Can I connect my personal router to my apartment's access point?

[Ty2525]

I have my own personal router (Linksys EA8300 AC2200) that DOES support Bridging, Wireless Bridging, and Wireless Repeating. I would love to know if there is a way I can connect my personal router to the access point that supplies my apartment with internet. Worth noting I have no physical or virtual access to the AP. I would love to connect my router in a way where I can have my router communicate wirelessly to the AP and then have a ethernet cable running from my PC to my router to improve my internet speed and reliability. 

 

Everything I am seeing suggests I would need some sort of access to the AP, either physically or virtually.

I have neither of these and the apartment management is terrible. So before you suggest I ask them, I have done that. I work for a technology company and use my computer for work. It is not uncommon for me to have issues with loading websites during the day/night despite them claiming the internet is fine. I also use an external wi-fi adapter since they don't supply ethernet to the rooms or apartment as a whole. Although this wi-fi adapter is not particularly high end, it is from Netgear and is mounted on the wall above my PC/monitors. My phone (s21+) gets a similarly terrible connect as my PC does, so I don't believe it is the wi-fi adapter. I also have reinstalled drivers, etc.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I know for sure the internet sucks and it isn't my pc/phone. 

 

And to answer any questions before they are asked, I could very easily force them to fix it I am sure or get out of my lease as it affects my work. But neither of these are particularly practical solutions to the intermittent issues I have. I have the router, so if I can use it, then that is the best solution atm imo. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

 

[rikitikitavi]

How would your router be connected to the public AP differently?! You have only whatever WiFi access that is already given to you, so how can the end result be different?!

 

ATM, you have to request the fix - either for them to reconfigure it, extend the signal, or route an ethernet access to your room/apartment.

 

Edit:

For now, place your WiFi card someplace the reception is at it's best. Also you can scan (find a wifi analyzer app) your apartment to see if it is simply a wireless hell, with your neighbours' hundred of devices blasting at the same time the same poor guest wifi.

[Ty2525]

2 minutes ago, rikitikitavi said:

How would your router be connected to the public AP differently?! You have only whatever WiFi access that is already given to you, so how can the end result be different?!

 

ATM, you have to request the fix - either for them to reconfigure it, extend the signal, or route an ethernet access to your room/apartment.

The signal is vastly improved in areas like the bathroom where I can't put my PC. 

 

As cool as it would be to have my desk in the shower, that is not a particularly great idea for reliability I would imagine. 

Also, my router most likely has a better antenna than my phone and PC. Between that and having my router in the bathroom with ethernet between it and my pc, I am looking at over 50 times the connection speed and an unmeasurable reliability improvement according to the few tests I have done.

 

it is just not possible to get my PC to have the same wifi connection as say something like my phone. I am limited where I can put my PC, as I mentioned with the shower for example. 

[AnonymousGuy]

Wireless repeater is what you're looking for.  You're going to lose access to your router though once you do that because you won't be able to know what the IP address is of it without access to the upstream AP.  If there's a splash screen requirement, you're screwed.

 

You could also look into other things like a USB adapter with a really long cable.

[Ty2525]

3 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Wireless repeater is what you're looking for.  You're going to lose access to your router though once you do that because you won't be able to know what the IP address is of it without access to the upstream AP.  If there's a splash screen requirement, you're screwed.

 

You could also look into other things like a USB adapter with a really long cable.

I have considered just spending like $150 on a pcie wifi adapter and a very long cord for the antenna. But I already have the router. 

 

 

I can lose access to the router, I could care less. I am just wondering if it can be configured to work like I need it to without access to the AP. I am getting conflicting answers the more I look around. 

 

So can you confirm my router would have to be put into wireless repeater mode? Would this allow me to use the ethernet ports on it, or only the wireless band that isn't used to repeat the AP?

[Ty2525]

Update:

 

I have tried wireless bridging and wireless repeating modes on the router, it will connect with the AP but refuses to do anything after that. 

 

Router will say everything is fine but won't have an internet connection. Devices like my phone won't connect to the router (on either bands), it will say incorrect password, but if you keep trying it will then just say either it couldn't connect or it couldn't get an ip address. 

 

Ethernet is detected on both ends but has no internet

 

Wireless on the pc is similar, connects but says no internet. 

 

 

If someone knows why my router can't get an internet connection sent out to devices connected to it despite being connected to the AP and shared this info that would be awesome!

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 hours ago, Ty2525 said:

Update:

 

I have tried wireless bridging and wireless repeating modes on the router, it will connect with the AP but refuses to do anything after that. 

 

Router will say everything is fine but won't have an internet connection. Devices like my phone won't connect to the router (on either bands), it will say incorrect password, but if you keep trying it will then just say either it couldn't connect or it couldn't get an ip address. 

 

Ethernet is detected on both ends but has no internet

 

Wireless on the pc is similar, connects but says no internet. 

 

 

If someone knows why my router can't get an internet connection sent out to devices connected to it despite being connected to the AP and shared this info that would be awesome!

Basically you want the router to connect to the Guest WiFi as a client, then perform NAT to your private address range (which will need be a different range to the Guest WiFi).

 

I suspect both Wireless Bridge and Wireless Repeater actually connect using Wireless Distribution System, which would require the Guest WiFi Access Point to allow that, which I doubt very much as this would allow you to clone their network allowing anyone in range to potentially roam onto your router rather than the Guest WiFi AP, which would be a troubleshooting nightmare for them.

 

This could definitely be done if you flash custom firmware on the router such as OpenWRT though.

[Ty2525]

5 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Basically you want the router to connect to the Guest WiFi as a client, then perform NAT to your private address range (which will need be a different range to the Guest WiFi).

 

I suspect both Wireless Bridge and Wireless Repeater actually connect using Wireless Distribution System, which would require the Guest WiFi Access Point to allow that, which I doubt very much as this would allow you to clone their network allowing anyone in range to potentially roam onto your router rather than the Guest WiFi AP, which would be a troubleshooting nightmare for them.

 

This could definitely be done if you flash custom firmware on the router such as OpenWRT though.

I appreciate the response! I will have to look into that. I bought a new GPU and now my CPU overheats, so I will have to fix that before my internet matters lol. Thanks for the help again!