Extend Wi-Fi network using two wireless routers one as base station and one as wireless repeater

Would you like to extend your Wi-Fi? Are you looking for ways to extend the Wi-Fi range at home? We can extend Wi-Fi using wireless repeaters or wireless extenders. Some wireless routers comes with wireless repeater feature. Using such routers we can easily extend Wi-Fi range at home or office. Besides wireless routers with repeater or extender features, one can also buy dedicated Wi-Fi repeaters and extend Wi-Fi network. They are usually cheaper than Wi-Fi routers. In this post, we shall see how to extend Wi-Fi using two Netgear Wi-Fi routers. 

Check out the following video how to configure the Netgear routers  - one as base router and one as repeater router - to extend Wi-Fi network. Both of these routers have the wireless extension feature. So, one of them is configured as the Base Wi-Fi and the other is configured as the Repeater Wi-Fi.

Steps to configure two Netgear router with Wi-Fi repeater features to extend Wi-Fi:

Router Devices used in this demo:

1. Netgear N300 Wireless Router 
2. Netgear JNR1010

How to Set Up Netgear as a Repeater ? 

Power on both the routers and connect each of the routers to separate computer. If you do not have two computers, you may do the steps alternatively.

• Open and login to the configuration page of Router 1 (http://192.168.1.1 or htttp://192.168.0.1)
• Get the MAC address of the Router 1(you can directly go to status and get it). 
• Note down the MAC address of both the routers.

• Configuration on Base Router (Router 1)
• Plug in the cable from ISP to the WAN port of Router 1
• Power on the Router 1
• Make sure a network cable is plugin in to the computer from any LAN port of Router 1
• Open and login to the configuration page of Router 1 (http://192.168.1.1 or htttp://192.168.0.1)
• Enable Wireless Repeating Function from Advanced Setup
• Enable as Wireless Base Station
• Enter the MAC address of Router 2 in the "Repeater MAC address 1"
• There may be more "Repeater MAC address" on this page. If there are, you can setup that many repeaters. Get each router's MAC address and configure.
• In LAN setup, enable DHCP server.
• Assign a range of IP address if desired say 2-99.
• From Wireless Setup, configure the SSID / Wi-Fi Name, password, and set Channel Number. Change Channel Number from Auto to any number.
• Save configuration.

• Configuration on Repeater Router  (Router 2)
• Plug in the cable from ISP to the WAN port of Router 2
• Power on the Router 2
• Make sure a network cable is plugin in to the computer from any LAN port of Router
• Open and login to the configuration page of Router 1 (http://192.168.1.1 or htttp://192.168.0.1)
• Enable Wireless Repeating Function from Advanced Setup
• Enable as Wireless Repeater on Router 2
• Set IP address for Router 2. 
• This is the IP that will be used to access Router 2. 
• If http://192.168.0.1 is the default IP address of the routers, both cannot have the same. Therefore, set another IP for Router 2, say 192.168.1.100.
• Enter the MAC address of Router 1 in the "Base Station MAC address".
• From Wireless Setup, configure the SSID / Wi-Fi Name, password, and set Channel Number. Change Channel Number from Auto to the same channel number set for Router 1.
• Save configuration.
   

Follow the video for details.

Note:

• Both the base station and repeater router can have separate SSIDs / Wi-Fi names. This is actually good to identify faulting router during troubleshooting.
• Channel numbers should be the same

After setting up Wi-Fi repeater as described in the above steps, laptops and smartphones can see both the SSIDs or Wi-Fi names if they are in range. Devices can connect to any one.

Extending Wi-Fi range using Wireless Extender:

If you do not have or do not want to buy another router to extend your wireless network, you may opt for dedicated repeaters and configure. Wireless repeaters such as the one below can be bought and configured. They can be plugged in to a power source and can be used wherever there is suitable power source within the range of the first Wi-Fi router.

Configuration of Wi-Fi extenders is not that difficult even for a non-techie. You would usually need to connect to the Wi-Fi extender using a LAN cable or by connection to it's default Wi-Fi using laptop to do some basic configuration. Refer to the manual of the extender for details.