Want To Improve Your Wi-Fi Connection? Try Transforming Your Old Router Into a Wi-Fi Boosting Access Point

If you're staying on top of router upgrades, you likely know by now that you should be replacing your Wi-Fi router every five years (and if you don't know, this is your sign). But instead of throwing out your router, you can use it to boost the Wi-Fi coverage in your home by turning it into an access point. It's a handy trick: You can extend your Wi-Fi signal throughout your home without shelling out hundreds of dollars for a new mesh system and still get good use out of an old router. Placing this access point at the far end of your home and connecting it to the new router (via an Ethernet cable) is a great way to blanket your home with Wi-Fi.

Here's how to do it.

First, what is a Wi-Fi access point?

Your home Wi-Fi router has an embedded AP (or even two or three embedded APs in the case of a dual-band or tri-band router) and functions as a basic router. APs essentially broadcast Wi-Fi signals that wireless devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops can connect to.

For the purposes of this guide, let's refer to the new router that hosts your home network as Router A. The old one you'll be converting into an AP is Router B. The objective here is to make Router B function as an external AP for Router A.

Note that some Wi-Fi routers feature an Access Point mode (you'll see that in its features list if it does). If that's the case for your Router B, you can just turn this mode on, and it will start working as an AP. This guide is only necessary for Wi-Fi routers that do not have this feature (or if you don't know how to turn the feature on) and is only appropriate for routers that have a web interface, which thankfully is the case for most routers on the market.

General direction (for networking experts)

If you're comfortable with configuring routers and networking in general, what follows is the general direction you'll want to take.

1. Cover Router B's WAN (Internet) port with a piece of tape. You'll want to avoid using the port as doing so would prevent you from converting the router into an AP.

2. Find out what router A's range of IP addresses is. For example, if Router A's IP address is 192.168.1.1, then we can safely assume its IP pool ranges from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254.

3. Manually set Router B's IP address to an unused IP within Router A's IP range. For example, you can make it 192.168.1.2. Just make sure you haven't and will not manually use this IP for any other device.

4. Turn off Router B's DHCP function.

And you're done. Now, if you connect Router B (which is no longer a router) to Router A using a network cable (from LAN port to LAN port), it will function as an Access Point, giving you better Wi-Fi range for your devices.

Detailed steps (for beginners)

Step 1: Ignore Router B's WAN (Internet) port.

If your router doesn't feature a native AP mode, you'll want to avoid using its WAN port at all. Using the WAN will make the router automatically function like a router because that's the device's intended role: a router connects to the internet and shares that connection with the rest of the network it hosts. Router B will no longer be a Router in our project. Leave this port alone or cover it with a piece of tape to avoid using it by accident.

(Note that for routers that feature a native AP mode, you will actually make use of the WAN port. When in AP mode it will function as a LAN port, allowing you to -- and in this specific case only -- use the port to add another wired device to the network.)

Step 2: Find out what Router A's range of IP addresses is.

This is a two-part step. First, you'll need to find out Router A's IP address. Connect a computer to Router A via Wi-Fi or with a network cable through one of its LAN ports. Read our guide to learn how to figure out your IP address.

If it's a Windows computer:

1. Run the command prompt. To do so, use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + R, type "cmd," and press Enter.
2. At the Command Prompt window, type ipconfig and then press Enter. You will see a lot of possibly confusing numbers and words, but the IP address located to the right of "Default Gateway:" is the address of the router. That's the number you want.

Or on a Mac:

Head to System Settings, then Network, then find the current connected connection (you should see a green dot signifying the connection is working), then click on Details next to it. The router's IP address will be shown at the bottom.

Once you have the router's IP address (which always consists of four groups of numbers separated by a dot between each group), use it to determine its IP range. The range of numbers you'll be able to select from will use the same numbers for the first three groups, with the last group ranging from 1 to 254. The router's current IP address will not be available to use.

For example, if the router's IP address is 192.168.1.1, then the IP pool of addresses will range from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254. If the router's IP is 192.168.1.254, then the IP range will be 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.253. When a device is connected to Router A and has an IP address within its IP range, it will be accepted as part of the network. It would take a whole separate video and an entire other article to explain why it works this way, but just trust that it does.

For this guide, we'll assume 192.168.1.1 is Router A's IP. This will also likely be your case because many home routers (from brands such as Netgear, Asus and D-Link) tend to use this IP address by default.

Step 3: Set router B's IP address as an unused IP within the IP range of router A (don't worry, we'll explain below what that means).

Connect a computer to Router B via Wi-Fi or with a network cable through one of its LAN ports to find out what the router's current IP is (repeat the first part of step 2 above to do this).

Log in to the router's web interface by pointing a browser to its IP address. Within the interface, navigate to the section where you can change its default IP address. Depending on the router, this section tends to be called Network, LAN or Setup. Change this IP address to one of those in the IP pool determined in the second part of step 2 above. For example, if Router A's IP is 192.168.1.1, you can make the IP of Router B 192.168.1.2 (make sure that you haven't manually assigned this IP to any other device, and if you have, choose a different IP address instead), then save the changes. Router B will now likely restart to apply the changes, which will take a minute or two to complete.

Step 4: Turn off Router B's DHCP Server function.

Log into Router B's interface again by pointing a browser to the new IP address you manually set in step 3 (in our case, it was 192.168.1.2). Then, navigate to its LAN or Network setup section again. Here, disable its DHCP server function. This is one of the main functions of a router that leases out IP addresses, and right now, you don't want it to do that, so make certain it's off. Save the changes, and you're done.

(Depending on the interface, some routers allow you to do step 3 and 4 as one step without restarting.)

Now, Router B, when connected to Router A using a network cable, will work as both a switch (allowing you to use its LAN port to add wired devices to the network) and an access point. You can always login to either router's interface using their IP address -- 192.168.1.1 (Router A) or 192.168.1.2 (Router B) in this guide's case -- to change their settings or customize their Wi-Fi networks.

If you don't change any settings, Router B (now working as an AP) will still be named whatever you called it when you were using it as a router. You can change its name to be the same as that of Router A's if you want devices to connect to either one automatically, or keep the names separate if you want to be certain if you're connected to Router A or Router B. Either way, all devices connected to either router will be part of the same network.

Turn Your Old Router Into an Access Point FAQs