Forum Discussion

RoyB's avatar
RoyB
Explorer II
Feb 25, 2017

BEST ROUTER EXTENDER TO USE

I have the ASUS RT N66U Router here in my North Room of the house and although the house is covered well with this router the outside area along the East wall of the house a little centered more to the south as well as my Camper setup which is due East of the house around 60-70 feet or so does not get real good coverage especially for steaming video..

There are too many on-line to look at and they all say they will work hehe...

My ASUS 66U has three antennas on it and also wired ports which I am currently using three of the wired ports.

I guess the extenders are really repeaters and will use one antenna to pick up the router signal and then re-transmit it out the second antenna...

I have had some cheap ones in the past but they never last very long... I used them in the kitchen window looking out over the back yard to the east...

I have 120VAC power at the trailer location and of course on the back patio area.

The dollar ranges are from $50 to $100 I guess and would like to order them from AMAZON... Of course I want one with all of the pass word protect modes...

Would like to hear from anyone that has used the extenders...

I have an overhang up under the house roof and would even like to mount something there out of the weather. Can run an simple extension almost anywhere out-of-site... Don't know if mounting one in the attic might not be a bad idea???

Perhaps it might be better to run a CAT5 Cable to the extender/repeater and not depend on it picking up WIFI mode from the router???? Have run such cables for up to 100s of feet in my work days with good results for office setups...

Roy Ken
  • pconroy328's avatar
    pconroy328
    Explorer
    Feb 25, 2017
    If you've run CAT5 before then you know wired beats wireless - every hour of every day. :)

    That's what I've done. I've got an inexpensive TP Link wifi router that's been flashed with DD-WRT and it's wired back to the DSL modem. It's on one side of the house with the Netgear Wifi router on the other.

    I get great coverage and I think it was a $15 investment. :)
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Feb 25, 2017
    pconroy328 wrote:
    If you've run CAT5 before then you know wired beats wireless - every hour of every day.


    I actually have CAT5 run to all of the rooms here with a patch panel back here in my so called Radio/Computer room. That would be a short run of a CAT5 extension in the kitchen to get from the wall to the East side windows where I could velcro a WIFI extender to the window glass...

    I guess those WIFI extenders have pass-word protection even if you are direct feeding using CAT5 cable... I have neighbors around me on two sides here...

    Might be a good solution for me...

    Roy Ken
  • ralphnjoann's avatar
    ralphnjoann
    Explorer
    Feb 25, 2017
    RoyB wrote:
    pconroy328 wrote:
    If you've run CAT5 before then you know wired beats wireless - every hour of every day.


    I actually have CAT5 run to all of the rooms here with a patch panel back here in my so called Radio/Computer room. That would be a short run of a CAT5 extension in the kitchen to get from the wall to the East side windows where I could velcro a WIFI extender to the window glass...

    I guess those WIFI extenders have pass-word protection even if you are direct feeding using CAT5 cable... I have neighbors around me on two sides here...

    Might be a good solution for me...

    Roy Ken
    Can't speak for all extenders, but this one is password protected. I used the same password I use for my router to keep things simple.
  • evanrem's avatar
    evanrem
    Explorer II
    Feb 25, 2017
    If you gave cat5 in the entire house look to get a wireless access point to wire into your network it will work the best
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Feb 25, 2017
    ralphnjoann wrote:
    Can't speak for all extenders, but this one is password protected. I used the same password I use for my router to keep things simple.


    I have a feeling this is going to be above my paygrade haha...

    My ASUS RT N66U has four LAN ports and I would like to extend one of these ports to a WIFI router extender that will communicate over WIERLESS to additional devices in its zone of operation...

    I suspect there will be additional programing to get my first N66U router which is connected to my cable modem to recognize the second router/extender... Maybe all of that will will show up when I get started.

    Most WIRELESS ROUTERS I find only have LAN CAT5 connections on them that perhaps may only be connected to devices not back to the main router if that makes any sense...

    Will take some learning on my part I bet haha Would hate to spend money on wireless router that won't support being activated by a wired connection back to a different router...

    Roy Ken
  • Johno02's avatar
    Johno02
    Explorer
    Feb 25, 2017
    Try just moving your existing router. place it as high as you can, up next to the ceiling if possible. Also moving it as close to the center of your expected radius might help. Raising mine up toward the ceiling on a existing shelf made lots of diffrerence.
  • turbojimmy's avatar
    turbojimmy
    Explorer
    Feb 25, 2017
    I have a cheap Netgear N300 extender and it works fine. My Google router is in the basement on the far East side of my house due to logistical issues. The only CAT5 I have runs up the middle of the house to the kitchen on the 1st floor and the master bedroom on the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor bedrooms on the West side of the house had spotty signal, and the RV parked out on the West side of the property had nothing. I have the N300 hardwired back down to a GigE switch next to the router. It's plugged in pretty much in the middle of the house on the 2nd floor. The attic would be better, but that would require running more cable. It fills in the gaps nicely - even out to the RV.

    Outside I have an Engenius ENS202EXT access point that gets me coverage down to the bottom of my 500-foot long driveway for surveillance cameras. It's PoE and I have about 200 feet of direct-bury CAT6 running to it. It's also plugged into the GigE switch. That AP provides much better coverage to the RV than the extender inside the house, even though it's over 100 feet away. The extender is about 50 feet away, but it's indoors with several walls to get through.

    So I guess my advice is if you're looking for coverage outside for the RV, put an access point or extender outside. To fill in the gaps indoors, the cheap extenders work well if they're hardwired rather than set up as wireless repeaters.
  • windviewer's avatar
    windviewer
    Explorer
    Feb 25, 2017
    i will be setting up two UBIQUITI UAP-AC-LR in next week or so to extend wifi over a 300 foot radius (i hope). one works well in our office for good range. Requires above average setup knowledge however.

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