How to extend your network in a remote area /Come estendere la propria rete in un’area assai distante

NOTE for Italians – Se preferisci leggere questo post tradotto in italiano, utilizzando le funzionalità di Google Translator, premi questo link.

Of course, before equipping yourself with the networking devices needed to build a long-distance WiFi connection, it’s important to ask whether building a wireless link on public land is legal or not in your Country.
At least in Italy this is possible, in compliance with certain conditions clearly described in this article and also reported at the bottom of this post: Is it legal in Italy to set up a WiFi connection on public land?

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I bought two outdoor access points (tp-link CPE510 [*]) and a wireless router (tp-link AC1350) in order to extend an Internet connection to a location far (some hundreds meter) from a modem connected to the Internet.

CPEs are designed to build long-range directional links so they are not well-suited to feed other devices such as phones, tablets, or laptops. This is because CPEs, by design, concentrate RF energy in a specific direction (45º angle for CPE510 and 65º angle for CPE210). If your need is to provide a omnidirectional access point, you better should use an EAP110-Outdoor or an EAP225-Outdoor with 360º omnidirectional antennas for supplying SOHO clients locally.

Anyway, in my case I mainly needed to get a cable remote connection using the wireless router AC1350, so a CPE510 configured as an Access point and another as a Client fit my needs 🙂
See also How to build a Wireless Network between home and farm using tp-link products?
The distance can be till 3km in the best conditions (with no obstacles at all)!
In the following you can find the screenshots for all the configurations I set for all the devices, together with some suggestions and possibly useful information.

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P.S. 23/12/2020 – It is more than two years that the remote network is working and only two times I had a problem in connecting to Internet from the remote area. Both times, I solved the problem simply resetting the transmitter and receiver (i.e. unplugging the power from them, so they restart both sides being the equipments powered by the Ethernet cable through a PoE connection). Becareful to wait few minutes before testing the connection after a reset, because there is a delay due to the needed synchronization!!

First, you need to set a fixed IP to your OC in order to directly connect each CPE and configure them: by default, each one is accessible at the URL 192.168.0.254

You can possibly check, with the Power Shell or the Command Prompt, if the fixed IP is really set on that PC:

After you did all the configurations, remember to set again the configuration in order that the PC obtains the IP address automatically, as it is usually by default when it is connected to a DHCP server.

The first time, the credentials are admin/admin and you should change at least the password for further accesses:

The CPE510 that will be connected to the modem must be set in the Access Point operation mode.

You can possibly specify even the distance of the Client CPE (e.g. 0,4km).

The connection type can be set Dynamic and leave as fallback IP the 192.168.0.254 one: remember to always click the Apply button and then the Save one in order the changes are stored.

If you do not need to use that Access Point for other Wi-Fi devices other than the remote CPE, you should better set the MAXtream to enable improved performances:

You can set the proper time zone and synchronize the date/time with the PC one:

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The other CPE that will be connected to the wireless router AC1350 must be set in the Client operation mode:

You should lock to be connected only to that remote Access Point, setting its MAC address and providing the PSK password: even for the client you can set the distance of the Access Point in order to optimize the reception.

Also, for the client the Dynamic connection type should be set but this time it is better to change the fallback IP in order it is different from the other CPE (the Access Point one) so even in strange condition (where the dynamic IP assignment fails) they will have different IP, so they can be easily reached from remote (a tab for each IP address URL).

Every time you can see for both the CPEs the Status and in particular the signal quality of the client configured one: this can help to move give the best directions to both CPEs

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Then you have to configure the wireless router AC1350 setting both a password for the administrator and then setting also the Network name and the related password that should be set every time a client will connect to that Wi-Fi.

You can possibly deactivate the DHCP and enable the Remote Management for all devices

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Connecting your PC to the same modem, you can then also see all the attached devices to that network and know the IP addresses assigned by the unique DHCP:

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You can possibly download and install the tp-link Control SW to manage all the devices from a PC connected to that network … even though it is sufficient to connect to each device directly with their IP addresses, as seen before.

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P.S.
If you want to configure the remote CPE510 to provide also a local Wi-Fi, you should set it as a Bridge and no more as a Client (see this thread in the tp-link forum): till now I did not try that configuration because I mainly need to get a cable remote connection using the wireless router AC1350.

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You can be interested in:

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P.S.

In Italia è legale allestire un collegamento WiFi su suolo pubblico?

Riporto quanto chiaramente descrito in questo articolo che rimanda poi a questa pagina dell’Ispettorato Liguria (mise.gov.it) per reperire uteriori informazioni al riguardo:

“In Italia l’uso privato di reti WiFi che attraversano suolo pubblico sulla banda dei 2,4 GHz e 5 GHz è oggi permesso e non prevede né il versamento di contributi né l’acquisizione di alcuna autorizzazione preventiva. Solamente, però, a certe condizioni.

Un privato o un’azienda possono quindi trasmettere dati via WiFi sui 2,4 GHz o 5 GHz con l’unico obbligo di rispettare le potenze massime consentite (100 mW o 20 dBm EIRP sulle bande dei 2,4 GHz; 1.000 mW o 30 dBm EIRP sui 5 GHz esclusivamente nella banda compresa tra 5725 e 5875 MHz) e di utilizzare soltanto apparati provvisti di marcatura CE.

Il termine uso privato è chiarito nel testo del Codice delle comunicazioni elettroniche (D.Lgs. 259/2003) successivamente modificato dal D.Lgs. 28 maggio 2012, n. 70: nel caso di “uso privato”, la rete wireless deve essere utilizzata soltanto per trasmissioni riguardanti attività di propria pertinenza, con espresso divieto di effettuare traffico per conto terzi.

La normativa, quindi, dà carta bianca a quelle imprese e a quei privati che avessero necessità di collegare più stabili riconducibili alla medesima proprietà.

Nel caso di “uso pubblico” ovvero allorquando si volessero installare uno o più access point WiFi per offrire il servizio Internet ai propri clienti in uno spazio aperto al pubblico, non è comunque necessario richiedere alcuna autorizzazione se l’impresa non ha come attività principale la fornitura di servizi di comunicazione elettronica“.