WiFi restoration

[Timothy Murphy]

g wrote:

>> Actually, I already did that - I got two much longer arms from
>> Amazon, which had a considerable effect.
> 
> glad to have seen you cured problem.
> while re-indexing my firefox bookmarks, i ran across an interesting
> some interesting bookmarks tagged 'wifi antennas' that was still
> under 'Unsorted'.
> 
>    http://freeantennas.com/

Thanks, that is interesting.
I had seen the pringle-tin antenna before, but never tried it.

But I haven't actually solved my problem.
I can get over it by using TP-Link powerline adaptors
(which I am using already with an IP camera)
but it's a bit awkward to set up in this particular room,
and I'm rather lazy.

I've continued to try to get my SilverCrest WiFi extender working
(model SWR 300 a1, from Lidl).
(Actually, I've asked in a few places about this,
and never heard from anyone who has it working.)

The manual says the device has IP address 192.168.10.1,
but as far as I can see you have to have a machine
running 192.168.1.something to see the device's web-page?
I know 192.168.10.* is an allowed address,
but is it so popular that one can assume it is in use?

In any case, I managed to see the device's web-page briefly,
by switching off WiFi on my laptop, connecting the device
to the laptop by ethernet, and changing the laptop's ethernet address
to 192.168.10.5 .
Now I could see the web-page at 192.168.10.1 for about 30 seconds, 
before it disappeared and my laptop lost its ethernet IP address
(ifconfig just gave an IPv6 address).

But now I don't know if the repeater is working or not.
When I disconnect the ethernet from the device, turn WiFi back on,
and go back to my usual settings, I can see the repeater with iwlist:
======================
[tim at william ~]$ sudo iwlist scan
...
wlp3s0    Scan completed :
...
          Cell 04 - Address: FA:8F:CA:32:68:85
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=46/70  Signal level=-64 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:""
======================
But if it is working, should it not have my router's ESSID?
It did have this, during the brief period when I could see the web-page
(with the ethernet connection).

As will be evident, I don't know how a repeater is meant to work,
or what settings it should have if it is working.
If anyone does understand these things, I'd be very grateful
for a brief tutorial.
Do I actually need a 192.168.10.0 network to use this device?

I should add that I did try pressing the WPS switch on the device
when it was connected by ethernet to my Linksys WRT54GL router.
This has SecureEasySetup enabled, which I believe is a version of WPS.
When I do this, device and router exchange a large number of packets
(judging by the LEDs on each) but to no effect that I can see.

Also, I did try setting it up under Windows 7,
which the manual of course assumes one is using,
but I made even less progress there than under Linux.

Any suggestions or advice gratefully received.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin