Link to home
Create AccountLog in
Avatar of Notthead
Notthead

asked on

Using WAP4410N Wireless-N Access Point with Power Over Ethernet with 4 Netgear WN2500RP repeaters

Hello,

Where I work, a wireless network consisting of 4 wireless access point was used that all had different SSID's.  I am looking to unify this into one solid network.  We do not have very up to date routers aside from one (they cannot be used as wireless extenders).  The initial plan I had was to use one WAP located direcly in the center of building, and use the 4 repeaters to broadcast the single further.  Below is a rough diagram where R=repeaters:

R                                                      R


                         WAP


R                                                      R


Assuming that each repeater is range of the WAP, logically to me, this should work.  The WAP we have is the WAP4410N Wireless-N Access Point with Power Over Ethernet and the repeaters I purchased are Netgear WN2500RP wireless repeaters.  I want the WAP to broadcast the SSID that the repeaters pick up and extend out.  This set up would allow us to use only one access point with just one SSID.

I have the repeaters configured to repeat the wireless signal, and they do fully broadcast it.  However, only 1 of these repeaters at a time actually allow a network connection.  What do I need to do in order to get all of these repeaters to broadcast?

Thanks in advance.
SOLUTION
Avatar of ArneLovius
ArneLovius
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Link to home
membership
Create a free account to see this answer
Signing up is free and takes 30 seconds. No credit card required.
See answer
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
Create a free account to see this answer
Signing up is free and takes 30 seconds. No credit card required.
The Netgear WN2500RP doesn't appear to work quite the way you want to use it...
you can get all 4 to connect and talk to the Cisco AP, but they will not rebroadcast that same SSID... by default, they use the SSID of NETGEAR_EXT to connect clients, then relay between the clients and main AP on the main AP's SSID. You can change that SSID, but you should not change it to the same SSID as the Cisco unless you hard wire them in with cat5e.

Also, the WN2500RP is dual band, and I don't see any way to bridge between the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios... since the WAP4410N is 2.4GHz only, I concur with ArneLovius's suggestion to run cat5e to connect all 4 of the extenders, to get the most out of their capabilities.
Avatar of Notthead
Notthead

ASKER

Well, I plugged one of the Netgear repeaters in with a cat5e cable, and it took down the whole network.  I guess I can just simplify my question down to this; what is the best way for me to broadcast the same SSID throughout our building using any pieces of the following equipment?

3 wireless N routers (1 Cisco WAP4410N and 2 Cisco WAP4400N)
4 wireless repeaters (4 Netgear WN2500RP)

I will add that the Cisco WAP4400N wireless N routers seem to not allow their signals to be repeated.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
Create a free account to see this answer
Signing up is free and takes 30 seconds. No credit card required.
Yes, I am able to see the network whenever I run the scan.  However, when I try to connect, it just says the repeater was unable to connect.  I did some research and found both sides that the Cisco WAP4400N can be repeated and cannot be repeated.  I would try getting answers from Cisco, but that can be worse than pulling teeth.  

For a resolution, I'm even open to using 3 routers on signals 1, 6, and 11 and using a repeater with them.  I just was initially hoping to use 1 router to keep the channels consistent which would not allow any interference across the building.  It always seems that if I have multiple channels, we get interference issues using repeaters.