This is only a partial solution since I haven’t figured out making it a true repeater with WDS yet. So I can actually use a RJ45 cable coming from my ISP (in my case, the modem in another room) as an input to the ADSL+WIFI Beetel 450TC2 router. As of now, it relays just fine. The steps are really simple – something I found on google.
- Reset your modem in case you wish to use it as a backup access point / repeater. I did it only to avoid confusion and create a separate WiFi access point since I use it to cover a couple of Wifi dark spots in my flat. If you are planning to use it as a standalone router and you already have a pre-existing access point configured on it, then skip to step 2.
- Go to your your router settings page, http://192.168.1.1 and username: admin and password: password (other options by airtel are admin/1234/your airtel account number).
- In another tab, open the restart page: http://192.168.1.1/maintenance/tools_system.htm
- Go to Interface setup -> LAN. Check the DHCP option and you can see thre options like Enabled , Disabled, Relay. Click on relay.
- Now, it asks for DHCP address, give it as Google’s DNS server 8.8.8.8 . yes its not a relay server, but it works! Now your LAN port act as an Input port 🙂
- Anyways after that restart your modem,ideally using the second tab mentioned in #3. Voila! In many cases even a restart is not required.
- If it fails for some reason, just reset the modem and go back to step 2.
Source: Binoy Subhakumar’s answer on SuperUser.
PS: Why did I do #1? In my case, the issue was that the iPad wouldn’t play youtube in a few dark spots in the house (laptop would work fine!). So I set it up to relay as mentioned above, and found that the 450TC2 was still showing up as the same access point as the main router. This meant that the iPad would still connect to the main router, and refuse to play youtube. So I reset it, created a new backup access point on 450TC2 and then the iPad connected happily to it. Inelegant but it works. In an ideal scenario, using WDS, I would have only one SSID / Access Point at home, and the iPad should simply migrate from the main router to this 450TC2 backup router and get 100% network. Will try other settings to make this work and will update.