ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi All.

I have a WiFi Control based Camera Device. I want to make a PCB with ESP8266 which will connect with the Camera via WiFi and Extend the Range. Two ques please ...

-1. I like to ESP-02 as it have U.FL Connector so east to connect a External Antenna. What max possible WiFi RF Range (Line Of Sight) I can get from ESP-02 using a SMA WiFi Antenna?

-2. What configuration I need to apply to Module to act it as a Range Extender?

Thank you in advance.

Rereads.

The ESP8266 does not support communication between different clients connected to its SoftAP, nor does it relay packets from the SoftAP to the station interface or vice versa.
You could write a custom firmware to manually receive packets and resend them to a different host, but honestly I don't think the ESP8266 is the right choice for this application (that solution might not be fast enough for video).
You could save a lot of time & effort by either using directional antennas or getting a cheap wifi repeater/AP.

It is not working super reliably, but you might want to give this a try:
I modified the NodeMCU firmware to forward IP packets and to set a DNS server via DHCP. I then put the ESP8266 into StationAP mode and connect it to my home Wifi network. I also run a simple DNS forwarder .lua script.
A client connecting to the ESP can then connect through to the home network or the internet, provided you set a route to the ESP8266's subnet in you default router.
Here's the video with the link to the firmware and scripts. https://youtu.be/NH1rjk3Q_MU