Set up a DrayTek Router with a Vigor AP Range Extender

A VigorAP set up as a Range Extender can be used to increase the overall wireless coverage, by locating the Vigor AP at a position where it can receive wireless signal from the router, it re-transmits and boosts the signal, extending the wireless network into places where the original signal was weak.

In practice it is best to locate the Vigor AP at a location that picks up a good signal from the Router's wireless, so that the quality of the connection between the two is good. This will allow a higher bandwidth link to the original access point and provide reliable connectivity.

If a Range Extender is installed too far away from the router, this could provide poor connectivity and slow speeds.

This example will show how to set up the wireless connection on a DrayTek Vigor 2862n / 2862ac router initially.

Then a DrayTek VigorAP 903 / 802 / 912C Access Point will connect to it wirelessly, boosting signal with Range Extender mode.

Step 1

Connect your PC directly to one of the LAN ports on the Vigor 2862n. Log in to the router's web interface and browse to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [General Setup].
Set the name of the wireless network in the SSID field and set the 2.4GHz wireless Channel. Click OK to save & apply the settings:

Step 2

Now browse to [Wireless LAN] > [Security]. Select the security mode WPA2/PSK and enter the password for the wireless connection as the Pre-Shared Key(PSK).
Click OK to apply that setting change.

Step 3

Now connect the access point from LAN port A1 to one of the LAN ports on the Vigor 2862n. Check this article for details on how to locate the access point on the network.
Browse to the access point's web interface web interface then login using the default username of "admin" and password of "admin".
Go to [Operation Mode] and set the operation mode as Range Extender, click OK to apply the change and wait for it to complete:

Step 4

Browse to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [ General setup].
Untick the Enable 2 Subnet option because it should not be used with this configuration (it is still possible to use multiple SSIDs though).
Delete the text in the SSID 2 field if the access point will only be using a single SSID. Edit the SSID 1 field with the wireless network name that the access point will use - this can either be the same as the router's SSID or different. Click OK to apply the setting changes.

Step 5

Go to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [Security]. The access point should be configured with the same SSID & wireless security to move between the router & AP easily, but they can have different credentials if preferred. In this example, set the Mode to WPA2/PSK, select AES as the WPA Algorithm and set the Pre-Shared Key in the Pass Phrase field:

Click OK to apply the security changes, it will then pop up a warning:

This can be ignored, it is warning that setting the security type to WPA/PSK or WEP will limit the speed of 802.11n wireless to 54mbps. WPA2/PSK, WPA2/802.1x or no security will allow full throughput.

Step 6

Go to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [Universal Repeater] page to view the settings required for the access point to connect to another wireless network. These can be entered manually, or found using the access point's AP Discovery feature, which scans for nearby wireless networks, helping to fill in the SSID/BSSID details of the network to connect to:

Step 7

To pair the two devices in Range Extender mode, browse to [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [AP Discovery]. Click on the Scan button, this will scan for nearby wireless networks:

Step 8

Select the network to connect to from the list by clicking the radio button next to the network name and click Select:

Step 9

This will go back to the [Wireless LAN (2.4GHz)] > [Universal Repeater] page with the details filled in:
Now fill in the security details for the wireless connection. Change the Security Mode from its default of Open (no security) to WPA2/PSK and set the Encryption Type to match the network it is connecting to. WPA uses TKIP, WPA2 uses AES.

With the security details filled in, click OK to apply the Range Extender settings, the AP will now try to connect to the Vigor router's wireless.
Please note that this method will auto select the Wireless Channel of the router to connect the AP to the router - the wireless channel needs to be the same on both the AP and the DrayTek router for the Range Extender link to work.

Step 10

To check the status of the wireless link between the two devices, go to the [Online Status] page, which will show the wireless link status.

If the connection status shows a successful connection, with text in green, then the Range Extender link is working and the wired link between the AP and the router can now be removed and the access point can be placed in its intended location. Clients connecting to the access point will then have internet access through the DrayTek router's wireless link and internet connection.

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