WiFi repeater/extender?

[Wengr]

Hello, does anyone have any experience with using a wifi repeater to extend the range of their home wifi? I have some parts of the property with no signal, and I don't know if I should be leaning toward a more powerful wifi router, or a repeater. Will a repeater work reliably and without slowing down the service?

[fazool]

I have one and it works quite well. It was super cheap on amazon and virtually plug and play.


https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[aknow]

Have one called an Orbi. First time in years the tv signal is stable, was a good investment for a horrible industry.

[BrunoBlack]

They can improve your range, but they do reduce your signal from what you had previously over the original local network. If you have a very strong signal to start with, you should be fine using it. If you start with a "not so potent" signal you might find the extended capacity insufficient. This is explained in the manual or technical literature that comes with the equipment.

[The Bard Rocks]

When I had to use a cell phone tower for wifi, I got both an extender and an antenna. It was definitely faster but as I put them both in at the same time, could not tell which to thank for what. Now that I have DSL, both are unused and I did not really see any drop-off in my service - or any addition for that matter.

There are probably a lot of factors to consider - distance from reception spot, brands and age of computer, walls floor and ceiling materials, ceiling height, weather, other gadgets in the home or even neighborhood......

[robj144]

Originally Posted by Haasome

They can improve your range, but they do reduce your signal from what you had previously over the original local network. If you have a very strong signal to start with, you should be fine using it. If you start with a "not so potent" signal you might find the extended capacity insufficient. This is explained in the manual or technical literature that comes with the equipment.

They don't reduce the signal of the original router though. The reduce the signal quality of the original signal. For instance, one thing you can do with most regular routers is make a repeater which is a wifi extender with another router. If you have two of the same routers, one used as a router and one used as a repeater, the repeater will degrade the signal. As an example, if the router broadcast a signal and 20 feet away the signal is 80% where the repeater is placed; the repeater, even if you're very close to it (less than a foot away) will not broadcast at the signal at 80%, it will be less than 80%.

That's how the signal strength is reduced... it's reduced at the repeater/extender. So, depending where you are in your dwelling and what signal you are picking up (either the original route or extender) determines if the signal is degraded or not.

[BrunoBlack]

Originally Posted by robj144

They don't reduce the signal of the original router though. The reduce the signal quality of the original signal. For instance, one thing you can do with most regular routers is make a repeater which is a wifi extender with another router. If you have two of the same routers, one used as a router and one used as a repeater, the repeater will degrade the signal. As an example, if the router broadcast a signal and 20 feet away the signal is 80% where the repeater is placed; the repeater, even if you're very close to it (less than a foot away) will not broadcast at the signal at 80%, it will be less than 80%.

That's how the signal strength is reduced... it's reduced at the repeater/extender. So, depending where you are in your dwelling and what signal you are picking up (either the original route or extender) determines if the signal is degraded or not.

This is what I was trying to say. Thanks for putting this into clear language.

[robj144]

Also, a router like this is also easy to setup as an extender:

https://smile.amazon.com/ASUS-3-In-1...ds=wifi+router

It's cheap too.

[BrunoBlack]

Originally Posted by robj144

Also, a router like this is also easy to setup as an extender:

https://smile.amazon.com/ASUS-3-In-1...ds=wifi+router

It's cheap too.

I should add: this is not my line of work and my experience is using Apple Time Capsule as my router and Express as the "extender." What I learned is that it was important for me to place the extender at a point where I was still getting a strong signal from the primary router. Otherwise I was extending from a weakened signal. My first experience was that I thought it made sense to place the Express extender at a location far from Time Capsule router where the signal had dropped significantly only to learn I was extending from a weak signal (if that makes sense.) once I moved the extender much closer to Time Capsule, my signal from the extender improved (still not as strong as the original Time Capsule router). Seems like common sense in retrospect.