TP Link WA850RE

I needed to get a better signal on my android tv box as the router is in the attic and the speed was below 10mb.
I installed the TP link WA850RE wireless extender and the speed went up a bit but not much.
I then connected an ethernet from the TP Link to the TV box and I'm now getting 60mb, great.
Except - I have a laptop and tablet which were getting over 60mb before the TP Link was installed and connecting through the extender this has dropped to below 30mb.
If I connect to the original network it connects but wont give me internet.
I've checked all settings and they appear to be correct and no ip conflicts that I can see.
If I turn off the TP Link everything goes back to normal.

Any ideas on this one?
Cheers, Mike

spottydog10 said:

TP link WA850RE wireless extender and the speed went up a bit but not much.
I then connected an ethernet from the TP Link to the TV box and I'm now getting 60mb, great.
Except - I have a laptop and tablet which were getting over 60mb before the TP Link was installed and connecting through the extender this has dropped to below 30mb.

Click to expand...

It depends on how you optioned the TP Link. Are you sure it's not optioned as a wireless repeater???

WiFi repeaters, extenders and access points all improve your WiFi signal and range, however, they do it in different ways.

A WiFi extender connects directly to your router using ethernet and creates a new WiFi network.

An access point also connects using ethernet but is assigned its own ssid and can be used for both wired and wireless devices.

A WiFi repeater connects to your network wirelessly and rebroadcasts your existing network signal and ssid. ( The biggest downside of a repeater is it essentially halves your wireless bandwidth which slows your network. It is my understanding that if a device used to amplify network coverage is NOT connected to the gateway with an ethernet cable, it acts as a repeater rather than an extender.

Hi glasskuter, I set it up as an extender following the simple instructions, no cable required.
It paired straight away, no problems there.
I forgot to say, with the extender on I lost internet on a wired PC directly cabled into the router, I switched the extender off and it came back straight away. There's obviously some conflict somewhere. Checking on the connected wireless devices on the router there is no duplicated ip's so and the wired pc is set for automatic ip assignment so I'm a bit stumped.

If there is no ethernet cable connected and it's broadcasting your existing ssid, function wise it operates as a repeater, thereby halving your bandwidth to the connected wireless devices.
Here's some reading for you. WiFi Repeater Vs WiFi Extender

I understand the speed drop via the repeater but I'm losing internet on the wired pc and if I revert the other wireless devices to the original wireless network I lose internet on those also.

spottydog10 said:

I'm losing internet on the wired pc

Click to expand...

I believe when you connect a wired device (your TV box) to a router that is set up as a repeater, it becomes a bridge. I have 2 routers connected with ethernet cable, but I configured the second one as an access point. It has its own ssid and I connect both wired and wireless devices to it.

If you can turn off the second router and recover your wired connection to the first router, there is some conflict in the configuration of the second router. Try this. Leave both routers connected. Test by disconnecting the ethernet from the TV box. Does your PC connected to the main router still work?

The only thing I can think of is:

1. There are two active DHCP servers in the network which is causing conflict. Make sure DHCP is off in the second router.
2. The PC has been assigned static settings that are incompatible with the router’s subnet settings. (doubtful but possible)

If that's not it, I'm stumped. With the way the second router is configured you may have to resort to running the problem PC wireless rather than with an ethernet cable. If the PC does not have a wireless adapter installed, you can get a usb wireless adapter for about 10 bucks.

Hiya, there are 2 DCHP servers, one on the broadband router and one on the TP extender.
Funny thing, just out of desperation I changed the setting on the extender to access point.
Of course it wouldn't pick any network up without a cable so I changed it back - now everything works as it should.
No idea why... I'll remove the DHCP setting off the extender tomorrow and see what difference it makes.
Thanks glasskuter.