Just got home to rest some days and space kitties are broadcasting wireless networks around here, all unencrypted. I consider my neighboors to be smart enough not to leave 4 (yes, four) free wifi APs around here, so they must belong to the space kitties for sure.

And guess what? I can connect and access the internet! No MAC filtering, nothing! But the signals are only available from a small section of the house, so I decided to set up some sort of repeater, but with hidden SSID and only one connection to the far away router.

Anyway, I dug up my Fonera and upgraded the DD-WRT to the latest beta available to it,

DD-WRT v24 RC-5 (11/23/07) std. Now you can use the web-interface, so no need to use ssh or telnet and so on to temper with the RedBoot bootloader.

After I’ve connected to the target network (Network 1, with Router 1) I’ve noted down the assigned IP address (192.168.1.x) for future reference and went to the DD-WRT configuration page.

In Setup>Basic Setup I set it as follows:

I also added 192.168.1.1 as the gateway in Setup>Advanced Routing. I’m not sure if it is mandatory, but it’s working… And dont forguet to do some save and apply, as well as change the values I used if you need to. A detailed explanation is out of the scope here, so I assume you know more or less what you are doing.

Now change to the Wireless tab, set your Regulatory Domain and set the Wireless Mode to “Client”. You can also set the SSID you wish to repeat in the SSID field but its not necessary yet.

What is necessary however is to add a Virtual Interface. This will allow you to receive a wireless signal from Router 1 and broadcast it here, however you want to.

So, set an SSID, set Wireless Mode to AP, leave other as they are, but I advise you to disable SSID broadcast. This will make you new network harder to detect by the space kitties. =)

Almost there! You can set encryption for this network if you want to, just check the Wireless>Wireless Security tab. But be careful! Set it only to the Virtual Interface!!

And now, the grand finale: head over to Status>Wireless and click on “Site Survey”. That will display a window like this:

Just click “Join” on the desired network and you are good to go.

Yes, I know, DD-WRT now supports the “Repeater” option, but that firmware is still unavailable to the Fonera and I wanted to make sure only one client connects to the remote router (dunno exactly how that “Repeater” stuff works).

I also made a water-proof case for the Fonera with a plastic bag, so I can place it outside my house and get a better signal (it’s rainning here). With this I realized something I was unaware: the antenna works better when placed vertically. It makes sense now, but in the beginning I was aiming it at the space kitties…

Enjoy!