Wifi extender/booster - what is the difference?

[Espada III]

Wifi in our house is fine apart one distant corner of the top floor where son #2 sleeps. So we need to somehow get the wifi to him but we cannot relocate the router.

Some research suggests that there is a difference between these two products (booster and extender). I cannot fathom which piece of kit I need and then which is the best example to buy. Help please!

[SpringHeeledJack]

Although maligned by some, a friend has used ethernet over plugs and has never had a problem and even says it's faster than the wifi. Just a thought that might save hassle.


SHJ

[mixture]

Espada III,

PPruNe search function not working for ya ? :cool:

To summarise a previous post on the matter :

(a) There is no such thing as a WiFi booster/extender
(b) Don't you dare use those silly power plug ethernet thingies (sorry SHJ)
(c) Do things properly, introduce another suitable WiFi hotspot and run a CAT5 or CAT6 ethernet cable back to the router


Further expansion on point (a) :

If you're getting a rubbish signal in the vicinity of your target destination then a so-called booster/extender will do less than bugger all to help you, because all it will do is create an artificially high local signal whilst silently relaying back over the ****ty one. Thus such devices only really "exist" to part a fool from his money ... they serve no useful purpose whatsoever.

[ShyTorque]

Beware of self proclaimed experts who say plug in mains type wifi extenders don't work. I've been using one made by Devolo in this house for about five years without any problems. I'm using one now, it's presently giving 20Mbps download and 7.26Mbps upload (just checked with Ookla Speedtest), which is certainly more than enough for my needs.

[Capetonian]

I got one of those mains plug in things for a house we had on short term rental as I couldn't be bothered with setting up a new router and wiring.

It worked fine despite the prophecies of doom and hellfire.

[TightSlot]

Plug in extenders work very well, but may have to be located on the same wiring circuit in the home. WiFi extenders/boosters also do the job just fine although (as mentioned) they need to be located where the router wifi signal is strong enough to be of use i.e. not at the extreme edge of the router WiFi signal. I don't know the difference between an extended and a booster, and frankly, don't care.

I'm sure that the suggestion about running an ethernet cable is well intentioned, and in terms of network speed, is certainly accurate, however it rather misses the point. People generally don't want to install cables or mess with configuring a roaming vs extended network and that is why the other solutions are successful. You could spend a very long time wondering about the best way, or you could just pop down to Dixons or wherever and buy a cheap solution and apply it quickly and intelligently.

Good Luck

[Bushfiva]

You say you cannot relocate the router. But standing it horizontal of vertical, and vice versa, can make a big difference. As can moving it only half a meter in any direction.

Adding a second unit is (obviously) around the same cost as replacing the original unit with something more modern: I just swapped out a perfectly functional 54 Mbps thing that covered an apartment nicely, with something cheaper that seems to be supplying half the community with channel-bundled 866 Mbps.

Also, the easiest fix is one actually the hardest to do without the right gear or farting around: find a less noisy channel, if your router doesn't do that automatically from time to time. Nirsoft (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html) may do the job for you, though. Xirrus (http://www.xirrus.com/Products/Network-Management-and-Software/Network-Management/Wi-Fi-Inspector) too.

[ShyTorque]

People generally don't want to install cables or mess with configuring a roaming vs extended network and that is why the other solutions are successful. You could spend a very long time wondering about the best way, or you could just pop down to Dixons or wherever and buy a cheap solution and apply it quickly and intelligently.

Spot on.

Sometimes changing the wifi channel makes no difference - because it's not always a noise issue; the intervening walls can cause loss of coverage. That's the problem in this house.

[Ancient Observer]

I've used the electric plug gadgets happily for years now. They are fine. No complaining radio hams around here.

[Espada III]

Thanks all.

Having now checked the relevant bedroom myself I get a decent signal on my two wifi enabled devices so have smacked son around the head (metaphorically) and told him to set his phone up right.

However the information provided was very useful for another location, so thanks.

[OFSO]

Don't know what it's like in the UK but CAT5 or CAT6 ethernet cables are so cheap here (20 metres for €15 at the nearest Auchan supermarket) and so easy to lay that I can't see any point in a wireless extender or whatever they are called. Also - as has been said here - give a constant unvarying connection and are interference-immune in a modern RF-smog-filled home.

[mixture]

Don't know what it's like in the UK but CAT5 or CAT6 ethernet cables are so cheap here

I think you're pretty much guaranteed cheap anywhere in the western world.

are interference-immune in a modern RF-smog-filled home.

Technically you need the shielded CAT5/CAT6 cables (FTP / STP / SFTP) to be fully immune .... but unless your RF smog is really bad, normal unshielded CAT5/CAT6 should be perfectly good as the wire twists inside the cable serve some of the purpose of interference immunity....

[Mr Optimistic]

I have tried wds extenders in the past without much joy. What worked was a cheap wireless client box coupled to a netgear cable wireless router. The router sorted it all out for me, probably just as well, and created its own subnet. If you can get second hand stuff off eBay it isn't expensive.

[Capn Bloggs]

Don't know what it's like in the UK but CAT5 or CAT6 ethernet cables are so cheap here (20 metres for €15 at the nearest Auchan supermarket) and so easy to lay
Agree. Install a wall socket, then into the wall, up the cavity, through the upstairs floor, further up to the top ceiling, then down the wall to another wall socket. Easy.

There's a few on drugs here, methinks...

[ShyTorque]

Agree. Install a wall socket, then into the wall, up the cavity, through the upstairs floor, further up to the top ceiling, then down the wall to another wall socket. Easy.

Depends on the layout of your house.

[Capn Bloggs]

Depends on the layout of your house.
Sorry Shytorque, I was being sarcastic. Of course that is a ridiculous and sometimes impossible option in some cases. But never ever use powerline or extenders coz they're useless!! :}

[ShyTorque]

But never ever use powerline or extenders coz they're useless!!

Got you now..... I wondered who was supposed to be on drugs! Some aren't and perhaps should be..

P.s. Mine's giving 28.91 Mbps down and 9.45 Mbps up.

[AnotherNortherner]

I agree with using power line devices as an easy fix, as long as they are on the same phase and don't have to cross any in-line power conditioning devices they should be fine.

The signal propagated from access points is best suited for receivers parallel to the antenna, so, by placing an access point on each floor level connected by power line devices you will be able to provide a good signal across all areas.

As for wireless extender/boosters, don't bother. unless you spend a large sum on a multi radio device (NOT the same as multi antenna) the extender will cut the transmission rate by 50% immediately as it plays the listen then talk game.
That 50% applies to the poorest signal between any two points in the chain.

[Capn Bloggs]

But never ever use powerline or extenders coz they're useless!!
Well well well. Just installed a TP Link $39AUD extender to stretch the Wifi across the house and it works like a charm. The speed was reduced, but was not really noticeable. And that was on a old Netgear router and this cheap-charlie extender.

[TURIN]

Thread ressurection alert.

I'm spending an increasing amount of time in my shed. Three ladies in the house (don't ask). However, as my shed is about 100ft from the house obviously the wifi won't reach. The shed is fully powered from the circuit breaker box in the house. Question is, will these plug in extenders work over that sort of distance? If so, any recomendations?

Thanks.

[Capn Bloggs]

I use a powerline system (TPLink) where you plug in a little box to the mains, connect the box to the main router, then plug the other little box into a mains socket at the other end of the house, then I hang a cheap wifi access point off it's ethernet socket. Works well. Basically, ethernet going via the mains power circuit from the main router to the wifi access point.

Similar to these:
https://www.ple.com.au/Products/628833/Netgear-PL1000-Powerline-1000-Kit

and this on the end:
https://www.ple.com.au/Products/635372/TP-LINK-WA901ND-450Mbps-Wireless-N-Access-Point

Note: they're Aussie dollars. Halve them for pounds.

[Ancient Observer]

I am with Capn Bloggs on this.
I have used my mains electricity for this sort of set up from when it first became available in the UK, thanks to a techie friend in the Elec industry.
Technically, he assures me, I could receive my whole Internet connection over our electricity supply..........but it is location dependent.........it was "politics" that stopped that.

TP link gadgets from router to any old nearby plug, and then TP near wherever I need ethernet style speeds.

The only place spared this is the man cave. I have not informed SWMBO of this omission.

[Repos]

Agree with CB and AO as above.
I've been using 2 TP-Link Wi-Fi extenders over the mains circuit for a few years and move them around as necessary, up to 50 metres away on an extension lead.
I used to have the occasional problem when having visitors and several devices attached to the network. I found myself dumped of the network and needed to re-connect which was a minor inconvenience.
However, even this was solved when my son configured the extenders to bear the same name as the router so you can move seamlessly from one to the other without changing the settings on your device.

[BirdmanBerry]

I'd highly recommend the Ubiquiti UniFi range of products which can be meshed and offer superb signal. Just make sure you turn off the main router wifi if using these to stop the interference.

[PDR1]

Our home is a bungalow (sort of) which is based on two 17th century cottages merged together under a single roof with extensions. The walls of the original cottages are mainly flint, which is opaque to microwave frequencies so getting wifi coverage in some areas (like the daughters' bedrooms) was difficult.

But it was completely solved using a mains Powerline network. I use cheap TP-Link 300Mbps devices (you can even get them in Sainsburys). One unit is plugged into a wall socket and connected to the router using an ethernet cable I then have separate wireless adapters in both of the girls' rooms, and a wired one in the dining room (that's been there for a month because SWMBO is currently using it as her office). Each unit just plugs into a mains socket and creates a local wifi access point (with its own SSID and key) filling the bedroom or an ethernet socket that is just plugged in when needed. The original two have run without missing a beat for several years, and the LAN speed varies between 100 and 190Mbps at each node (it's never clear why - my theory is that it's actual routing/switching functionality is a bit crude), but as I only get 12Mbps broadband (WAN) speed I'm not that bothered.

These units work very well PROVIDED YOU FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. You must plug them directly into wall sockets - not extension leads of any kind, because the twisted wire flex of the extension lead seriously chokes the signal - plugging it into a 2-foot extension lead to a 4-way mains adaptor knocked the speed of the network back to under 1Mbps. Using an almost identical block on a 1.5m lead it wouldn't work at all. So plug it directly into the wall socket (and make sure it isn't one of those special wall sockets with "surge protectors"). If you can't spare the socket. Plug the main unit straight into your router with a piece of decent cat 5e or Cat 6 ethernet cable. For the wireless access points at the other end, set them up with unique SSID names - NOT THE SAME NAME AS YOUR ROUTER! I've seen people get very confused about this - you're not extending the existing wifi, you're adding additional wifi networks.So they need separate names (you c an use whatever key/password you like). I use a cheap one and it's perfectly reliable.

Finally - we have a summer house 80 yards down the garden which has power - a buried armoured cable with large, solid conductors. If I plug one of the powerline units into a socket in the summer house I can get well over 60Mbps wifi over most of the garden (thin wooden walls!)

€0.000003 supplied,

PDR

[Bushfiva]

I would have the same SSID throughout, use mesh routers such as the successor to the Deco M9+, and be prepared to use a Powerlink-type connection as the backhaul between devices. However, with beam-forming and 802.11ax, you might just be able get a wireless backhaul connection at that distance. With the added bonus, you get Bluetooth and Zigbee support everywhere. We use a mix of Deco kit and, together with the management tools, have been very happy.

[PDR1]

If you use the same SSID throughout then some devices have problems because they seem to get confused which one they are talking to, and just stall. It's much simpler to use different SSIDs and to allow the device (laptop, phone, tablet etc) to swap to another one as they move in and out of range.

PDR

[BirdmanBerry]

As PDR1 says, if you use the same SSID and password on different models of kit, the device will not handover between AP's very well. If using managed kit such as UniFi then this is all handled for you.

[Bushfiva]

Because it supports .11k/v/r. Just buy compliant hardware and avoid random cheeep stuff.

[Philoctetes]

A cheap and reliable solution I have used for ages is to daisy chain two similar routers together to increase wifi coverage at home. Just Google for several specific setups.

[TURIN]

Thankyou everyone for the (very) informed replies. Much of which went above my head but hey ho I'll muddle through.
I think a booster/extender is the best bet for me as then it will cover the entire garden. Its mostly for streaming music while I'm hiding...sorry, working in my man cave.

[andytug]

Another advantage of the multiple router solution is you can have the kids attach to one and you&spouse attach to the other, with different rules (time/filtering etc) on each. Plus it gives you more WiFi bandwidth for you all to play with than just having one router/access point. (A wireless extender doesn't give any more absolute bandwidth, just a boosted signal which may help get the signal further).
We have the standard Sky (black) router on a high shelf under the stairs, linked to an EE one on the back bedroom window sill by Ethernet cable. The kids can only connect to the EE one, which has firewall rules that cut everything off 11pm - 6am. We can connect to both, so have 24/7 access in the house and day access in the garden. Both are 802.11n so plenty bandwidth for all. Works really well. Not hard to set up all details via Google.

[TURIN]

Thanks again for the replies.

After chatting to a mate who's probably forgotten more about this sort of thing than I'll ever know I went for a Ubiquity outdoor AP.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01NAAWOGO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Works very well, I just needed to route an ethernet cable from the router/PoE adapter in the living room through the garage to an external wall and round to the back of the house. Oh its a bugger to set up as the controller is through the internet, not direct to the unit itself.