Waste not, want not?
Your older router should be one of them.
Most importantly, your older router willalsoneed to be able to accept wireless connections from devices.
Each transmission is known as a hop.
The second wireless hop is the one that takes the hit.
Because the transmitter in the second router has to do twice the work.
It must first receive the signal from the primary router, and then retransmit the signal to wireless clients.
A wireless bridge might be more convenient, but your speeds can suffer.
I like usingDD-WRTmyself, but you might also tryOpenWRTorTomatoor evenAdvancedTomato, if you want a prettier GUI.
Instead, I selected the DD-WRT .BIN file I just downloaded, and let er rip.
…and nothing happened.
As is sometimes the case, the firmware updating process didnt accept the obviously-not-from-TP-Link image.
If this happens to you, dont give up.
I did that, and…success!
I clicked the drop-down box and…again, nothing.
No repeater mode to select.
At this point, youre probably wishing you bit the bullet and just bought a cheap extender.
Every little bit helps.
Dont forget to disable your old routers routing capabilities.
If your older router has an access point mode, that makes this even easier.
This story was originally published on 7/30/13 and was updated on 6/27/19 to provide updated information.
