Using Wifi Extenders in the home

[moosp]

I have just installed a Netgear Wifi Extender as at the end of the house we loose the signal down to around 50%.

I have successfully installed it but the speed seems to be slower than the 50% signal strength from the original router. Indeed on page 12 of the installation instructions it warns that the speed will be slower.

So I am back to where I was with a slow connection at the end of the house, but instead of being because of lower signal strength from the original router, it is because of the intermediate Netgear amplifier.

Hmm. Is there another way to get better wifi at the far end of the house?

Thanks for your help.

[mixture]

moosp,

Yeah, well, Wifi Extenders are a waste of time and money because of the very problem you describe. If your laptop can't get a decent signal, how is a cheap "extender" with a cheap and nasty internal or basic external antenna supposed to get a signal ? I'm not blaming you for the purhcase, it is unfortunately a prime example of the IT industry flogging nasty cheap rubbish to people who don't know their bits from their bytes.

In the business world, large premises are dealt with on a roaming basis, where you have multiple Wifi hotspots, each one of which has a cabled connection back to the main network.

I suggest you look at the same concept, because that's the only way you're going to get a decent, proven solution to your problem. Don't waste your time or money on anything else (I suppose, at a push, you could look at highly directional external antennas, but quite frankly, cables will always beat the pants off any wireless option .... and given that the directional antennas I'm thinking of need to be pointed at each other, you might as well just run a darn cable !!! ).

Yes it means running cables, but so what.... cables are the secret ingredient behind quality deployments in large premises .... the only bit that's wireless is the last leg between the final transmitter and the user's device !

[Tone]

We had the same problem here, every room is a Faraday cage thanks to foil covered plasterboard walls. The answer was to install a Powerline unit directly wired to the router and than put a wireless Powerline unit in each room where we need internet access. Works a treat, perfectly fast enough to watch television without buffering.

[mixture]

Powerline

Ewww... no!!

Powerlines are a nasty, cheap, quick hack of a solution ! Not to be recommended under any circumstances !

Power cables were never intended to transfer data ! Not only do you have all sorts of reliability and other issues, but you also have security issues to do with data snooping (and no, I don't believe any encryption claims would withstand any sort of scrutiny, even more so given most people can't even manage to setup a secure WiFi network ! ).

moosp... do yourself a favour, ignore Tone and use proper CAT5/CAT6 which were designed for the purpose of transmitting data reliably !

Sorry Tone. Powerlines are a joke, not a serious solution.

[chinook240]

Have to agree with Tone, Powerline adapters work well. They are simple to setup and provide a reliable signal as long as you use them straight into the socket ie not adapter extensions. I use them all over the house for both Sky, TV and internet access.

[Radix]

............

[moosp]

Thanks for the replies.

Mixture maybe that is the way to go. Cable it. I could cable through the roof space with an ugly conduit down the wall, or go the whole way and chisel it under the plaster. Or perhaps a cable to above the room and then a wifi Tx at that point to transmit down? It is only plasterboard ceiling that I need to penetrate.

We get dreadful mbps rates here (South Africa at the end of a valley) so I'm only trying to put lipstick on a pig.

[ShyTorque]

I've used power line extenders for years, in fact I'm using one right now. My wifi printer is also connected to it.

I've never experienced any problems with them.

I've just done a speedtest and it tells me the download is 24.43Mbps, upload 8.67Mbps.

That's plenty for my purposes.

[axefurabz]

I too tried to use "extenders" or whatever name you want to give them but gave up. I installed a second line (in a different part of the house) just for broadband. Works a treat. The cost is similar to a run of the mill smartphone contract.

[Tone]

Obviously Mixture has a 'thing' about Powerline. Used by the thousand - never heard of any safety problems. Marketed by companies who would not like their names linked to anything dodgy; Netgear, BT just to name two. Security can be set up just like any other wi-fi, you would be daft not to use. As for power lines not being intended to be used for data - tell that to the power distribution companies.

[seacue]

"Extenders" only work when they can get a good signal from the main access point. In theory they provide a good signal in areas where the main access point's signal is dying out.

In theory.

I haven't found an "extender" to be of help in my situations.

[mixture]

Tone,

CAT5/CAT6 cables will beat your powerline nonsense any day .....

[Tone]

Mixture, you are absolutely right and I agree with you, but (and there had to be a but) in a domestic environment routing cables all over the house may not very relationship enhancing; I speak from personal experience. These magic boxes do work and can be the quickest and neatest way to fix the problem.

[ericlday]

Mixture/Tone Yes and Yes

During house repairs after flood damage CAT5/6 cables were installed and were well hidden, however, in Tenerife I use a range extender because lengths of wire running through the apartment were not acceptable to HRH.
So its really horses for courses.

[seacue]

Pity poor Al H. Decades ago he was given the task of wiring the US White House, West Wing, for data. [The building was built in Victorian times for the Departments of State (Foreign Affairs), War (Army) and Navy.] This is a "listed" structure with foot-thick interior stone walls. I don't know how he got around the prohibition against holes through those walls.

[Keef]

The powerline things work, until there's a radio amateur (like me) nearby.
Then two things happen:
1. I get interference on frequencies where they are not supposed to operate,
2. The users find that their internet keeps dropping out.

There are some "upmarket" ones (I'm told) which do not use the amateur frequency allocation and have filters to protect them from strong local signals on those frequencies.

[Booglebox]

802.1X and IPSEC could be a way of securing a powerline connection. :8
But seriously, just run some CAT6 cable...

[moosp]

I think cable is the way I shall try, I have cavity walls and a competent electrical contractor.

Was thinking of calling Telcom SA but they would take six months.

Thanks for all the suggestion.

[Capetonian]

Was thinking of calling Telcom SA but they would take six months.
A bit off topic but a few months ago the landline at my CPT house wasn't working, completely dead, so I called the 'faults' number from my Vodacom cellphone.

After being number 26 in the queue with 18 minutes waiting time, and then number 47 with 28 minutes, and so on, I was eventually answered. I gave my landline number and name and said the phone wasn't working. The conversation went something like this :

"So you are calling to report a fault on 021 xxx xxxx?"
"Yes"
"What is the nature of the fault?"
"The line is dead. Not working'"
"Is that the number you are calling from?"
(I resisted the temptation to be sarcastic as if floats over their heads)
"No, that line is not working, dead, no calls in or out."
"What number are you calling from?"
"My Vodacom phone, 082 xxx xxxx, surely you can see that number?"
"Is that the number you are calling to report the fault?"
"No, the number I am reporting a fault on is 021 xxx xxxx."
"And what is the problem?"

I no longer have a landline, it's just not worth the aggro.

[John Eacott]

I have just installed a Netgear Wifi Extender as at the end of the house we loose the signal down to around 50%.

I have successfully installed it but the speed seems to be slower than the 50% signal strength from the original router. Indeed on page 12 of the installation instructions it warns that the speed will be slower.

So I am back to where I was with a slow connection at the end of the house, but instead of being because of lower signal strength from the original router, it is because of the intermediate Netgear amplifier.

Hmm. Is there another way to get better wifi at the far end of the house?

Thanks for your help.

It may be obvious, but where did you install the amplifier? If it is in a low signal area then it won't have much to amplify: it needs a strongish signal to amplify and then send on to the dead zone.

Trial and error to find an ideal spot to both receive a good signal and then get it into the dead zone may help.

[Bushfiva]

moosp, have you tried changing channels on the original device and/or moving it around a couple of meters? You seem to be in HK, which means there are probably a lot of other networks nearby. There are plenty of tools that will help you identify the channel with least interference.


Also, you say that the router is at one end of the house. Have you tried a somewhat directional anternna? They're cheap as chips in HK.

[moosp]

I'm at present in South Africa suffering under the wifi speeds of the last century, even as it comes out of the wall I am never better than 3 mbps down load on a 10 mbps line. If I could get that on the stoep I would be happy…

The net gear device has a traffic light type indicator to show the signal strength
and I can move it around to get a green signal.

The Netgear forums read like the emanations from Purgatory with much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, so I'm not the only sufferer.

I'm not sure how to, "Change channels on the original device," Bushfiva, as my router only seems to transmit one signal. I can renew the IP address but that is all.

Shame we waste so much time on this s**t, I really do have better things to do than chase these internet connections up. It wasn't like this when we got colour TV…

[Mac the Knife]

Never had much joy out of wireless extenders. Got a supposedly good one one sitting in the junk chest right now - sort of worked, but slowed up everything - despite channel swapping etc.

Solved by getting a better modem/router or running Cat6.

Not that it makes that much difference with the miserable Internet speeds in South Africa.

Advice: Avoid if at all possible

Mac

[gemma10]

Another consideration with Powerlines is that if your incoming mains power is single phase, then three properties away from you the data will be there as well albeit somewhat attenuated.

[Capot]

I use Devolo powerline extenders; 50m from a separate office where the router is installed, 2 WiFi transmitters in our large Victorian house, one upstairs, one down.

The office is supplied by its own power circuit back to the main switchboard.

It works perfectly, far better than any signal booster system could have done, and was simple to install.

However, I never thought about the possibility that the signal may escape to a neighbour; would that be protected by the network key?

[Mr Optimistic]

I live in a thatched cottage and had poor wireless coverage. I bought a cheap wireless client/access point box and used that with a cable router. Works fine on its own subnet and the netgear router sorted itself out with no intelligence from me happily.

[Biggles78]

However, I never thought about the possibility that the signal may escape to a neighbour; would that be protected by the network key?
Yes and no. Yes the signal may reach you neighbour (I get up to 9 different signals in my house) and no you key may not protect it if it is easily hackable. A major Telco where I live uses a 9 character key part of which is used in the SSID. I use a WPA2 key generator (https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ssl#q=wpa2+key+generator) on my WAP and choose the largest key that it and the wireless cards will take.