Extending Wifi Range

derekson · Sep 19, 2014

You'll probably be happier with the second solution. Extending wifi range without a power line or ethernet connection really degrades performance and won't give you the same kind of results.

Just make sure you set the second router in bridge mode and you should even be able to use the same SSID as long as you use separate channels for each router, and then it should be pretty seamless for your devices to pick which router to use based on signal strength.

smastroyin · Sep 19, 2014

I have the Linksys version of that plug in extender. It works fine.

However the construction of your house is going to determine how strong the signal is from floor to floor, so you may need the latter option. Do you get signal at all on the second floor?

Also, you want to plug the extender in closer to the router. It needs a strong signal to amplify. Someplace where you get 3 bars or better on your phone.

You could also get another router, and just run an ethernet cable between that router and the other. I realize this means cutting holes in the wall. I have no experience with the powerline option and how well it works.

Couperin47 · Sep 19, 2014

Sumner uses the Trendnet powerline adapters and fully endorses them, their equivalent is also less expensive:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008F537KC/?tag=extension-kb-20

findguapo · Sep 19, 2014

I purchased this to share my wifi connection with my neighbor, and it works great:

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WA850RE-Universal-One-button-Indicator/dp/B00E98O7GC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411149985&sr=8-1&keywords=wireless+extender

johnmd20 · Sep 19, 2014

I got this for the summer, at my house b/c the 2nd floor wasn't getting a good signal from the 3rd floor.

Amazon Link It takes your connection and creates another connection that is fast and your range will increase, too. It is easy to set up and I think it'll work perfectly for what you need. For example, before I got this, I could barely use the Roku on the 2nd floor. Now, it's just as fast as the connection upstairs. If you're hooking up an Xbox, I imagine it'll work pretty well. I like the repeaters better than the extenders.

derekson · Sep 19, 2014

johnmd20 said:
I got this for the summer, at my house b/c the 2nd floor wasn't getting a good signal from the 3rd floor.

Amazon Link It takes your connection and creates another connection that is fast and your range will increase, too. It is easy to set up and I think it'll work perfectly for what you need. For example, before I got this, I could barely use the Roku on the 2nd floor. Now, it's just as fast as the connection upstairs. If you're hooking up an Xbox, I imagine it'll work pretty well. I like the repeaters better than the extenders.

This may or not matter to the OP, but that model isn't dual band so it doesn't have any function on the 5 GHz band.

johnmd20 · Sep 19, 2014

derekson said:
This may or not matter to the OP, but that model isn't dual band so it doesn't have any function on the 5 GHz band.

I haven't had any problem with that, but he could get the one that is 30 bucks more if he wanted the dual band.

Couperin47 · Sep 19, 2014

The reason using a powerline or actual ethernet connection to your repeater is highly preferable is that if the link is wireless:

1. wireless thruput to all devices in the house is reduced by at least 50% and
2. interference on the channel being used is greatly increased.

all the 'just plug it in' solutions above suffer from this problem.

SumnerH · Sep 19, 2014

Couperin47 said:
Sumner uses the Trendnet powerline adapters and fully endorses them, their equivalent is also less expensive:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008F537KC/?tag=extension-kb-20

Yeah, we have 4 of them all talking to each other (one in the router, my machine, another computer, and the XBox). Works great. They're only 100Mbps Ethernet (same 500 Mbps backbone), but in practice that's probably not an issue--in particular it's way faster than your Internet connection is in all likelihood.

Couperin47 · Sep 19, 2014

VORP Speed said:
How important is dual band? Is that something that I would notice to be missing for routine internet usage or media streaming applications?

1. If your devices don't already receive 5 Ghz band (and most until this year didn't), it's obviously not important.
2. 5 Ghz signals are inherently weaker and don't penetrate walls etc. as well, so it doesn't extend range at all, it's really only useful in situations where interference or overcrowding on the 2.4 band have you seeking an alternative, and that alternative will be a weaker signal.

crystalline · Sep 19, 2014

5GHz is likely to be faster in real-world use though it penetrates walls less well. The very recent standard is 802.11ac which runs only on 5GHz and is likely to be widely supported a few years from now. The older 5GHz standard is 802.11n, which many fairly recent devices support. My Macbook Pro does. If your home wired connection is 8Mbps (1Mbyte/s) or faster, or if you want to quickly communicate between multiple devices in your house you'll want to be using a 5GHz radio. Note that a single radio can only communicate on one band at a time. Some wireless routers have two radios and can provide a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz network simultaneously.

bosoxsue · Sep 23, 2014

VORP Speed said:
Thanks for all the help, guys.

I think I'm going to go with something like this: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-ADVANCED-Universal-Powerline/dp/B00HSQAIQU/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1411161426&sr=1-6&keywords=tp-link+powerline+adapter

Powerline adapter system, with a wifi extender integrated into the distal adapter. Also, seems like the wifi network cloning is baked in and fairly idiot-proof.

I'd love to know how it works. I try to watch Netflix through the Roku in the basement for my treadmill TV, but I almost always lose the connection and the message displayed is that I'm not connected to the Internet. I suppose I could try to get someone to drill a hole through the floor and run an Ethernet cable straight to the router, but I'd rather try to avoid that.

NortheasternPJ · Sep 23, 2014

To hijack this thread. i have a Asus WL500 as my main wireless router, running WPA2 AES PSK. I hooked up a second router, a Linksys E2500 with the same configs, a separate SSID, and it is directly wired to the Asus router. DD-WRT, a later version, running on both.

DHCP Disabled, DNSMASQ disabled. Same security settings. Set as repeatedr.

The wireless on the second works OK. It can't stream any video or load things quickly though. I went from N Only, which barely worked to B/G which for some reason works a lot better. I've gone through all the DD-WRT guides, troubleshot a bunch but still nothing.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing it?

i have a Cisco IP Phone physically plugged into the Linksys router which works perfectly as well.

weeba · Mar 15, 2015

I'm heading in this direction - looking at all the links on this thread, which is recommended?

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-ADVANCED-Universal-Powerline/dp/B00HSQAIQU/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1411161426&sr=1-6&keywords=tp-link+powerline+adapter

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA511-Powerline-Starter-Kit/dp/B0081FLFQE/ref=sr_1_57?ie=UTF8&qid=1411146798&sr=8-57&keywords=wifi+extender

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008F537KC/?tag=extension-kb-20

Or, should I just buy a better wireless router, and see if that improves my range/signal strength?

Couperin47 · Mar 15, 2015

weeba said:
I'm heading in this direction - looking at all the links on this thread, which is recommended?

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-ADVANCED-Universal-Powerline/dp/B00HSQAIQU/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1411161426&sr=1-6&keywords=tp-link+powerline+adapter

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA511-Powerline-Starter-Kit/dp/B0081FLFQE/ref=sr_1_57?ie=UTF8&qid=1411146798&sr=8-57&keywords=wifi+extender

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008F537KC/?tag=extension-kb-20

Or, should I just buy a better wireless router, and see if that improves my range/signal strength?

As explained above, you're much better off with the input to the repeater being hardwired or via powerline transmission, also the WPA4220KIT was found to be best by the guy at SmallNetBuilder who's the tech guru with the serious site that tests this stuff. Do #1 and you won't regret it.

weeba · Mar 15, 2015

Thanks - and basically put my old blue Linksys WRT (currently on DD WRT, but giving me fits), back to a default firmware?

edit: Or keep it on DDWRT, but just change it from a repeater to a AP?

Couperin47 · Mar 15, 2015

weeba said:
Thanks - and basically put my old blue Linksys WRT (currently on DD WRT, but giving me fits), back to a default firmware?

LOL tinkering with firmware, you're on your own, as you have already found out, the results of the major open source alternatives is all over the map, and the 'updates' from the makers...I've owned Linksys, DLink and, currently, a Netgear WNDR3700v2. It has had 4 'updates' to it's firmware, not including the 2 that were so borked they withdrew them because they basically almost completely bricked their own hardware. Each iteration seems to have created new issues if they managed to cure some prior problem. This experience is actually considerably better than trying to find stable firmware for my prior DLink router....

weeba · Mar 15, 2015

I had it working once as a repeater, but something went screwy after it lost power - i think if I default it back to the DDWRT base, I can just turn it into a wired AP with no issues

Oil Can Dan · Jun 22, 2015

Bumpity bump.

I am in need of a device to extend or improve my wireless network. The main things I'm looking to run over this are:

- a wifi baby monitor
- SONOS
- streaming internet services like NFLX to a tv

In reading this thread a few times I think this is the best approach, but I'm really not sure as I'm not good at the technical things:

FIOS router hard-wired to a powerline adaptor. I'm thinking this one - http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-Powerline-Extra-Outlet-PLP1200-100PAS/dp/B00S6DBGIS as I like the idea of having a pass-through outlet.

I then plug my extender in to this, and should have strong wifi throughout the 2nd floor.

If the signal isn't strong enough to stream 4k content to the tv at the far end of the house, I could buy another powerline adaptor and hard-wire that into the tv.

Does all of this sound like the right approach? There's good info in this thread but I'm not sure if something newer or more relevant has come up in the last three months. I've spent an hour on the web reading and I feel like I'm more confused now than when I started. Does dual-band come in to play? Is 5Ghz more important from a future-proof perspective now?

Any thoughts or guidance is appreciated!

Couperin47 · Jun 22, 2015

Oil Can Dan said:
Bumpity bump.

I am in need of a device to extend or improve my wireless network. The main things I'm looking to run over this are:

- a wifi baby monitor
- SONOS
- streaming internet services like NFLX to a tv

In reading this thread a few times I think this is the best approach, but I'm really not sure as I'm not good at the technical things:

FIOS router hard-wired to a powerline adaptor. I'm thinking this one - http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-Powerline-Extra-Outlet-PLP1200-100PAS/dp/B00S6DBGIS as I like the idea of having a pass-through outlet.

I then plug my extender in to this, and should have strong wifi throughout the 2nd floor.

If the signal isn't strong enough to stream 4k content to the tv at the far end of the house, I could buy another powerline adaptor and hard-wire that into the tv.

Does all of this sound like the right approach? There's good info in this thread but I'm not sure if something newer or more relevant has come up in the last three months. I've spent an hour on the web reading and I feel like I'm more confused now than when I started. Does dual-band come in to play? Is 5Ghz more important from a future-proof perspective now?

Any thoughts or guidance is appreciated!

I think you have the right idea. These powerline adaptors are all pretty reliable and a stable technology, the Trendnets Sumner uses are a, supposedly, less well regarded company, and they are quite reliable. Linking to the TV directly via wire is obviously the way to maximize that issue. As for your wireless repeater, SmallNetBuilder's tech orientation is overwhelming for most but here's his review of the latest Netgear model that fits your bill and will lead you to other makes/models:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32403-netgear-ex6100-ac750-wifi-range-extender-reviewed

I'm cynical about trying to 'future proof', they keep coming up with new higher speed schemes...here's the problem: They release a proposed standard that takes months/years to be formally adopted. Meanwhile each hardware company wants to be on the cutting edge so they release new stuff that, supposedly, complies with the new standard. Except these standards never spell out everything completely and many of the products released are NOT interoperable between different manufacturers. Finally the standard is approved, 2nd and 3rd wave products work through the issues and interoperability is achieved. Buying the latest and greatest and expecting the device you will purchase 3 years from now to work seamlessly on the newest standard is a crap shoot where you rarely win.

SumnerH · Jun 22, 2015

Couperin47 said:
I think you have the right idea. These powerline adaptors are all pretty reliable and a stable technology, the Trendnets Sumner uses are a, supposedly, less well regarded company, and they are quite reliable.

The Trendnets are like 1/3 the price, but they lack the pass-through outlet he mentioned--if that's important, they're not an option.

I'm cynical about trying to 'future proof', they keep coming up with new higher speed schemes...here's the problem: They release a proposed standard that takes months/years to be formally adopted. Meanwhile each hardware company wants to be on the cutting edge so they release new stuff that, supposedly, complies with the new standard. Except these standards never spell out everything completely and many of the products released are NOT interoperable between different manufacturers. Finally the standard is approved, 2nd and 3rd wave products work through the issues and interoperability is achieved. Buying the latest and greatest and expecting the device you will purchase 3 years from now to work seamlessly on the newest standard is a crap shoot where you rarely win.

Yeah, I'm generally a proponent of buying cheaper versions of the slightly less than cutting-edge tech and upgrading them for equally cheap stuff every few years rather than trying to guess which bleeding-edge thing will be stable, interoperable, and future-proof and spending a lot on it.

Oil Can Dan · Jun 22, 2015

Cool, thanks guys!

Extending Wifi Range

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