How To Configure Mi Wi-Fi As Second Router To Extend Existing Network–Same SSID Roaming

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As of this writing, the fastest Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ac which is about three times faster than 802.11n. If your home router is from your ISP, chances are they will not provide the latest Wi-Fi standard embedded in the “free” Wi-Fi modem/router to you. Because ISP’s Wi-Fi router is out of the box and it works most of the time, there is less motivation to push for a Wi-Fi router upgrade. Even if you do decide to upgrade, there still is a chance that you might still be stuck with the ISP’s router because sometimes the modem and router are all integrated into one unit.

Therefore, the best upgrade you can do to your existing home network is to get a second wireless router and integrate it into your current network. By integrating, it means two wireless routers serving the same SSID at the same time. And the cheapest 802.11ac router out there on the market is Mi Wi-Fi 3 by Xiao Mi.

You might have heard of Xiaomi by its budget phone, but do you also know that they make all kinds of other cool tech gadgets as well? One of them is the Mi Wi-Fi 3 router. You can find it on the sites like GearBest for less than $35 USD.

How To Setup Mi Wi-Fi 3 As Extender

Before we begin, the overall picture we want to achieve is adding Mi Wi-Fi router to our existing network. For me, my ISP is Telus, so I will be using Telus’ router configuration page as an example of how you can set up two wireless routers to serve the same network with same wireless SSID. The idea is to keep the original router as the DHCP server to issue new IP address when devices connect to the network. Because we don’t need two DHCP server issuing different IP subnet addresses, that means we need to disable DHCP on Xiaomi’s Mi Wi-Fi router. We also need to make sure the first router reserves a static IP address for Mi Wi-Fi, this is to avoid DHCP IP conflict if the additional router isn’t running on a static IP. Lastly, we need to make sure that the second router will have the same wireless configuration as the primary router. Below is the recap of what we need to change to make it work.

  • Primary wireless router (mostly from your ISP)
    • DHCP server
    • Configure static IP for Mi Wi-Fi (addition router)
  • Mi Wi-Fi
    • Disable DHCP
    • Configure SSID with the same encryption method, name, and password as wireless router 1
    • One Ethernet connects to LAN port

To start with ISP configuration changes, you want to login to the admin UI. Try to locate settings like static IP or DHCP Reservation.

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The goal is to assign a static IP address based on the MAC address of your second wireless router, in this case, it’s our Mi Wi-Fi 3. Here I’m reserving the IP 192.168.1.253 as the router IP address.

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Once we set up the IP, proceed to the next step, configuring Mi Wi-Fi 3 router.

Because Mi Wi-Fi only comes with Chinese UI, you need to first install Google Translate extension to understand where to look for settings with its admin UI. Once you have it installed, activate the extension by clicking “Translate this page”.

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If you have a Mi Wi-Fi, go to http://192.168.31.1/ on a computer that is directly connected to the router.

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This is the home page of the admin UI. We need to go to Common Settings, (at least that’s what Google translates to) third tabs from the top.

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The first thing we want to modify is to enable dual Wi-Fi mode, toggle the “Wi-Fi dual unity” essentially will combine both 2.4G and 5G radio into one wireless network. It will auto detect which radio is the best option for you when a given device attempts to connect to the network.

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Once you have done this change, it will restart your Wi-Fi. Also at this page we need to configure the merged Wi-Fi network into the same SSID and same encryption settings and password as your primary wireless network. This is a crucial step to ensure you have consistent roaming wireless network.

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Next, go to “Common Settings” again and go to LAN Settings.

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As we have stated earlier, we want to disable the DHCP Service on this router.

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Confirm to restart, after it’s restarted you NEED to make sure the Ethernet that goes into the Mi Wi-Fi router is connected to the local LAN instead of the “internet” section. That’s because we want to make the second router act as a local network extender, whichever device connects to the local network will have internet access via the primary router.

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Lastly, verify if the change works, you can try to connect to the “new unified roaming” wireless network and attempt to verify if our device can physically connect to the new 802.11ac network. If you have a Mac, it’s easy to find out the details of the network by pressing and holding the “Option” key and click the wireless icon from the menu. Here you can see that our PHY Mode: is on 802.11ac. Whoa Success!

16 COMMENTS

  1. Hello! I’m searching for ways for my network plan to work. I think your guide help me achieve my goal to the nearest (hopefully).

    Following your guide, do I still have access on both settings?

    Primary wireless router (mostly from your ISP) and the Mi WiFi

    I need to have an access for both routers. My primary wireless router that came from my ISP will serve as my network on 1st Floor. Mi WiFi will serve as a router for 2nd Floor.

    Thanks

    • Good question, if you do follow the steps, unfortunately, you will not have access to BOTH router’s setting. That said, there are couple ways you can gain access to Mi Wifi router setting, the first is simple and direct but will be more difficult physically as it requires you to connect Ethernet from your computer to the Mi router directly.
      Second, you can play around the subnet configuration of your primary router and create a new subnet that matches its default IP where you can reach the Mi router. I will run some experiment and update the post when I find a solution.

      Bottom line is, if you disabled DCHP from Mi Router, then there is no reason why you can’t have access to both config pages. They are effectively on the same network.

  2. Hello brother Jonathan Hu, By following your tutorial, I was able to do the job …. 🙂
    Thanks a lot….
    But how to connect wirelessly ( without ethernet cable) ???

  3. Hello,

    Thanks a lot for the helpful article. I do not know if you have got my previous message.

    I wanted to know how to do the following.

    ” Here I’m reserving the IP 192.168.1.253 as the router IP address.” How do you reserve the IP address for the mi router.

    Thanks again

    • Hello Neel,

      You can reserve the IP address in your primary router. That’s the router other than the mi router. Depends on which router you have the settings will be different. Looking for “DHCP reservation” in your router settings.

      Hope that helps!

      Cheers,
      Jonathan

  4. Hi, thanks for your post! But after the configuration (i placed the network cable in the LAN port)
    i cannot go to 192.168.31.1 to configure the xiaomi router. (When i give my pc a static ip in the 31 range it work, but that is not the solution of my problem)
    Also when i try to access it from the dhcp reservation ip from the adsl router (192.168.2.79) i cannot enter the xiaomi router. I also tried it with the app. What i’m i doing wrong? And the guest network has a different ip range (102.168.32.x) and i have no internet connection on the guest network. Hope someone can help me 🙂

  5. Hi Bro ,

    I have so many doubts:
    Iam using BSNL connection (adsl), I want to connect MIWIFI3 as a wifi router,
    My bsnl connection are pppoe(ISP),
    1) In my primary modem only one LAN port is available,While configuring time primary LAN port to connect with secondary MiWifi Lan port or Wan port??,
    2) How can i add MiWifi Mac address to my primary router as a static ip address???Because iam unsing PppoE connection.

    • Hi Bro,
      In my primary router that iam using old one IballBaton,That is dhcp connection.Please noted this also., how can i give MiWifi3 Mac address as a static ip address to my primary router?? is the way iam talking correct?? please give me a solution.

  6. Hi,
    I have a primary router setup and bought a new MI 3C router. I need to connect it to my primary router through Ethernet cable as my secondary router. But when I log in to MI IP address it prompts me to create new network. Please advise me how to go ahead.

  7. I understand that im digging up a really old post, but Jonathon; I’ve got the new Xiaomi Mi Wifi AIot AX3600.
    I’ve got it set up as a wireless extender, but i would like to manually assign it an IP address so that i can manage it easier.
    Once you switch to Wireless Extender mode there is no option to assign a static IP for the actual router.
    I’ve set the address reservation on my actual modem that the router is connected to via LAN, however the Mi Router insists on using it’s own IP address.
    Any help greatly appreciated!

    • Hi, im not the original poster, but im having exactly the same issue with the same router model, AX3600. Even after using a mac tied ip in the dchp pool of the main router, AX3600 insists on using its own ip.

      Maybe its a bug in the router firmware

  8. Hello, although a bit late and using a newer version of a Xiaomi router, it might worth noting that if you have set the IP address of the LAN configuration to a different network (for instance, main network: 192.168.0.0 and LAN on the Xiaomi: 192.168.1.0) it is still accessible throuth that first IP (192.168.1.1). Note also that you will have to configure your interface (the one connected to the Xiaomi, your Wi-Fi probably) to have an IP of this subnet (192.168.1.5). That way you can still access the router and manage some options, although you will see the status as “not connected to internet”, even though you know you are connected, just not on the WAN port, but one of the LANs.

  9. Hello,

    I have a question regarding the 3x AC2100 Xioami router configuration.

    My use case is that I have a router provided by ISP and a patch panel and switch that is distributing the signal to all sockets in my home. I do not want to use the wireless option in this router.

    I want to add wireless coverage (WiFi mesh) to all 3 levels in my house to all devices that I have. My idea is to connect every AC2100 router by cable to sockets and configure them in one WiFi mesh.

    The question is, how to do it?

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