Rockspace Wifi Repeater can't get IP address

[Amylittlehands]

Hi there,

I bought a Rockspace wifi repeater as the wifi from my Vodafone router is shocking upstairs (it's in the optimal place, no reflective surfaces near it etc).

The extender can connect to the router fine and is assigned an IP address, but as soon as I try to connect ANY device to the extender it throws up an issue saying "Connected, Not Secured" and "Failed to obtain IP address". The only way to "fix" it is to manually change the IP address on the device, which I have to do very often.

Now, I know this is a 3rd party extender, but I got in touch with their technical support team and they are insistent it is an issue with Vodafone and their IP address assignment.

What can be done please? As during these times I am working from home like everyone else, I need wifi more than ever.

Previous steps taken:

- Completely rebooted AND did factory reset on router and extender

- Spoke with an advisor online and changed the wifi channel and other settings

Please can someone look into this as a matter of urgency? I have done all troubleshooting methods as listed on Vodafones website. This needs actual tech help and not some guides please.

[Jayach]

It sounds like the extender may not be configured correctly. Do you have the full model number for the extender.

The extender should be fairly transparent and the IP addresses should still be issued by the Vodafone router.

[Amylittlehands]

Hi,

Thanks for replying. Yep model is:

AC1200 Dual Band Wi-Fi Repeater

RSD608

I setup the repeater as stated in the instructions, the signal is very strong and it can connect to the router itself. It's just any devices trying to connect to the repeater can't get an IP address without me constantly manually changing it on the device.

There's zero settings in the repeater settings page that's useful, just the SSID name and password really. And the ability to blacklist devices

Thanks

Amy

[Jayach]

Is this the one? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08LVFVN7Q/ref=dp_prsubs_1

How are you setting it up? Are you using the WPS function?

You say it is getting an IP address, what is it? I ask as the notes say its default is 192.168.0.254 and the default for the Vodafone router is 192.168.1.1 and I am wondering if there are subnet issues.

Does it have it's own SSID or does it rebroadcast the Vodafone one(s)?

Basically just thinking out-loud, trying to understand the problem.

[Amylittlehands]

Yep that's the one

Setting it up:

- Yep WPS. The setup was fine and it discovered the wifi, then split them to 2.4 and 5

IP Address:

- I have no way of finding out the IP address, can't seem to find it in the vodafone router page

In the rockspace login page there's only options to change the SSID names, passwords and change it from repeater to AP mode. No mention of subnet, but yes that sounds likely if the default IP is 192.168.0.254

It looks to me like it creates it's own SSID's, as the original wifi connections are still available

All good, really appreciate you trying to help!

[Jayach]

I'm a bit stumped then. There doesn't seem to be much that could go wrong with the WPS setup.

Hopefully someone else may have more ideas.

[Amylittlehands]

No problem.

Can anyone at vodafone get back to me ASAP please? I can't even get a stable connection on the normal wifi

[Cynric]

If you have the Vodafone THG3000 router it appears, in other threads on this forum, to automatically hunt for what it thinks is the best channel number. I could be that your devices are not following the channel change.

[Amylittlehands]

Thanks for this. I narrowed the issue down though, it seems the repeater is on a different subnet mask to vodafone 192.168.0.254 as opposed to 192.168.1.254.

No idea how to solve that.

I also tried my TP-Link WA850RE, same issue ...

[Jayach]

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@Amylittlehands wrote:

Thanks for this. I narrowed the issue down though, it seems the repeater is on a different subnet mask to vodafone 192.168.0.254 as opposed to 192.168.1.254.

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If that is the problem (but I don't think it is any more as if it is set up via  WPS it should have been given a new IP address) then just change the Vodafone router to 192.168.0.1. It's how mine is set as I already had other devices using that subnet. Photo attached.

This page (if you haven't already found it) may help in identifying how the extender is configured.

https://rerockspace-local.com/how-to-access-the-login-page-of-rockspace-extender/

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@Amylittlehands wrote:

I also tried my TP-Link WA850RE, same issue ...

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That is a little more worrying as if you can't get that to work either the problem may be more than just a configuration one. Do you have any problems connecting devices direct to the Vodafone WiFi?