How to Set Up a Netgear Router as an Access Point with Hidden Wifi

As the Charter deployment continues, you may have a situation where you need to provide an ethernet connection to a number of devices remote to your main router.  You don't want wifi available in that area because the existing wifi provides sufficient coverage for normal use.  However, you do want the wifi to be available to those "in the know" when they need the strongest wifi signal.  You can use an existing router to do this.  The Technical term for this setup is "Access Point Setup."  This is how you do it.  The instructions are with respect to the router you are configuring :

1. Reset the router by pushing the reset button (according to the instructions for how to reset your model of router
2. Connect the router to the ethernet port of your computer.
3. Start a browser window and login to the router using the default IP address (the default will be listed on the side of your router.  Let's say it is 192.168.1.1.  Enter that number in the address field of your browser)
4. Login to the router using the default user id and password.  These will be listed on the side of your router.  For Netgear, the usual defaults are user id = "admin" and password = "password".
5. The router will display its control panel.  On the left navigation frame, find the phrase that indicates managing the wifi.  Click on it.  
6. Uncheck the "Enable SSID broadcast."  This will hide the wifi; it will either not be visible to your devices or the signal will be labeled "Hidden Network."
7. Set the name of the SSID.  Set the security type to WPA2 in order to get the highest speed.  
8. Click Apply and wait until the router is done making the changes.
9. Click the LAN entry on the left navigation frame
10. Uncheck the "Use Router as DHCP server."  You want your main router to be the DHCP server, not this Access Point.
11. Change the device name to something you recognize.  I use the SSID name.
12. Change the IP address to one that is in the range of your main DHCP server.  (I looked on my main router for the range.  It was 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253.   I have a number of Access Points and wifi extenders around the house.  As a "house rule," I reserve the IP addresses of 192.168.1.245-192.168.1.253 for all the routers I have.  For this example, use 192.168.1.251.
13. Click Apply and wait for the router to finish.  When it does, it will present the login window again, this time with the IP address you selected.  
14. You're done.

At a later time, if you need to login to this router, use the IP address you assigned to the router.  Note that, when you do, the computer you use to log in to the router will "reserve" the administration for that computer until you close your web page.  If you don't close the web page and then try to log in to the router from another computer, you will get a message saying something like "the IP address is being managed by" and it will give another IP address, which will be the IP address of the other computer.

As with all your devices on your network that have a network login, be sure to go back to the router's interface and find the option to "change your password."  Change the password to something strong.