# Wireless range extender



## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Good evening all.

I use a USB dongle to connect to my home network as it isn't practical to run a network cable from the modem/router to my PC.

Where my computer is I don't get a particuarly good signal which causes me no end of problems with getting cut off occasionally, getting high ping, packet loss etc.

I purchased a Sitecom Wireless Range Extender 300n set it up and all was well. I stopped using the USB dongle and just plugged a network cable in to go from my PC to the Range Extender, its lovely antenna were good enough to pick up a good signal.

Then I changed my ISP from Sky to Virgin Media for reasons not relating to the signal issue I had previously had. 

Now I can't get my Range Extender to work at all so I am currently using my USB dongle again and getting the same problems I used to have.

To get to the settings of the Range Extender you have to go to 192.168.0.234 the problem is I can't connect to it to set it up.

If I plug a network cable in it shows up as a LAN connection but as an Unidentified Public Network with no internet access.

Can anyone give me any advice on how to fix this issue or can anyone suggest an alternative product that could do the same job, such as a USB dongle but with a bloody huge antenna? :grin:

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Sorry one more thing to mention that I couldn't edit to put back in as it has been over 15 minutes.



> If I plug a network cable in it shows up as a LAN connection but as an Unidentified Public Network with no internet access.


If I keep my USB Dongle the sitecom shows up as a wireless network, if I connect to it then it shows up as an Unidentified Public Network with no internet access, the same as if I just try to do it via LAN. Neither connection will let me get to the IP address to change the settings.


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Ok so update.

Managed to get to the settings page for the router. Turns out the IP I had to connect was actually slightly different to the normal one, evidently I must have changed it previously and not written that down.

192.168.0.238 works but 192.168.0.234 doesn't.

Anyway on the Home screen it says.

Wireless Configuration Mode : Universal Repeater (Wainting for keys)
I'm not sure what Wainting means... 

If I do a site survey it picks up the wireless from the modem/router Virgin Media provided.

Encryption is AES, Authentication is WPA2PSK 

So I go to Advanced Settings and put encryption to WPA Pre-Shared Key, WPA Unicast Cipher Suite to WPA (AES) Pre-Shared Key Format to Passphrase Key and then I enter the key I use to connect to the network.

So looking at that everything should be fine... problem is it still shows up as an Unidentified Public Network with no internet connection.


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Not sure if these screenshots are of any help.


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## rgsalinger (May 18, 2009)

When you got the new connection they may have changed the IP subnet and you may need to change the settings on your Sitecom. Please post what settings are in your modem. Also from what I can see there is no gateway to the internet on the sitecom - this would normally be your modem's (cable or DSL) IP address.


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

If I go to the site for the Virgin Media modem/router this is the Basic Settings.

*Network Configuration* 
WANIP Address *82.12.108.195* 
Duration *D: 06 H: 23 M: 59 S: 58* 
Expires* Tue Apr 19 19:50:10 2011 
* WANSubnet Mask *255.255.252.0* 
WANDefault Gateway *82.12.108.1* 
WANPrimary DNS *194.168.4.100* 
WANSecondary DNS* 194.168.8.100

*









Is that what you needed?


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## rgsalinger (May 18, 2009)

What I am really trying to work out is what IP addresses the Virgin router/modem is giving out. It looks as if they are in the 194 range and your extender is looking for something in the 192 range. 
When you are connected via the dongle, please run an ipconfig/all and post the results. I think that we'll find that the address on your computer at that point is in a different range and we'll see a "gateway" address. We can then plug that into the extender and you should be fine.
Also if you could check into what the settings are in the "wireless settings" menu items that would probably give us the same information - what address ranges are being used.


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Here is the ipconfig/all that you requested for when I am using the USB Dongle, also I have attached a screenshot of the Wireless Settings menu from the Virgin modem/router.

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Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Chris>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Chris-XPS
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Belkin N+ Wireless USB Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-22-75-40-95-D7
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::c828:df53:3c69:f217%13(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 17 April 2011 15:10:01
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 17 April 2011 16:10:01
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 318775925
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-0F-42-03-4A-00-1D-09-24-F5-D9

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82566DC-2 Gigabit Network Connec
tion
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-09-24-F5-D9
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{74DEA410-B7E1-4BC1-BF15-8F1693F00DC1}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:5ef5:79fd:28f5:250d:adf3:933c(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::28f5:250d:adf3:933c%11(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

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With regard to the Virgin router/modem giving out a 194 IP and the Sitecom Extender giving out a 192 IP I think that is the IP that the Sitecom Extender is using itself, so I connect to that IP and that in turn connects to the Virgin router/modem so I wouldn't have thought they would need to be the same. Thats just a guess though since I don't know a great deal about networking but I just wanted to double check this point as the IP info that the Sitecom Extender is displaying isn't I think to do with the Virgin router/modem. When I go to site survey on the Sitecom Extender is gives me a list of all the wireless networks in range, I then pick the Virgin one and pick the relevant security options to allow me to connect so I don't think any of the Sitecom IP stuff needs changing with a normal set up.

Oh and just wanted to add thanks for helping me with this, its much appreciated :grin:


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## rgsalinger (May 18, 2009)

I think that the static address you are assigning to the Sitecom is higher that what the virgin router can accept. If you can find the DHCP settings in the virgin router (@192.168.0.1?) I think that we'll find that it's not going to allow an xxx.xxx.xxx.238 device on the network. So try setting the sitecom to something like 192.168.0.20 and see if that fixes your problem. The gateway looks correct but you may need to configure the DNS servers to be the same as you see in the dongle.

It's pretty common to restrict the range so that some devices on the same subnet can be static and some DHCP. Technically your sitecom is a router so all devices don't need to be on the same subnet, but it's much easier to have ONLY one DHCP server - the Virgin one - and use a restricted spread of addresses to allow printers, other routers, etc. to have static addresses.

Rgrds-Ross


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Thanks very much, will give this a try.


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

rgsalinger said:


> If you can find the DHCP settings in the virgin router (@192.168.0.1?) I think that we'll find that it's not going to allow an xxx.xxx.xxx.238 device on the network. So try setting the sitecom to something like 192.168.0.20 and see if that fixes your problem. The gateway looks correct but you may need to configure the DNS servers to be the same as you see in the dongle.


I changed the Sitecom to 192.168.0.20 but still didn't have any luck however the Windows Network Diagnostic was able to finally attribute a reason as to why I couldn't connect and said the DNS did not respond. 

How do I see what DNS the dongle is using so I can try the same settings with the Sitecom?


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## Chris5626 (Apr 16, 2011)

Looks like problem solved, I changed the Sitecom from Universal Repeater to Station Infrastructure and it seems to work fine with the new settings.

Thank you very much for your help.

ray::grin:


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