Wireless extender to work with wireless AP?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Wireless extender to work with wireless AP?

danepak

1030 posts

Uber Geek

#265488 23-Jan-2020 23:08

I’m having a house built at the moment and will have at least one wireless access point (maybe two, so one per floor).
I’m having a camera doorbell (Google Nest Hello), which is connected by WiFi.
My question: If the wireless signal from the wireless access point isn’t strong enough for the camera doorbell, can I just add a wireless extender, which could be installed right inside the door, for a stronger signal?
Might be a dumb question, but although I know wireless extenders work with routers, is it the same concept with a wireless access point?

rhy7s

529 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2405595 23-Jan-2020 23:24

If you're building, better to run ethernet to a few spots and have multiple APs rather than having multiple hops or repeaters. If doing a hop, best to either just use a wireless bridge to a device in a poor reception area, or use mesh repeaters with dedicated channels for backhaul.

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danepak

1030 posts

Uber Geek

#2405596 23-Jan-2020 23:27

We already have cables running for two wireless APs.
One for each floor.
The one nearest the door bell is approx 5 metres away.
Don’t really want a third AP.
Also, already have got the APs, so not keen on dropping them for Mesh.

rhy7s

529 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2405599 23-Jan-2020 23:46

You'd be very unlucky to have poor signal 5m from the AP (I can use one of our Ubiquiti Picostation M2-HP APs 2km away on my phone).

danepak

1030 posts

Uber Geek

#2405600 23-Jan-2020 23:50

OK.
I can also choose if I want 2.4ghz or 5ghz, so will chose 2.4 for longer range.
The signal does have to travel through two doors though.

My wireless APs are Cambium cnPilot E410.
https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/products/wifi/cnpilot-e410/

rhy7s

529 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2405604 24-Jan-2020 00:03

Check what congestion and signal levels are like on both 5GHz and 2.4GHz. You might end up with better signal to noise on a 5GHz channel despite the longer reach of 2.4GHz. WiFiman is a basic way to get an idea of what's going on in your neighbourhood.

danepak

1030 posts

Uber Geek

#2405605 24-Jan-2020 00:04

Thanks, will do.
Still a couple of months away from house completion.

Jase2985

12348 posts

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#2405612 24-Jan-2020 05:13

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=66&topicid=262217

as per your last thread, install 2 access points right were bartender said, there will be little to no loss through the air from the lower one so installing an extender will achieve nothing.

i think you are worrying over nothing

RunningMan

7960 posts

Uber Geek

#2405618 24-Jan-2020 06:33

danepak:[snip]If the wireless signal from the wireless access point isn’t strong enough for the camera doorbell, can I just add a wireless extender, which could be installed right inside the door, for a stronger signal?

Without getting into the why wifi extenders are so bad and you just shouldn't use them (yes, really), no, you wouldn't put it right next to the thing that can't get signal. If the thing can't get signal, then the wifi extender in the same place won't either. A wifi extender needs to go half way between the AP and the thing wanting a connection.

sbiddle

30853 posts

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#2405630 24-Jan-2020 07:33

Wireless extenders should be banned from sale unless people can answer 10 questions correctly about why they're fundamentally so bad. Only then should people be allowed to buy one - because if they are installed correctly they can be a fix (albeit still a poor one) for a problem.

IMHO in your situation installing an extender is poor fix for a problem. Installing AP's in the correct place is the correct solution.

As already mentioned putting an extender where there is poor coverage is exactly the wrong thing to do - extenders need to go where there is good coverage as they rely on receiving a signal and then rebroadcasting it. Put one where your coverage is poor and you just bog your whole wireless network down with HW retries.

If you have no option to correctly install the AP's then an extender will obviously work, but it needs to go where it's receiving a good signal, so that means relatively close to an existing AP, which in turn means it won't necessarily provide coverage beyond what the existing AP does.

danepak

1030 posts

Uber Geek

#2405631 24-Jan-2020 07:40

Thanks for all the inputs.
Much appreciated.