How does the Wi-Fi Repeater mode work?
For example, the GL-A1300 SSID is “GL-A1300-” and my home network is “SOFAKNG” (for example).
Does this mean I need to connect to the “GL-A1300-” network for the repeated signal, or does it duplicate the “SOFAKNG” SSID with a stronger signal?
It works in WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) mode by default, which means that the router will create its own subnet and act as a firewall to protect you from the public network.
OK - So that means I need to connect to the GL-A1300 SSID and then it would route traffic to the “SOFAKNG” (example) SSID?
What other modes are available besides WISP?
Hi. Your answer still does not answer the original question clearly. In fact, your documentation seems to be written for technical people. it is great for setting up the device but it never explains HOW TO USE IT !
I’ll ask again, and please answer simply, without using jargon like WISP, which I know nothing about.
Welcome to the forum. I hope you don’t mind me asking but if you are looking at something so super basic then why not just connect your laptop to STARBUCKS226 directly?
I don’t see how GL’s documentation can be any clearer given the screenshots… but if you really need a quick primer on the concept:
Hi. Mine was an example but there’s a good reason. We are in a camper van. To get good reception, your laptop of phone needs to be pointing towards the building and must be near a window. Otherwise, the Faraday cage effect of the van skin metal causes severe signal degradation. I can put the repeater at a suitable spot, like right at the window and use the local WiFi to connect more comfortable from inside.
Excellent, in that case you DO NOT need to connect to STARBUCKS226 directly to your laptop but you can instead connect your GL.iNet to STARBUCKS226 (as per the instructions that @bring.fringe18 has posted) and let your Gl.iNet create its own network and SSID to which you can network all your own devices within the campervan. And this my friend is WISP.
My dear friend, the statement that the documentation can be clearer is your view, not mine. I read all the documentation and watched a few of the videos, including the one you posted here. Why don’t you humour this dumb user, me, and answer my question: Once the device is set up to a specific SSID in Repeater mode for Internet access, does a new user need to do anything with the repeater, or can this user simply connect to the SSID with their device as if the repeater is not in the picture at all?
Thanks Almahadeus. I apologize for asking again: Do the users need to connect to the repeater device specifically, or does the repeater like almost become ‘invisible’, leaving behind only a stronger signal with the same SSID?
All the users and devices will need to connect to the repeater’s (GL.iNET) SSID. This will act just like your home router to which you connect all the network clients (like laptops, phones, tablets…etc.) with the only difference being that your new home (or in your case campervan) router will be getting its internet traffic from the parent (e.g. starbucks) wifi rather than from your ISP if you were at home. Hope this makes sense.
There is one point of confusion, I think, at the root of these questions, and it is in the difference between “repeater” and “extender”.
Many routers have a repeater mode, in the sense that they receive a wireless signal from another AP (broadcasting an SSID), and then rebroadcast that signal using the same SSID (or a different SSID). Devices connecting to the repeater get their DNS/DHCP, etc from othe first AP, so it is all one subnet. This is referred to in this thread as “invisible”. I think of this as an “extender”, and you would really only use this within your house, like, sorta, a mesh network. DD-WRT referred to this as “repeater-bridge” mode. Asus called it “media bridge”. For a GL-inet router, go into network and change the mode to “extender” to do this.
Travel routers specifically and unusually have a WISP mode, in which they receive the wireless signal from the first AP, which they treat as their WAN, and then rebroadcast that signal to their LAN using a different SSID and in the case of a dual band router maybe even a different radio channel. In this case the travel router is acting as a router, and the WAN side and LAN side are different subnets with a firewall in between. Devices connecting to the travel router get their DNS/DHCP from the router, not the first AP. GL-Inet refers to this as “repeater” in its default mode. Among other benefits this means you can form a VPN tunnel from the travel router to encrypt everything over the first AP path. All the GL-Inet documentation is built around this mode, which makes a lot of sense to me.
The OP and the other guy are asking, I think, whether the travel router is in the first mode or the second mode, and the answer is, in the second mode.
@elorimer thanks for the detailed explanation!
Is it possible to disable the GL-A1300 SSID in WISP mode? (ie. only use the LAN ports)
Is it also possible to disable the router and allow traffic to pass directly to the first AP?
I’m trying to use the GL-A1300 as a simple wireless-to-wired bridge adapter.
What dd-wrt referred to as “client-bridge”.
For that I think you need to get under the hood with luci and relayd:
Never tried it. Report back, I’m curious.
Try setting up the GL-A1300 in WISP mode, then log into LuCI and go to the Network → Wireless tab and disable the Master SSID.
I do not work for and I do not have formal association with GL.iNet
Thanks everybody…
Where can I request this as built-in option for the GL.inet firmware?
It would be great if an additional Network Mode called “Bridge” was added for this purpose. It should be the same as Repeater mode just w/o the Wi-Fi AP enabled, right?
That should work … thanks much!
Thank you @ Almahadeus. for your patience, understanding, and very clear explanation. Later @elorimer addressed this dilemma directly to clarify the confusion I was having between a Repeater function and Extender function. Thank you @Almahadeus. Armed with the new understanding of the basic Repeater operation, I was able to setup and start using this very capable device, precisely as I needed. Back when I was teaching electronics and networking technologies in another life, a ‘Repeater’ was always a device that worked at the physical / data link layers of the network.
Incidentally, when I went through my initial training as a college teacher, the first and the most significant rule our trainer hammered into our brains was: “There are no stupid questions; only stupid answers. Listen with your brains, not only with your ears.”
Thank you for listening with your brain and with your heart.
Ciao.
Omer.
