Having annoying problems here, in a set up that should be pretty simple

Firmware on 2830vn+is: 3.3.6.1db_232201
On AP800 is: 1.0.4

Basically my situation is this - the wifi from my 2830 works fine on its own, but doesnt stretch the whole length of my house, I just want one wifi network with one SSID, using the AP800 to extend the current one. I have a long ethernet cable out from the 2830 to the other end so have the option to use the AP800 in AP mode rather than repeater mode - which is what I'm currently trying to get to work 100% after giving up on the repeater mode and hearing it wasn't quite as reliable anyway.

So, I've set the 800 up in AP mode, with the same SSID, security settings but different channels. Using channel 1 for the 2830 which has always been great, and am using 4 for the 800 - avoiding 12 or 13 as I've heard some apple devices don't like them, and neighbours are on 11 and 6.

What I want to happen is ay with my retina macbook pro, iphone, ipad etc, if I move further away from the 2830 and closer to the 800 it should switch from one AP to the other - however this isn't happening - on the iPhone/ipad its harder to check, but the signal strenth indicates its still essentially tethered to whichever one it started off at - by turning wifi on and off on the phone/ipad it looks like it forces it to connect to the nearer one again - but not always. With my macbook - have been running a wifi scanner program which shows the wifi networks and which AP I'm connected to - it doesn't switch automatically - you basically have to force it to reconnect to the nearer one by turning wifi on and off and reconnecting - and this isnt particularly reliable as you get timeout errors etc...

I've got DHCP off on the 800 so as to not meddle with the 2830.
Not using 5G
Channel width on both 2830 and 800 set to 20Hz (had issues on a previous router where my iphone didn't like 40/20 - although it seems ok on dreyteks)
Security on both the same - WPA / AES
No mac filtering

Whyyyyyyyy doesn't it work? All i want is for there to be one nice, strong constant wifi network throughout and for my devices that move about to seamlessly switch from the 2830VN+ to the AP800 to whichever has the strongest signal for where I am...

I guess I could just make the AP800 a differently named SSID & manually switch over each time but that kind of defeats the purpose of an extender...

Anyone out there that has managed to get a similar situation to work I would love a few pointers!

Thanks

JB

Just had this reply from draytek tech support (v quickly - impressed!)

Hello John,

Thanks for your email. Draytek products do not support "Roaming". This means that if you are connected wirelessy to the 2830 and then go over to the AP800 the connection will be lost and you will then need to enter the wireless password for the AP800 SSID in order to connect to that unit. The SSID for both the AP800 and the 2830 can be the same, but the wireless connection will drop when moving from one to the other.

The link below shows how to setup the AP800 and 2830 in repeater mode. The guide is for a AP700 but the principle is the same.

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/kb_wlan_AP700_UniversalRepeater.html


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think ive managed to make things work, sorta - with a wired connection from the 2830 to the ap800 and the ap800 in AP mode. I switched security to WPA2 rather than WPA - and now iphone and iPad mini and ipad 2 both seem to switch to the strongest signal without me having to do anything - but i cant verify this without an app or something to see which channel im connected to on iOS but it seems ok. No luck with the macbook though - it seems to stay connected to whichever wifi base station it started with even when ive moved really far from the 1st one and am standing right by the other one - if i turn wifi on and off though it seems to pick the best one - so no biggie - was more an annoying issue with iphone and ipads which i move about the house with more...