also option of AP + WDS but come hell or high water, I can't get that thing to work.

[SeanBest]

So I got the access point to work in client mode. Problem is, it won't stay connected for more than 2-3 minutes. Except twice. Once it stayed connected for roughly 5 minutes. Another time I decided to ping the router 10000 times, and it stayed connected for over 3 hours. Ping had stopped for a few minutes, ran a speedtest it completed, ran another, then it stopped working. I go into my router and it shows the access point connected, but it's ip address is 0.0.0.0 and I have to unplug and plug it back in to get it to get an ip, which it then just loses again a few minutes later.

[SeanBest]

Anyone?

[mbentley]

Hmm, that is definitely very strange. It is like it is killing the connection whenever it isn't active... I haven't seen anything like that before but I have limited experience bridging wireless networks like you are. I wish I could help more. Are there any sort of logging options on either device?

[SeanBest]

My router does, but since it never disconnects it never logs anything other than it made the connection and assigned an ip. the same goes for the logs on the AP.

My guess is it's a dud unit. Even called their 24/7 support (lucky I'm still alive) and it was setup correctly and they have no explanation for it either.

But we all know how "tech support" is so I figured maybe someone here had some insight.