extending wifi with another router

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kiwirock

685 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1475477 20-Jan-2016 15:25

theobrandt: sorry to ask a question that is undoubtedly covered elsewhere...somewhere!
anyway-
I have a Huawei HG569 at one end of the house. It;s in a lovely cabinet and has ethernet connections going to the other end of the house.
the wifi signal gets a bit crappy at the other end, so I'd like to enhance it.
I have another new HG569 that...I got. I also have a TP Link WR1043 ND I purchased with this in mind.

I simply would like to connect the HG569 #2 or the TP Link to the HG569 #1 by ethernet i.e. wired. and then set that second router up to allow wandering about the house with wifi devices all good. and plug TV or bluray etc into the empty LAN ports on the 2nd router.

I'm unsure if this is bridging or not, but hoped this is easy enouigh to give me a shove in the right direction.

if relevant, I have the main HG569 set to look at the UnBlock US DNS, so presumably everthing goes that way.

cheers
Theo

I've done this with those and it works fine. I switched off DHCP on the second one, set it's private IP to one on the same subnet as the first router. Then make sure it's on a different channel with the same SSID (Network Name) and it works fine.

Ray's right about CSMA and halving the speed with extenders due to the radio's being half-duplex.

The cheapest option is to use what you've got, give it a shot, measure the speeds and if it works for you, you don't need to buy anything else.

Cheers,

Gavin.

Jase2985

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#1475486 20-Jan-2016 15:35

better to use a higher powered device like a laptop as it likely has a better receiver in it and will give you a better idea of signal.

http://www.ekahau.com/wifidesign/ekahau-heatmapper is a good program for mapping everything

raytaylor

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#1475794 21-Jan-2016 00:16

dclegg: Follow up question: Any routers you'd specifically recommend that do a good job in AP mode? Preferably around the $150 budget.

I would have to recommend a belkin simply because of the "use as ap mode" tick box they have in the web interface.

You tick that box, all routing options are disabled and you are simply asked to assign it an ip address.

Some people have differing opinions on belkins.

There are very few options now to just buy an off-the-shelf residential access point without it being a router also.

Ray Taylor

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raytaylor

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#1475795 21-Jan-2016 00:19

richms:

android phone, wifi analyser. Just keep in mind that how you hold it affects it signifigantly so dont change that as you measure.

Thats pretty much how I do it.

Wifi analyzer on your android phone -50db to -74db is good, anything worse than -74db is bad.

Also using a phone means your tablet and laptop will only be better because they have larger antennas built in. A phone will have the worst signal level for the given area.

Ray Taylor

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richms

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#1475805 21-Jan-2016 03:52

raytaylor:

There are very few options now to just buy an off-the-shelf residential access point without it being a router also.

That's because they sell them as range extenders now. Most with an Ethernet port can be a bridge client or AP as well as a wireless uplinked extender.

Richard rich.ms

1101

3122 posts

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#1475974 21-Jan-2016 10:57

raytaylor:

Also using a phone means your tablet and laptop will only be better because they have larger antennas built in.

Do they, or are they all just 1/4 wave antenna . It could just be that ph's are more likely to be blocked by a hand/body than a laptop. My Samsung Tablet is much worse than my cheap Samsung ph when wifi signal is low .

raytaylor

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#1477983 25-Jan-2016 00:23

1101:

raytaylor:

Also using a phone means your tablet and laptop will only be better because they have larger antennas built in.

Do they, or are they all just 1/4 wave antenna . It could just be that ph's are more likely to be blocked by a hand/body than a laptop. My Samsung Tablet is much worse than my cheap Samsung ph when wifi signal is low .

Tablets may be similar to phones, however I know that most laptops have an antenna going up the back of the screen. Orientation affects it too - you want the signal to be on the same horizontal / vertical / other polarity as the AP. So a laptop is more likely to have a better signal than a phone. Meaning you want to design for the phone.

Ray Taylor

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Dunnersfella

4086 posts

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#1477987 25-Jan-2016 00:52

6FIEND:

dclegg: Follow up question: Any routers you'd specifically recommend that do a good job in AP mode? Preferably around the $150 budget.

I purchased one of these to run in AP mode:

https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/TP-Link-TL-WA701ND-150Mbps-Wireless-N-Access-Point/21010893

Never had a problem since, and you can't beat the price :-)

We've been playing around with one of these at work - the distances achieved are top notch.

One day we'll run Cat cable... but until we can be faffed, this has worked a treat.

The price is a bonus.

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