Stick Up Cam Elite as WiFi range extender for just other Ring devices

I bought a Stick Up Cam Elite (SUCE hereafter) thinking it already had this feature. My mistake. I think it was the advertising that it helped in WiFi dead zones. The thing is, it already has all the hardware needed, it’s just a mater of firmware and the App/Setup. (I am an IoT developer so I have a bit of idea what is needed.)

Since the SUCE has both Ethernet and WiFi it should be possible to make it an extension of the network, but rather than having the access point open, and therefor insecure, it should work only with other Ring devices. Assuming Ring works the way I think it does, it could go something like this:

  1. Set up the SUCE as usual. If configured for Ethernet then ask if the extender function should be enabled. Otherwise the extender can be enabled later in setup.

  2. The SUCE starts as an access point using some non-specific generated SSID name (Maybe based on its MAC) but does not broadcast it. The access point also has a MAC whitelist that is initially blank. Also, an encryption key can be created and stored in the extender and told to the App.

  3. Set up another Ring device. When its QR code is scanned by the App the MAC of the new device is looked up (if it isn’t part of the QR). The App also finds out if any of the devices already on the account is set to be an extender and if so passes the MAC to the extender’s whitelist.

  4. When the App switches over to the devices WiFi to configure it, the choice of the extender is given along with the other available WiFi. The name of the extender can be the name of the SUCE and not the actual SSID. The App then passes the encryption key to the new device.

  5. With the encryption key shared and the new device’s MAC on the SUCE extender a secure channel can be made from the new device to the Ring servers.

Not broadcasting the SSID, the MAC whitelist, and encryption key make it all more secure than some peoples home WiFi.

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