Using Same SSID for Router and Extender Networks: D-Link DAP-1520 Setup and Connectivity Impact

I'm afraid that lately I have flooded the forum with questions, but I hope that the administration will forgive me, as unfortunately it is impossible to get meaningful information from technical support.

In the manual of my extender (D-Link DAP-1520) it is written that for the network generated by it I can set the same SSID and password as for the basic network.

It sounds reasonable, but won't such an operation cause me to have two networks with the same name in the air? Because I'm afraid that this will be the case and the computer will become stupid, so it will connect not to the network from the extender, but to the "basic" network?

Or will only one network be visible somehow? After all, they're both on the same channel anyway (you can't change that).

This is exactly how a repeater is supposed to work.

The computer chooses a network with a stronger signal.

Hmmm... Because D-Link support says that I should put the equipment in mode repeater and then only one network will be visible. There is only a "small" problem - this option is not included in its configuration...

What's more, in the manual next to the picture in which, like a bull, there is " Wireless Mode: Extender ", is its description, according to which the equipment is set to mode by default repeater (sic!) and it cannot be changed.

The instructions are in English, so it can be ruled out that a home-grown translator made a mistake.

Anyway, the support told me to set the same network name on the extender as the base network - and of course my predictions came true: in the air I have two networks with the same name and the computers go crazy - they connect once to one, once to the other - and the trick is that they are supposed to connect to the repeater.

An extender is practically the same as a repeater - it's a trade name...

Paste the image from the inSSIDer program so that you can see both networks.

From the technical support humor series - the solution they proposed in the form of setting the same name of the basic and extended network is given on the D-Link website as the root cause of connection problems Hands down...

Below is a screenshot from inSSIDer. At the moment, the network with DAP-1520 is marked as EXT.

With such a large number of networks, the transfer can actually be poor.

Did you scan in a place where the laptop usually works?

If so, the repeater doesn't make much sense - -58 is a good signal level.

Check how it works on other channels - for starters, I suggest 13.

Well, unfortunately, the whole block is taken over by UPC and everyone seems to have Wi-Fi turned on, whether they need it or not. So the crowd in the ether is quite big. Recently, an ambitious idea of UPC with a Wi-Fi network available to all customers, which additionally takes up space, has been added.

Yes, the scan was done where the laptop is, but in general, the basic network signal is usually between -60 and -68. The purchase of the repeater took place when I had Thomson (now it's Ubee), and the network power there was tragic (-80 was the standard).

Now he proposes to test channels and transfer with the additional AP turned off.

To close the topic: it turns out, however, that only the option with a different SSID works - even when setting the order of WiFi preferences, the computer gets stupid and connects alternately to two networks with the same SSID. After changing it to another, the problem is gone, and there are two networks in the ether anyway, so...