Howto: Use your Wifi Router as an Access Point

Date January 15, 2008

Part of being a hacker is using what you have to achieve what you need. If you have a Linksys WRT54G, for example, and just want to add wireless capabilities to your existing router, it’s not always attractive to buy a dedicated access point.

It’s easy to set up any wireless router as an access point for your network — the steps are similar no matter which router you’re using.

Basic Setup

  1. Plug in the wireless router and connect to it via ethernet cable or its default wireless network.
  2. Navigate to its admin page and login.
  3. Set its management IP to a static IP on your network outside of the DHCP range of your existing router (your DHCP server). I normally choose 192.168.0.2, for example.
  4. Turn off the wireless router’s DHCP server.
  5. Configure the wireless network. Set your desired ESSID and encryption scheme. I recommend at least WPA.
  6. Connect your existing router to one of the 1-4 ports of the wireless router. Do NOT connect your router to the WAN port of your new access point.

That’s it! When your computer now attempts to connect to the wireless router, the DHCP request is sent on to your previously existing router and you receive an IP. The wireless router is now acting as nothing but an access point for your network.

If you’d like a step by step with screenshots from the WRT54G, just leave a comment below and I’ll consider doing a more in depth howto.

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21 Responses to “Howto: Use your Wifi Router as an Access Point”

  1. Wifi News - Get the latest Wifi News » Howto: Use your Wifi Router as an Access Point said:

    January 15th, 2008 at 1:30 am

    [...] Use your Wifi Router as an Access Point unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptPart of being a hacker is using what [...]

  2. Eric Monse said:

    January 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

    Solid, thanks for putting this together. – Eric Monse

  3. Toppie said:

    January 16th, 2008 at 4:27 am

    I’m using the WRT54GL (you need the GL or the old G version) with ‘tomato’ firmware..

    with this, there are many new options, higher radio transmit strenght and you can brigde 2 or more devices together…

  4. mshade said:

    January 16th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    Absolutely, Toppie. I myself use DD-WRT, but have dabbled with tomato as well. It was by far cleaner as far as the interface goes, but I wanted VPN and other stuff too that Tomato did not yet have.

  5. Chris said:

    January 18th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    Hi

    I am a confused noob. So the SSID on the new ‘AP’ is different from the existing WLAN? If I have a laptop, I should be able to see two network showing up rite? I always thought the AP should have the same SSID but on a diff. channel …

  6. toppie said:

    January 21st, 2008 at 6:19 am

    also tried the dd-wrt, but I did have problems with sustaining the connection between the 2 accespoints, so I did switch to tomato…

  7. Ben said:

    March 6th, 2008 at 7:09 am

    I’ve followed this guide, and it allows us to connect to the existing internet connection fine. But not the rest of the network.
    Making the IP address of the wifi router within the range of the rest of the network (192.168.1.99) enabled connection to the network, but not the internet!

    Is there any way of allowing wireless connection to both the network and the internet connection? Thanks

  8. Ben said:

    March 6th, 2008 at 9:01 am

    Sorry- fixed it! I set it back to the same range as the rest of the network 192.168.0.x AND disabled DHCP and now it allows wireless access to the network as well as the net!

  9. Joel said:

    March 12th, 2008 at 7:00 am

    Thanks for this great info. Question. I want to set up 3 access points throughout a building (using Tomato on all 3). All providing access to same LAN. Would I give them all different SSIDs (e.g. AP001, AP002, AP003) and different channels (e.g. 1, 6, 11)?

    Is that the best way to go about it?

  10. mshade said:

    March 12th, 2008 at 8:15 am

    Joel,

    You’ll want to have all three units on the same SSID, but different channels — just like you have – 1, 6, 11. They should also use the same encryption scheme and key. That way, roaming works from AP to AP without lost connectivity.

  11. Joel said:

    March 12th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Fantastic. Was wondering about exactly that. Thank you.

    One more thing: Will the wireless clients just pick up on the strongest signal and use that? The reason for the 3 APs is better signal strength for each user + balance the load across all 3 APs. What I DON’T want is someone connecting to an AP furthest from them and then complaining about dropped connections. Would it be better to just assign people in one area to a specific (uniquely named) AP? Just asking.

  12. mshade said:

    March 12th, 2008 at 10:54 am

    Joel, the laptop should pick up the strongest AP. Experiment with it, but this is the way i have a three level office set up. Works great here!

  13. Joel said:

    March 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    Good to know. Thanks again.

  14. Joel said:

    March 13th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    Tried it here with my own WRT54GL and a 2nd one. BEAUTIFUL. Works like a charm.

    Question: Are there any 802.11n routers that are able to use either DD-WRT or Tomato? Just thinkin’ ahead a bit here…

  15. mshade said:

    March 13th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    Not sure, you might want to check their hardware compatibility lists :)

    Glad this worked for you!

  16. Zan said:

    May 11th, 2008 at 12:41 am

    If the offer is still good for screenshots, I’d be most appreciative. My desktop has a wired DSL connection. By dumb luck and a lot of online help, last July I got my Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 which has been flashed with DD-WRT configured to work as an access point so that I could access the Internet with my notebook computer from some distance away.

    Everything worked perfectly until last week when there was an unrelated problem with the notebook and I had to reformat and reinstall XP. Now I can’t remember how I got it to work and apparently cannot figure it out anew either. Obviously, the old manual issued prior to the flashing doesn’t help.

    I know it’s a lot of work but it sure would be appreciated and I haven’t found the same info anyplace else.

  17. josem said:

    May 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    hey man,,,

    im trying to do this,,,

    this is what i have:

    A DSL MODEM
    A LYNKSYS WIRELESS Router

    And some1 told me to configure it as an access point so i can use some things i use on the not that require some ports oppened (i tried opening them , but nothing, so i want to do this)

    I tried to adapt ur steps to what i have but cant get it right!!

    a little help?

  18. george said:

    October 6th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    i want to use close-by wifi points as my wan port for my router (so i don’t have to use my dsl connection)–is this possible using tomato and a router and nothing more?

  19. luis said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    hi there , just recently i install my ineternet connection,
    this conection is a DSL moden and i configured wireless-g broadband router to my house, and i buy a slingbox pro but this is far from my router and i decide to add a
    Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge but i would likt to know how i can set up this brige with acces point, because i wan to move this acces point in my other room i really apreciate any help luis

  20. Jefe said:

    January 27th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    Swweeet, Now I can successfully steal my neighbor’s internet & play WoW.
    :)

  21. Tolis said:

    May 11th, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    Thnks a lot pal!