Netgear DGND33000 Wireless Repeating

I now have two Netgear DGND33000 ADSL Modem/Routers and bought the same models because I know that Netgear supports a Wireless Repeating Mode.

This means that in my office I have one DGND33000 hardwired to my broadband line, and also sending out a wireless signal.

I also am using another DGND33000 in the main house which repeats the wireless signal to the house – providing a signal to laptops and games consoles as well as any smartphone going.

I struggled to get this setup and I think it’s because the MAC Addresses written on my router isn’t the actual MAC address I should’ve been using.

Below I’ve put down my setup so I don’t forget and it may help someone else out too.

How I went about the setup

I plugged my master router directly into my main PC. Following the instruction below I ensured it was working then I booted up my laptop but switched off the Wifi. I plugged my repeating router into that machine and input the initial settings.

I then plugged an ethernet cable from the main router to the secondary router giving me a hardwire connection to the internet just to check it was working.

I used the Netgear “Attached Devices” option to see what was attached, saw it was good, setup the wireless repeating mode, and unplugged. Luckily it worked!

Master Modem Router Setup

From a full reset of the router the IP address is 192.168.0.1.  Netgear username/password are admin/password.  Always change the password!

Once logged into the router I want to manually setup so I go through each page I need to setup.

Make sure you hit “Apply” on each page otherwise you’ll lose your settings

Basic Settings

Note that I’m using OpenDNS servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as these servers seem to cause me much less problems than my ISP default DNS (AOL).

Once I’ve got my Broadband connected then I’m good to setup my Wireless Settings as below.

Wireless Settings

Note that WEP is the only security that can be used for Wireless repeating – yes that sucks – but we can’t change that.

Also I limited the speed to 145Mbps @ 2.4Ghz.  Other posts say we cannot use the dual band to repeat, so I haven’t yet tried it.

Now we need to setup our LAN settings

LAN Setup

Note that I keep the main IP address set at 192.168.0.1.

I then set the DHCP range to 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.254.

Last of all we’ll want to setup the Wireless Repeating function for this master router.

Wireless Repeating Function

You’ll need to know the MAC address of your Secondary Router which will act as the Repeater.

Note that this page also gives you the Actual MAC address of this main router/modem.  Write this down!

Setting up the Repeating Router

The basic settings and wireless settings must be the same as above. The difference comes on the LAN setup page.

LAN Setup

Ensure the Use Router as DHCP is unticked.  The main router will look after assigning IP addresses.

At this stage you may need to log back into the router on the new IP address (192.168.0.5) if this doesn not automatically happen.  It’s also at this stage where I plugged the main router into this secondary router to check that the hardwire internet connection worked.

If all is well we can setup the Wireless Repeating Page.

Wireless Repeating Page

Not that the Base Station Mac Address is the one we wrote down earlier.  The arrowed MAC Address is the one which should have bee written in the Base Station settings earlier.  Check that it is!

Once we apply, take the connection out between the routers and hey presto… it should be working.  You can check the Attached Devices to see what machines are connected.