TL-WA801N Questions
I'm thinking of purchasing one of these devices to put in my garden office (that has an ethernet cable in it from the home router) but have a coupe of newbie questions.
Question 1. Some confusion over ssid/password settings. Lets say home router (BT Hub) has an ssid called fred and a password jump. I plug the ethernet cable, in the garden office, into the wa801. (At this point I'm thinking any device that wants to connect to the internet is going to have to use username fred and password jump). Instructions for setting up the wa801 talk of setting up/changing ssid and passwords; which I understand the need to change if you want to access the device to make any admin changes. Do you have to change the wa801 settings so that its ssid is fred and its password is jump? This isn't covered in any text or videos I have seen. If they can be different is it the case that because the wa801 is cofigured as an access point it will ignore any changes to its own ssid and password in normal operation, and just 'find' and 'use' fred and jump that the home router is configured for?
Question 2. At the moment I have a steady ethernet connection in the garden office delivering the same broadband speed as that indoors. If I plug in a laptop that has an ethernet port (done this a number times using a friends laptop) I'm connected to the internet. Unfortunately my laptop is only wireless hence I need a wifi access point. However, the ethernet cable in my garden office does not connect directly into the BT Hub router becuase I cannot make the physical connection in my home. The setup in my home at the moment is BT Hub router connected to a BT Disc via wifi (a BT Disc is essentially a wifi extender). The BT Disc has an ethernet port and that is connected to the ethernet cable in my lounge that physically runs under the garden to the office. Although not sold to be used in this fashion the BT Disc can be used in this mode (talking to people on the BT forum site) and does indeed work as I have a steady ethernet signal and connctivity in the office. (To set the BT Disc up you connect it to the BT Hub router and after a few minutes it adopts the routers ssid and password). As I have a steady ethernet connection in the office I do not think this will make any different to the WA801.