Wi-Fi Extender Required

NitroNinja on 24/10/2017 - 19:08

So, my room is at the front of the house, and the wireless router is all the way at the back of the house. Without an extender, if I'm lucky, I'll get barely 1 bar of wireless signal on my iPhone, and perhaps 2 bars on my PC. So for the past couple of months I have been using a Netgear Wireless Extender located in the middle of the house - which often runs into problems with frequent internet dropouts.

I'm looking into getting a different wireless extender, perhaps a powerline one, but I'm unsure about the varieties and I'm not looking to spend an extreme amount.

From my room, I usually use the internet for:
1. Netflix streaming
2. Online gaming
3. Browsing

Could anyone recommend choices?

Internet

Comments

  • whooah1979 on 24/10/2017 - 19:14
    +1

    Blue cable on the floor from the router to your node. It's cheap and will give you the best performance.

    • NitroNinja on 24/10/2017 - 19:18

      Flooring is tile throughout most of the house, particularly at the back where the router is, don't want blue cables all over the house. I'm set on extenders, just hoping someone can give me a reliable recommendation for a good price.

      • whooah1979 on 24/10/2017 - 19:20

        I'm set on extenders,

        A consumer grade extender will half your speed. Do you want that?

        • NitroNinja on 24/10/2017 - 19:22

          I'm already using an extender. Only issue is dropouts of internet.
          I don't download gigs of stuff, I find speeds fine as is when it works.

        • whooah1979 on 24/10/2017 - 19:27
          +1

          @NitroNinja:

          Ok then.

          A powerline may work in your case.

        • travs on 24/10/2017 - 19:54

          @whooah1979:

          I agree. Power line is the way to go IMO. It should be your best performing option.

  • airzone on 24/10/2017 - 20:01
    +1

    Extenders are bad news. Unless you're paying for mesh network gear, they're bad for performance. Furthermore the security on the devices is often lacking - I had my wifi network broken into once thanks to a bad implementation of WPS… The neighbour got more than he bargained for though.

    Powerline is better - I used to have 3 units synced together to reasonable effect (although I did replace it with cat5e in stick-down conduit).

    • NitroNinja on 24/10/2017 - 20:13

      Any recommendations in terms of powerline models/setups? Although I am flexible, I'm looking to spend no more than $100. Am I correct in assuming better connection will result from direct connection to a wall power socket, and not to powerboards? - And would I need 3 powerline adaptors? or just 2? Is it okay to have 1 at the front of the house and one at the back with the modem/router - or is that too far from one another?

      • airzone on 24/10/2017 - 20:35

        When I had them, they were all more or less the same, just different casings. Pick one that will suit your place better (mine had power cables, and were not directly plugged into the powerpoint).

        The shorter the wire the better. I could run it through a double adapter, and powerboards were fine too - unless it had lightning or noise filtering built in. Mine were about 10m and 20m from the station attached to my router.

        • NitroNinja on 24/10/2017 - 20:39

          Just a question with connection, does it need to be within a certain range of each powerline unit? or anywhere in the house is fine? e.g very back of house, and very front of house

        • airzone on 24/10/2017 - 20:55

          Your mileage will vary. How good are your power lines? Are they point to point? If I recall, you can get ~100m of copper between the units, but like ADSL, more distance decreases speed.

        • NitroNinja on 24/10/2017 - 21:21

          @airzone: Not entirely sure. But that makes sense. I went ahead and bought TP-Link TL-WPA4220KIT for $75 on eBay. Hopefully it works well.

    • spackbace on 24/10/2017 - 20:14

      The neighbour got more than he bargained for though.

      Ooh please elaborate

      • airzone on 24/10/2017 - 20:31
        +1

        I was able to ascertain who it was quickly enough. Wifi name changed to "I know where you live xxxx" where xxxx was the neighbours name, and I called in a favour from a cousin of mine who was a local cop..

        The stupid thing is, it was when some of the gaping holes in WPS were being talked about, and being the good boy I was, I had it disabled… But even still, the repeater could be broken in to. I tried it out myself, and then disposed of the unit in disgust.

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