How do I create a second access point in my home which is rather large, using a netgear extender?

FSobiz

My routers default IP gateway is 192.168.1.1. The first Access point (TPlink) was configured  with a static IP 192.168.0.254.  I now tried to configure the netgear extender as an AP, and i get the following error   'DHCP not healthy. More than one DHCP active at once 2: 192.168.1.1(Mac Address) on 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.1.254 (Mac address) on 192.168.1.0/24.
How can I resolve this? I also want them to have the same SSID so I can move freely within the house.

Robin

Hi @FSobiz
It seems to me that extender might not be set up accurately and the access point by extender is not sharing the same network gateway of the router. Any advice @rooted @kltaylor @Marc @Pixelpopper
Thanks

Pixelpopper

Hi @FSobiz
I suspect the issue is your first access point, I’m guessing the the router is a recent addition or the access point has been previously  been configured. The fixed IP address of 192.168.1.254 suggests that the first access point has DHCP capability & it is active (the IP address is normally reserved for router access, 192.168.1.1 can also be use). You can only run one DHCP instance on a network and I’m guessing, with the information provided, that you need to disable DHCP on your first access point. You’ll need to log in to the access point via a web browser to disable it. Check with the TP link manual for details.
Report back With your findings if you still have problems.

kltaylor

FSobiz said:

My routers default IP gateway is 192.168.1.1. The first Access point (TPlink) was configured  with a static IP 192.168.0.254.  I now tried to configure the netgear extender as an AP, and i get the following error   'DHCP not healthy. More than one DHCP active at once 2: 192.168.1.1(Mac Address) on 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.1.254 (Mac address) on 192.168.1.0/24.
How can I resolve this? I also want them to have the same SSID so I can move freely within the house.

Without using advanced routing and hardware that supports multiple subnets, I don't believe that this can happen.  The AP may have been given a different subnet, but I'm willing to guess that if you perform an SNMP check of the devices on your current network (192.168.1.1) that the AP will not show up there.

An AP is to extend the range of your wireless network, it's to be added to the existing wireless network using the same SSID and Passcode that is setup in the router/gateway.  If the AP requires an Ethernet connection, then you would add that again, to your existing network.

Adding a second network using different IP subnets isn't possible without the need to connect to the different network each time.  If you can provide a bit more detail on how your network is setup we can take a deeper dive and see what we can do to help more.

Pixelpopper

@FSobiz you need to resolve the issue with 2 x DHCP instances before you can progress, disable 1of them preferably the access point, not the router. Most routers will support extension of the IP address range by changing the subnet for example subnet 255.255.255.0 will provide 256 ip addresses of which 254 are useable (0 & 255 are reserved). Subnet 255.255.254.0 will provide 512 addresss of which 510 are useable.* You need to decide which of the IP ranges you want to include for that subnet. To check which of the 128 ranges you want to ustilise I suggest using the IPV4 calculator at:- https://www.calculator.net/ip-subnet-calculator.html where some additional notes are included to help make sense of things.
Once set up your extender, and devices working from it, will get IP addresses from your router’s DHCP as normal.
As previous posts suggest, leave your router’s IP address at the default as configured by the manufacturer.
Backup your router settings before you start and restore if needed. If things go wrong, in the worst case scenario & all else fails, reset your router to the factory defaults to get everything working.


* you can change the subnet (see the calculator tool) if you need more than 510 addresses but you may  start over working your router & cause stability problems.

FSobiz

Thank you all for your assistance in resolving this thorny issue. It as been resolved now.
Gracias!