How To Setup Router As Access Point?

How To Set up Your Router As Access Point?

If you have an old Wi-Fi router and you have replaced it with a new one, then you need not get rid of the old one. Instead, you can change the old Wi-Fi router into an external access point. You can place it in a far corner of your home and connect it to the new router, either using a network cable or power line adapters. By doing this task, you can extend your Wi-Fi signal to the far corners. You can setup router as access point as follows.

Some of the Wi-Fi routers have an access point mode. If you turn on this mode, then your job is done. But many other Wi-Fi routers do not support the access point mode. Assuming that your old Wi-Fi router does not have this mode, you can force it to work in the access point-only mode. So, you will be disabling its routing function.

Proceed with the instructions given below to force your old Wi-Fi router to work in the access point-only mode: :

First, get hold of a piece of tape and use it to block the router’s WAN port. You will not be using this port anymore.

Next, you have to find out the IP address of the existing (new) router. This process is quite simple. Connect your computer to this new router using a Wi-Fi or network cable.

If your computer is running on Windows OS, open the Command Prompt window. Then, type in ipconfig and then press the Enter key.

Now, a lot of information will be displayed in the Command Prompt window. But, you have to turn your attention to the Default Gateway. The series of numbers found right opposite to the Default Gateway will be the IP address of the existing (new) router. In our case, it is 168.1.1

In case you are using a Mac computer, you have to navigate to System Preferences. Then, go to

In the Network window, you will see the IP address of your new router. You will see that it is the same- 168.1.1

From the above IP address, you will be able to confirm two things:

This IP address is already taken. It is not available anymore.

If you wish to add any device to the router, you have to assign an IP address within the following range: 192.168.1.2 up to 192.168.1.253

In this case, we are going to choose 168.1.2 as the IP address of your old Wi-Fi router.

Now, you need to remember this IP address so that you will not be manually selecting it for any other device that is connected to the new router.

You can now connect your old Wi-Fi router to the computer. Please find out its current IP address. To do that, navigate to the Network window on your computer. In the Network window, you will find that this router’s IP address is 168.10.1

With the above IP address, you can open the web interface. On your old Wi-Fi router’s interface, select the Network option from the left pane.

Under Network, you can see the LAN Setting Click on that option. Here, you have to delete the existing IP address and enter the one you have chosen earlier. That will be 192.168.1.2

Now, you have to disable the DHCP Server

Please save all the changes that you have made and then click on the Apply

It is now time to connect your old Wi-Fi router to the new one using a network cable. When both are connected, your old Wi-Fi router will start acting as an external access point.

We have now discussed the steps involved in setup router as access point.