WLAE-AG300N Ethernet Bridge

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Jan 102011
 
WLAE-AG300N Ethernet Bridge

I bought recently 2 of those to replace a wireless connection I used before (see here for the details). I wanted to write a bit about those as they have some quirks.

Pros:

  • Quite small and light.
  • Work as wireless bridge, access point and wireless repeater.
  • Has 2 Ethernet (10/100 MBit/s) ports for 2 devices, or more if connected to switches.
  • Works in the 2.4 and 5 GHz band, so you can turn on microwaves if you operate in the 5 GHz band.
  • AOSS/WPS works as advertised: you push buttons on them, and they find each other. For bridging, it’s super-simple. Default is 5 GHz band too.
  • Operation is transparent as it should be.

Cons:

  • Those are not routers and cannot do NAT.
  • The web interface is in Japanese if you buy them in Japan, and the corresponding US model has yet no firmware to download. Good thing I have Google Translate to help me with most of the text.
  • They can only use either 2.4 or 5 GHz. Important when they work as wireless repeaters.

Quirks:

  • Default IP is 192.168.11.100. They also use DHCP if they can. I should move to another network.
  • Changing the channel is not simple. I still don’t know how to do that. Seems that this is no longer possible if I have DFS. I cannot find a way to turn this off, but then, I don’t need to as it picked the correct band anyway.
  • The docs from the Buffalo US site shows small differences between the US and JP firmware. It’s not just translated. But the English manual is a big help.
  • That manual also writes:
    This sticker shows the AirStation’s SSID, default encryption key, and WPS PIN code.  By default, encryption is disabled for AirStations sold in Asia
    That explained why initially the wireless LED was blinking orange, as that manual also said: Blinking :  AOSS/WPS error. After setting a password, the blinking became a solid green (which means: 5 GHz wireless).
  • I have 2 and both are configured identical. Using AOSS buttons, one became a master and the other one a client. I don’t know which one is which though.
  • I set up fixed IPs on both. On one of them it works just fine: no DHCP requests. On the other one, constant DHCP requests. The DHCP server I have offers a good one (identical to the one I configured manually), but it’s not being accepted. At the same time, that unit works just fine with the assigned manual IP address. When I configure it to use DHCP, it immediately grabs one and is happy with it. Looks like a bug to me.