Apologies if this has been answered before, but I've spent the past 2 days trying to understand how to make this work and I've only succeeded in confusing myself even more.
I've got an ATT BGW210 Router connected to the fiber ONT and a Netgear RAX20 (AX1800) router connected to one of the BGW210 LAN ports.
I would like to set this up as a sort of mesh system whereby I can have both devices providing WiFi simulatenously. Is this possible?
I've seen plenty of posts where the Netgear has been set as the only WiFi device, but not where both devices are used as an access point.
Re: Using ATT BGW210 and Netgear RAX20 Simultaneously
No.
Neither the BGW210 or the RAX are mesh routers.
You can set them with the same ssid but devices wouldn't roam between them like a mesh network.
You can connect the RAX to the BGW and continue to use both wireless's but make sure to put the netgear in AP mode or the netgears IP address into the BGW's dmz.
Re: Using ATT BGW210 and Netgear RAX20 Simultaneously
> Hmm, I tried that but I am getting the error "ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED"
"tried" _what_, exactly? "192.168.1.228"? "http://192.168.1.228"? "https://192.168.1.228"? Any URL other than "http://<whatever>" risks the browser trying to use HTTPS, which the router might not support.
"Connection refused" normally means that you've reached the specified address, but no one there is listening at the specified port (80 for HTTP, 443 for HTTPS). The management web server on these routers tends to use HTTP (80) exclusively.
Visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number, and look for Documentation. Get the User Manual (at least). Read. Notice that the manual always shows "http://<whatever>".
Or you got the address wrong. (But _something_ exists at that address.)
Re: Using ATT BGW210 and Netgear RAX20 Simultaneously
While you will not get features such as 802.11v and r with such a setup, if you put the Netgear router in AP mode, and give it the same SSID and password, then you will have an overall single SSiD andd roaming will be handled entirely based on the client devices roaming decisions. Most clients will roam based on RSSI values set by the WiFi drivers, e.g., some may decide to roam at -70dB while others may look to roam sooner.
From a networking standpoint, a having multiple different WiFi routers just set up as APs, with wired connections back to the main router, will function fimilarly to modern mesh systems, though the APs will not assist in the roaming process, such as directing a client to roam to a specific AP.
With a wired backhaul, performance will still be very good for each AP.
The only time you will run into some annoyances is if you are using a very old WiFI device which tend to be sticky clients that won't roam unless the client device has too many corrupt frames as the lowest MCS index, for newer ones, they tend to be more well behaved in not letting things get that bad. Forthermore some newer devices using low end and obscure WiFi chipsets, also tend to be bad with client directed roaming.
If your devices are fairly modern with decent quality WiFi chipsets, then setting the RAX20 in AP mode, will offer you a mesh-like experience for those devices (as long as you give both wireless routers the same SSID and password) The response times between changing locations and a roaming event will just be slower than on a true mesh system when various roaming assist features to direct and speed the handoff.
Re: Using ATT BGW210 and Netgear RAX20 Simultaneously
For your HTTPS issue, are you using a browser extension such as HTTPS everywhere or any other addon that is forcing HTTPS for every web page?
If so, be sure to whitelist the local IPs. Beyond that, if possible try the router page in private browsing mode (to rule out any cookies or other settings getting in the way).
Re: Using ATT BGW210 and Netgear RAX20 Simultaneously
Forgot to add, when in AP mode, you need to use the IP of the netgear router and not the DNS address since it is no longer set to intercept requests like that. Just type in the IP into the address bar with no other text, and let the netgear device handle any subsequent redirects.
Re: Using ATT BGW210 and Netgear RAX20 Simultaneously
> For your HTTPS issue, [...]
Who said that he had one?
> [...] it is no longer set to intercept requests like that. [...]
Have you run that experiment? The usual problem is not that the router-as-WAP can't intercept such a DNS look-up, but that the router-as-WAP can't intercept _all_ such DNS look-ups. The "routerlogin" names might work from a device which is connected directly to the router-as-WAP, but the IP address is required for devices elsewhere on the LAN. (So it's simpler just to use it everyplace.)
And, in this case, "I tried that" suggests that the IP address has already been "tried".
