'fess up - who has managed to get a wifi extender to work?

[aitchjaybee]

Ok, so I tried to bump a thread on this and got no-where: http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=471. I've searched the forum and found several people suggesting stuff, even heard a bloke on a NL forum apparently did it, but I've not yet found anyone bold enough to say "I've done it, this is what kit I used, and it works". So c'mon guys 'fess up and tell us if you've done it or lets work together to see if this really can be done.

What am I trying to do:
I'm trying to extend the range/signal of the car's wifi. I have a separate home wifi network and I'm quite happy toggling between the two but the PHEV wifi only just about reaches the front bit of the house. No signal upstairs or rear.

Why: :ugeek:
I want to get ready for winter and switch remote heating on when I get in the shower without having to come downstairs to the front at silly o'clock, to be able to get into a warm/defrosted car for my commute.

Problem:
First attempt with spare old router on repeater mode wouldn't match the PHEV security (WPA2)
second standard wifi extender required WPS button to replicate PHEV signal. Took it back.
Happy to buy a.n.other but want some advice which one!! I have a mains plug in a front room that would be a great spot to house a repeater/extender.

So, whoever has done this (please, no hypothetical or suggestions based on what could work) give me a steer and I will thank you in block capitals

thank you in advance my fellow PHEVpioneers,
H

 

[user 258]

Why: :ugeek:
I want to get ready for winter and switch remote heating on when I get in the shower without having to come downstairs to the front at silly o'clock, to be able to get into a warm/defrosted car for my commute.

Could you not just set the preheat/predefrost timer for 10 minutes before you get in the car?
Kind regards,
Mark

 

[aitchjaybee]

Appreciate the suggestion, (assume I've read correctly, you mean use the timer?) - would save a lot of aggro if I'd missed that. That's the fallback option and would work some of the time, but often (circa twice a week) get urgent work call that throws timing out the window so having the ability to turn on 'on demand' is preferred scenario. That's the 10 mins before I get in the car. It's a quick shower!

 

[aitchjaybee]

So 70 views but nobody yet claimed to have done it...c'mon forum, I'm sure someone has cracked this, surely?

Please?

 

[Eggtastico]

dont have a phev to try, but I would get the car to talk to the access point first & then the access point talk to the home router/modem.

 

[Ozukus]

This should be the same as extending your home wifi, you are trying to put a repeater in between the wifi in the car and your device.

At the moment you are going from your device to the car, which is the wifi receiver.

You need to go from your device to the repeater to the car.

If you follow the same instructions to repeat your home wifi, e.g. your BT/Virgin/Sky hub is your wifi receiver, and replace the settings for your BT/Virgin/Sky hub, with your car settings it should work fine.

I use the Tecknet WR177A1UK WiFi Repeater to extend my home WiFi which also has the WPS button.

 

[aitchjaybee]

Thank you for your well meant posts.. but as i put in my starting post, i'm not looking for suggestions or hypothetical solutions but someone who has proven it works and can be done because they've done it. You can't use WPS so plug n play extenders wont work with the phev and it doesn't have a GUI and some repeaters don't like the security setting WPA2/PSK so won't connect.

There are several threads of suggestions so I will use those and i'll have a play at the weekend see where I get to. Slightly concerned nobody has got it to work.

 

[gwatpe]

If I had my own PHEV and not a Mitsubishi loaner PHEV I would see if I could get my Netgear wireless extender to connect. I did not have any trouble connecting with my phone to the extender, and then making the connection to my home wifi. Should be able to select the PHEV instead of the home wifi and choose the connection type and password. I get coverage of the car inside my home already so have not needed to extend the range.

My PHEV is still with Mitsubishi, in limbo. The documented video of the problems at least seems to have got wheels turning.

 

[jevel]

I have used one of these:

http://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/RPAC52/

It connects to the car WiFi without any hassle, and gives you the benefit of repeating it on both 2,4 GHz and 5 GHz.

However; I have a problem with my car WiFi stopping allowing anything to connect after a while, and this seems to happen a lot faster with this repeater connected. I then have to use the reset procedure involving hazard lights and an insane amount of lock / unlock.

I cannot rule out the repeater as a culprit here, so my advice would be to find a place to buy it where you're allowed a return if it gives the same kind of symptoms.

-KJ

 

[Eggtastico]

I have used one of these:

http://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/RPAC52/

It connects to the car WiFi without any hassle, and gives you the benefit of repeating it on both 2,4 GHz and 5 GHz.

However; I have a problem with my car WiFi stopping allowing anything to connect after a while, and this seems to happen a lot faster with this repeater connected. I then have to use the reset procedure involving hazard lights and an insane amount of lock / unlock.

I cannot rule out the repeater as a culprit here, so my advice would be to find a place to buy it where you're allowed a return if it gives the same kind of symptoms.

-KJ

have you changed the wifi name of your car?
think someone else was having issues & it was because they changed the ssid name of the car, rather than default.

 

[jevel]

Nope. All stock and fully updated here.

Dealer seems to think there's an update for the WiFi module. Will have them install that when I have the time.

-KJ

 

[ClasseClas]

Hi, I have tried two different repeaters of which one works perfectly

#1 - Netgear WN3000RP - did not work for this purpose
#2 - Asus RT N12 - works perfectly well for this purpose

The Asus has to be manually configured as a repeater with the same SSID as your car, no SSID_EXT or SSID_RPT should be used. I paid 240 SEK = 21GBP = 26EUR for the router which is quite cheap I would say. The Asus is delivered with big 5dBi gain antennas which may be one of the main causes why it works so well. I been struggling quite a lot with my Android app and I felt things got worse when I upgraded my phone to Android 4.4.4. Nowadays it is easy going with the Asus router (repeater in my case).

 

[Cymro]

Remember despite there being 13 wifi channels (in the UK) they overlap a lot, there are effectively only 3 clear channels, 1, 6 & 11 which will not interfere. If your home wifi and the car wifi are on the same channel you'll only really get good access to the closest one. I suggest 'sniffing' for wifi in the location you want to use the app (I use insider on my mac), this will tell you what is one which channel and hence you can witch your home network to not interfere with your car and maybe this will improve the effective range of your car connection.

Cymro.

 

[Davidw]

I just set up a range extender for the Outlander wifi with a tp link extender wa850re. £30 from Tesco and very easy to set up.

 

[HarryP]

I found a cheap no name one on eBay, I can post a link if anyone wants me too. It was £10 and works perfectly.

Simply logged into it, chose the cars network ssid, entered the cars password and now it shows as one in the same network but with a much better range.

It's been working for 4 days now, my bigest problem is remembering to change to my home network after getting out of the car, as it can remain connected all over the house now.

Harry

 

[Blue]

wrong page

 

[maby]

I have just bought the TP link extender wa850re as mentioned above. Can anyone get me a clue on how to set this up? im truly stumped lol

I just followed the instructions that came with the TP Link extender and it came up and worked. I must say that it was not terribly reliable and after a couple of weeks, it locked the car wifi up so thoroughly that I had to reinitialise it, delete all the device associations, remove the remote control app from my phone and set it all up from scratch. The extender is now sitting on the coffee table next to me and will be reconfigured to extend my home wifi some time in the future.

 

[awasen]

Hi, I have tried two different repeaters of which one works perfectly

#1 - Netgear WN3000RP - did not work for this purpose
#2 - Asus RT N12 - works perfectly well for this purpose

The Asus has to be manually configured as a repeater with the same SSID as your car, no SSID_EXT or SSID_RPT should be used. I paid 240 SEK = 21GBP = 26EUR for the router which is quite cheap I would say. The Asus is delivered with big 5dBi gain antennas which may be one of the main causes why it works so well. I been struggling quite a lot with my Android app and I felt things got worse when I upgraded my phone to Android 4.4.4. Nowadays it is easy going with the Asus router (repeater in my case).

I bought a repeater before reading this and of course got a Netgear WN3000RP... It finds the cars WiFi fine and "extends" it so I can connect my phone to the extended WiFi (SSID same as cars) but the App isn't working.
Anyone that has gotten the Netgear WN3000RP working or do I have to buy the Asus repeater...?

EDIT:
Spoke too soon... After inspecting the channel used by the car (channel 1) which also the Netgear WN3000RP is "extending" on I moved my home WiFi to ch. 6 and now it is working!
Not sure why but someone in an earlier post had issues with channels so I figured to try it. I can't seem to change the cars channel so had to move my other WiFi instead...