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Wifi Extender and Mesh - Configuration Tweak

I have a mesh wireless system with outlying nodes that do not support an ethernet jack. To get around this, and avoiding hardwiring, I installed the commonly suggested TP Link Wifi Extender and connected my Antipodes server to it with an ethernet cable. 

Over time I noticed some instability in my network and wifi bandwidth was diminished for my house. Also, the wireless speed through the extender was like 5Mbps, and I had issues with the occasional dropout. I started doing some testing, and one of the tests was to unplug the extender, voile, speed returned on the main network.

Doing some research and looking at configuration of the extender I discovered that DHCP was configured for the extender, making it a DHCP server as well as my router. Research stated to disable DHCP and set the IP for the extender to a fixed IP address on your main network.

Zing! Full speed on my network, 50Mbps on the extender. 

These extenders are super handy, but as I discovered they can cause some problems if they are not configured correctly. Check yours if you are using one.

 

zlone
erik_squires
17,557 posts
 

Want to give a shout out to Asus.  Their AiMesh ecosystem seamlessly handles adding nodes with/without Ethernet backhaul.  I had a TP-Link extender and switched due to the TP-Link having only 100Mbps Ethernet.  Not all TP-Link range extenders do this, I wrongly assumed since it claimed 600 Mbps wifi speeds it would include 1 Gb Ethernet.  My bad. 

The big issue was how easily the Asus router accepted the Asus node into the fold. Night and day difference in ease of configuration. 

Not sure why the OP is logically separating mesh nodes from range extenders.  Just have to put a mesh node inside the transmission radius, and voila, your range is extended. 

zlone OP
1,359 posts
 

Not sure why the OP is logically separating mesh nodes from range extenders.  Just have to put a mesh node inside the transmission radius, and voila, your range is extended. 

I mentioned it to explain why I was using an extender and not just another mesh node. My Ubiquiti Amplifi mesh nodes do not support a physical ethernet port, which I need to connect my server. It could have been a non-mesh system as well, so yeah, not really relevant.

An additional bonus is more responsive Roon interface, it was a little sluggish before.

bartsw's avatar
bartsw
244 posts
 

Sounds like just an IP conflict that can happen on any router.

 

I have many TP-Link devices. I like them but I’ve learned after spending the dough that their EasyMesh system isn’t compatible with all their EasyMesh devices. They have so many products that the developers can’t even keep up with supporting them.

 

FYI

https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/32?tagId=468

hdm
1,090 posts
 

Thanks for posting this zlone. I found it to be very helpful and worthwhile with a TP link RE505X extender that I'm using and running with an ethernet cable connected from extender to streamer. 

zlone OP
1,359 posts
 

Thanks @hdm , glad you found it useful. 

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