Will RT-AC66U B1 work as an extender with the same SSID?

[oldserverguy]

I want to replace the last of the ancient technology that I have in my network - WRT54GL with DD-WRT used as a wireless extender. It looks like the RT-AC66U B1 (AC1750) can be used for this. I also want to keep the same SSID as I've done with other networks. The download manual is out of date and I can't find where this is covered anywhere. The B1 looks idea with the 4 ethernet ports and my other newer ASUS routers are fantastic.

Is this a good choice for $80 and can I keep the same SSID?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Asus calls a WiFi extender "Repeater Mode". That would normally appear under the Operation Mode settings. Looking at page 77 of the manual (April 2019) that mode is not present. I can only assume therefore that is not a supported mode.

That is quite surprising given that the RT-AC66U_B1 is almost identical to the RT-AC68U, which does support Repeater Mode. So it's probably best to avoid that model and get an RT-AC68U (or another model) instead.

 

[adampk17]

I want to replace the last of the ancient technology that I have in my network - WRT54GL with DD-WRT used as a wireless extender. It looks like the RT-AC66U B1 (AC1750) can be used for this. I also want to keep the same SSID as I've done with other networks. The download manual is out of date and I can't find where this is covered anywhere. The B1 looks idea with the 4 ethernet ports and my other newer ASUS routers are fantastic.

Is this a good choice for $80 and can I keep the same SSID?

I assume you’re wanting to use a wireless backhaul and the AC66U will not be wired?

I used a wired AC66U as an “extender” with the same SSID just fine. But mine was in AP mode.

 

[oldserverguy]

It's not in the download manual but there's some info on it. This is a snip from asus.com

 

[oldserverguy]

More:

 

[ColinTaylor]

It's not in the download manual but there's some info on it. This is a snip from asus.com

That looks like a page for the RT-AC66U which is much different to the RT-AC66U_B1..... although that does show the same panel.

Maybe ask Asus customer services before buying just to be sure.

 

[oldserverguy]

I tried CS but they are of no help with presales (and of course I'm semiretired rather running an IT support company so my one off purchases don't entitle me to a support rep that I can personally directly contact). After power on did a manual firmware update to the 7/28/2020 version.

It was easy peezy - just have to look under the administration tab. Some of the documentation of course needs an update. I used the repeater mode rather than the AiMesh even though the headend router is an ASUS and used a static IP. Wanted to keep things straight forward and I can add my old repeater back in if I really need to. I did change the "suggested" name to the same name as the headend and didn't run into any problems.