I have an old AP800 I am trying to set up in station mode to drive a TV etc, but as soon as I get it into this mode it becomes inaccessible from my router's (2862) AP control panel, or indeed any other way of getting to it (it has/had a fixed IP address of 192.168.1.4). Is this expected behaviour (in station mode it just ceases to exist?) or am I doing something dumb? It's sort of hard to tell whether the TV actually joined the network via the Ap800 or not.

I guess I could fall back on my trusty netgear Av500 powerline, but that seems to drop the connection for a few seconds several times a day which is a big PITA. I was hoping the AP800 would be more reliable, if slower. No, sadly the house doesn't come wiredfor RJ45 plugs.

When you say "station mode" do you mean as an access point? It sounds as though you want to set it up as a wireless bridge and then connect your TV to it by cable. That should work but what are you bridging it to - a router or another AP? You need to set the bridging parameters in both devices to get this to work. (I don't have any experience of the AP800 but I have used many Draytek AP's in this mode over the years; although I've usually found bridging to a Draytek router to be flaky compared to bridging between AP's).

GSV3MiaC wrote:
It's sort of hard to tell whether the TV actually joined the network via the Ap800 or not.

Whichever AP the AP800 has connected to, should show it in its list of 'clients'.

TVs (IME) normally have something in the 'Network' section that shows the IP parameters they have picked up (IP address, DNS Server etc). Failing that, look in the 'help' section of the Netflix client (assuming it has one). Not only will it show the working IP parameters, there's a Speed Test as well.

I'm quite surprised that the TV doesn't have a Wifi interface, as well as a wired one ...

Thanks for the replies. The TV is a veritable antique, needing a dongle for wifi. Netflix? Well, maybe if my bband was more than a megabit/s or two. I'm working on getting fixed wireless link.

Yes, I am trying to use the ap800 to link the wired devices (TV, dvd, etc) back via WiFi to the house net. The next device up the chain is a LAN attached ap900, which hopefully the ap800 could talk to, though the ap900 is in access point mode,.. Sounds like I may have to fiddle with the settings on that too?

I guess I may lose access to the ap800 simply because it failed to connect to the ap900, though told to do so, although it appears to connect (instant routing loop) but when I unhitch the wired lan connection the ap800 becomes unreachable.

I think I have resolved it. All my APs and the router use the same SSID, and the AP800 was deciding to connect to the wrong one (I guess it doesn't have a 'use this MAC address' field like later models do?), and the one it chose to connect to was SSID #2 on the router, which is on a vlan subnet which only had internet access, so I couldn't get to it from the rest of the network. My error, should have been on a different vlan.

There is however a notable delay ('site did not respond in time') accessing the admin mode via the WLAN .. I suspect the AP is having to do some sort of mode switch (or else is just desperately slow) when you ask it, remotely, for some information (like 'are you online'). However looks like I may be in business, as long as I remember it is going to bridge to whichever other AP happens to be nearest (with the same SSID and security setting). Only wasy to tell whcih one it got is to look at the channel number.

GSV3MiaC wrote:
Netflix? Well, maybe if my bband was more than a megabit/s or two. I'm working on getting fixed wireless link.

Or, see here: Your right to request a decent broadband service (Not that 10Mbps down, 1Mbps up, counts as 'decent' in my book - or even as 'Broadband' :? )

He also wrote:
Yes, I am trying to use the ap800 to link the wired devices (TV, dvd, etc) back via WiFi to the house net.

If there are multiple devices, then you presumably want the AP800 in 'WDS Bridge mode', or 'Repeater Mode'? In 'Station Mode', there's only one client - and it's probably its MAC address that is seen as connected (hence losing access to the management interface on the AP800 - though I bet it is still accessible from the LAN side). In STA mode, if there are actually multiple devices, I wouldn't like to say how it behaves.

WDS mode would be best - if available - because 'Repeater Mode' has some sort of strange NAT-like functionality.