How to configure a TP-Link N600 to act as a repeater

Question

I have a router TP-LINK N600 (TD-W8980) and an Alcatel Y800 (Mobile WiFi device with a 4G SIM inside)

The Y800 is connected to the internet (and any device can connect wirelessly to it and get internet)

The TP-Link router is switched on router mode (from ADSL modem mode) and has WDS support.

I go to the wireless settings and check WDS and scan for other wireless devices that are around to connect and bridge that connection. I find the Alcatel device, connect to it, put the router on the same channel as the Alcatel device.

All good so far.

On the Alcatel device DHCP is enabled to assign IPs from 100 to 254 and its set with mask 255.255.255.0 and its IP is 192.168.1.1

I looked everywhere online on different tutorials (for other routers) and they say to disable DHCP from my local machine and get a static IP which i did (192.168.1.100) then go on the TP-LINK and disable the DHCP and give it an IP...this is where i kid of failed...i don't know where to do this. There is the WAN section and the LAN section. The LAN has the DHCP disabled and the ip 192.168.1.1 and sub mask 255.255.255.0. When i try to put the wan on static IP of course it says it cannot have the same subnet mask as the LAN IP.

(WAN IP can not be in the same subnet as LAN IP!)

I tried changing the LAN ip to 192.168.2.1 but i lose access to the router completely after reboot so i need to reset and start over.

How can i spread the internet connection from the Alcatel device using the TP-LINK router.

Docs for TP-LINK: http://www.tp-link.com/Resources/document/TD-W8980_V1_User_Guide.pdf

Docs for Alcatel: http://www.alcatelonetouch.com/global-en/downloads/manual/one-touch-y800-user-manual-english.pdf

Can someone help please.

Thank you.

Solution

You just need a different management IP on the LAN side of the TPLink. The IP needs to be different from your Alcatel and not in the DHCP range. So on the TPLink assign a LAN IP of 192.168.1.2 for example and disable DHCP. That should get you going according to the documentation below. From what you described above you have an IP conflict with 192.168.1.1 being assigned to the TPLink and the Alcatel. You also don't need to configure the WAN.

Reference:

How to Configure WDS Bridging on TP-LINK Dual Band Routers

Comments

[Admin]

I also found this article: tp-link.com/en/article/?faqid=151

[Nowak Grzegorz]

Thank you for asking; unfortunately this question seems to be about home / consumer networking, which is off-topic here. Super User is the right place to ask this question; rest assured that several of our members answer there too.

[Admin]

But i need to connect to the TP-Link router wirelessly from a mobile device for example and get internet. Will that work, or only devices connected trough LAN on the TP-LINK router will have internet?

[Mike Naylor]

Once you authenticate to that router using WiFi on a wireless device it should have internet and receive an IP via DHCP from the Alcatel device. Devices connected via the LAN ethernet ports or the wireless on the TPLink should be able to get out to the internet. Being that the devices are two different brands I'm not sure if you'll run into any issues there but in theory the TPLink should just be repeating signal from the Alcatel to the wireless device, and the Alcatel is the gateway and DHCP server.

[myol]

Thanks Mike, I trawled through TP-Links FAQs looking for the exact guide you linked. Finally have everything working!

[DeanMWake]

This was what I needed to, To make it a little cleared: Network > LAN Settings > IP should be set to the same IP as the router/modem you are connecting it to except for the last number must be different. Once you reconnect this should work and you should have network/internet access. :)