WiFi router range extenders , recommendations ?

[Lakewood90712]

Need about 100 foot radius , around the yard and detached garage. The router we have from spectrum has been flawless , except for range.

I am not adverse to running a cable to the exterior of the house for an antenna or range extender.

5G is coming, but I assume 4G is mostly on the market at a reasonable $ . Translation: I am kind of cheap.

 

[mountainsoft]

Need about 100 foot radius , around the yard and detached garage. The router we have from spectrum has been flawless, except for range. I am not adverse to running a cable to the exterior of the house for an antenna or range extender.

A lot of people will recommend mesh router systems. However, I tried a mesh system at my house and did not have good results.

Instead I bought a single quality Wi-Fi router and mounted it in our attic in the center of the house. I have a wired connection back to my main router in the office. I disabled the Wi-Fi on my office router, so the one Wi-Fi router in the attic is configured as an access point and serves the whole house.

The router I bought was a TP-Link AC1900 Archer A9. I bought it last April and it has performed flawlessly since then.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NF3K74H

I now get a strong signal anywhere in our house, and most areas around the house outside. My daughter said she picked up the Wi-Fi signal almost 125 feet away, but I'd say a 50-60 foot radius from the router is more reliable. It partially depends on what structure is between you and the router.

 

[Ronstar]

Xfinity sent us a new gateway (router/modem) several months ago. I installed it in the basement near most of our equipment. Then took my Apple airport express (former main router), installed it in the garage connected to the xfinity gateway with 50’ of Ethernet cable.

Each router has it’s own network. I get WiFi outside and in my detached workshop 100’ from the garage router on the garage network, and my house equipment uses the basement network. Very easy.

 

[Masquernom]

I tried wifi extenders and mesh networks. I didn't have success with either.

 

[Retired Expat]

Tried extenders and adding wireless access points but my home is all masonry, including the interior walls and the floor between the first and second floor. Dealt with multiple SSID’s and all but still there were many places signal was poor.

Installed an Eero with base and 2 beacons and my coverage and speeds are great. Inside In every room and out in the garden. Use a devoted Powerfull 2nd router that is always connected to the VPN but it doesn’t come close to the coverage of the eero mesh system.

 

[njhowie]

Personally, years ago, I bought some inexpensive ethernet powerline adapters, which I put in a few rooms in the house (and at the router) and then cheap wifi access points plugged in to those adapters for those rooms where I wanted to extend the signal to. This solution worked extremely well in our home as it is very long end to end, with the internet router at one end. I did not have success with range extenders or more recently when I tried a mesh network. The nice thing in my solution is that the access point provides a very strong wifi signal in the room where it's located, and going directly in to the powerline adapter is like having a wired connection from that point. The powerline adapters are slower than direct wired, but, our internet is 11Mbps DSL, so the powerline is certainly not constraining our throughput relative to our internet connection. This solution has worked really well, for probably 10 years now, whether we are at the other end of the house or in the basement. The powerline adapters also work really well with the multiple Roku streamers we have in the house - significantly better than the wifi signal, even from the router to the adjacent room. I see that there are now combination wifi powerline adapters which do what I did but in a single package.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Powerline-WiFi-Extender/dp/B00HSQAIQU

For daughter, I actually just sent her a Netgear WiFi Range Extender EX5000 for her two story apartment they just moved in to, as they are having signal issues there. For her, distance isn't so much an issue as up/down through the floor. It's supposed to be arriving today from Amazon - I'll report back tonight/tomorrow once they have it hooked up.

 

[Jerry1]

Instead I bought a single quality Wi-Fi router and mounted it in our attic in the center of the house.

I’ve always wanted to do that but thought the temperature extremes of an attic would not allow for electronic equipment in an attic. Is your attic heated/air conditioned?

 

[zedd]

My wireless home network signal was not reaching the detached workshop 200 feet from the house. Bought a TP-Link N300 WiFi Extender for $15.99 and plugged it into the RV pedestal located halfway between the house and the shop.

Now I can listen to Pandora and YouTube out in the shop without burning up data on my phone. I can even lower my data plan and save $10 a month.

Yeah I know mesh networks are the in thing but this gets the job done for a lot less.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

My DS did the research and picked me up a Ubiqity unify access point which is hardwired to the router. During setup, it recocomends not running at full power as it may drown out your neighbors signal. Works great.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

I used to have terrible wifi reception in one of my back bedrooms. The funny thing is you can literally walk six or eight feet toward the wifi router and it's fine. I have tried wifi range extenders but it didn't help. I thought I was just out of luck.

I bought a new laptop and the wifi signal is now fine. I guess having the latest laptop helps. Could that be the problem that other internet users have with wifi reception issues? Probably not, but then one never knows and I thought it worth mentioning as prior to replacing my laptop nothing seemed to help my wifi signal.

 

[mountainsoft]

I’ve always wanted to do that but thought the temperature extremes of an attic would not allow for electronic equipment in an attic. Is your attic heated/air conditioned?

Our "attic" is just an unfinished space above our guest bath and laundry. It's not heated or air conditioned, but it's inside the insulated envelope of our house so it tends to stay around the same temp as other rooms in the house.

The headroom is limited so it's unusable as an actual room, and there's no stairs or ladder so it isn't convenient for storage either. Despite having vent pipes and wires running through it, it's a great space I wish I could make better use of. It's high up in the center of the house, so it's an ideal place to mount the Wi-Fi router. I never really tested to see how far the signal goes, but it works everywhere we need it, out on the front porch or on the patio out back.

I've had an ethernet switch mounted in our crawlspace for years. I worried about the cold, dust, and bugs causing it to fail but I've never had an issue with it. At least until a wind storm took down a power pole and the power surge zapped it.

A hot attic might shorten the life of a router, but I would think it would last you a few years at least. I guess it depends how hot your attic gets in the summer.

 

[misanman]

We have identical ASUS routers at either end of the house, connected via powerline. One router is configured as an access point so it is all one network. Works well in general but one issue is if you are walking from one end of the house to the other the switch over from the AP to the router or vice versa can be noticeable. I have a four-unit mesh system on order so we'll see how that works.

 

[jollystomper]

We had a older router in the finished basement that gave a weak signal with drops to our 2nd floor, so we used a Netgear Wifi Range Extender EX3700 with good success. One does have to deal with multiple SSIDs but I do not see this as a big deal.

In January I purchased (Blow That Dough!) a more powerful router that gives a strong signal to the entire house (3000+ square feet), but we still use the Netgear Range Extender. On warm days when we have spent a lot of time in the yard, plugged in outside gives us great coverage for using our network outdoors.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We have the "panoramic" router from the cable company (same device is used by Comcast, Cox and probably others) but even being in the absolute center of the house, the coverage isn't great. So, I installed The Netgear Orbi (AMZN link) and it has worked flawlessly. The square footage of our house (including garage) is just shy of 4,000 SF. I am able to use it throughout the house and almost the entire yard (a little over an acre). All of our Wi Fi cameras are run through them and has pretty much been flawless.

Note: I didn't replace my ISP router, the ORBI piggybacks off of it and has a separate (hidden) SSID.

 

[Ian S]

Personally, years ago, I bought some inexpensive ethernet powerline adapters, which I put in a few rooms in the house (and at the router) and then cheap wifi access points plugged in to those adapters for those rooms where I wanted to extend the signal to. This solution worked extremely well in our home as it is very long end to end, with the internet router at one end. I did not have success with range extenders or more recently when I tried a mesh network. The nice thing in my solution is that the access point provides a very strong wifi signal in the room where it's located, and going directly in to the powerline adapter is like having a wired connection from that point. The powerline adapters are slower than direct wired, but, our internet is 11Mbps DSL, so the powerline is certainly not constraining our throughput relative to our internet connection. This solution has worked really well, for probably 10 years now, whether we are at the other end of the house or in the basement. The powerline adapters also work really well with the multiple Roku streamers we have in the house - significantly better than the wifi signal, even from the router to the adjacent room. I see that there are now combination wifi powerline adapters which do what I did but in a single package.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Powerline-WiFi-Extender/dp/B00HSQAIQU

For daughter, I actually just sent her a Netgear WiFi Range Extender EX5000 for her two story apartment they just moved in to, as they are having signal issues there. For her, distance isn't so much an issue as up/down through the floor. It's supposed to be arriving today from Amazon - I'll report back tonight/tomorrow once they have it hooked up.

The newer powerline adapters are much faster than earlier ones and reasonably cheap.

 

[njhowie]

The newer powerline adapters are much faster than earlier ones and reasonably cheap.

Thanks - will consider upgrading. Any particular brand you like better than others? We currently have Netgear - really like that everything is just plug and play and they have good monitoring utilities.

 

[Dd852]

I have the Orbi mesh system and love it - seamless and fast throughout the house.

 

[njhowie]

For daughter, I actually just sent her a Netgear WiFi Range Extender EX5000 for her two story apartment they just moved in to, as they are having signal issues there. For her, distance isn't so much an issue as up/down through the floor. It's supposed to be arriving today from Amazon - I'll report back tonight/tomorrow once they have it hooked up.

Well, UPS arrived, she plugged it in, went on the Netgear website and entered their wifi network name and password and that was it. No more signal issues.

 

[Ian S]

Thanks - will consider upgrading. Any particular brand you like better than others? We currently have Netgear - really like that everything is just plug and play and they have good monitoring utilities.

I went with TP-link but if you're happy with Netgear, it might be best to go with the familiar.

 

[gauss]

Are you trying to use a laptop or a cell phone/tablet?

I have had more issues in my hose with the cell phones on the WiFi. I suspect that the phone radio transmitters are weaker than the laptop because of battery life issues.

-gauss

 

[Masquernom]

Personally, years ago, I bought some inexpensive ethernet powerline adapters, which I put in a few rooms in the house (and at the router) and then cheap wifi access points plugged in to those adapters for those rooms where I wanted to extend the signal to. This solution worked extremely well in our home as it is very long end to end, with the internet router at one end. I did not have success with range extenders or more recently when I tried a mesh network. The nice thing in my solution is that the access point provides a very strong wifi signal in the room where it's located, and going directly in to the powerline adapter is like having a wired connection from that point. The powerline adapters are slower than direct wired, but, our internet is 11Mbps DSL, so the powerline is certainly not constraining our throughput relative to our internet connection. This solution has worked really well, for probably 10 years now, whether we are at the other end of the house or in the basement. The powerline adapters also work really well with the multiple Roku streamers we have in the house - significantly better than the wifi signal, even from the router to the adjacent room. I see that there are now combination wifi powerline adapters which do what I did but in a single package.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Powerline-WiFi-Extender/dp/B00HSQAIQU

For daughter, I actually just sent her a Netgear WiFi Range Extender EX5000 for her two story apartment they just moved in to, as they are having signal issues there. For her, distance isn't so much an issue as up/down through the floor. It's supposed to be arriving today from Amazon - I'll report back tonight/tomorrow once they have it hooked up.

I just ordered it from Amazon. We have two separate electrical panels. One is to feed the house from a generator, the other carries all the rest of the house load. I'll see if this works with that setup.

 

[Kwirk]

If you're willing and able to run a wire to the outside, you might consider an exterior access point with hard-wired ethernet to your router. If you don't have a convenient power outlet where the access point mounts look into power over ethernet (POE). A Ubiquiti access point with POE is a reasonable choice.

 

[njhowie]

I just ordered it from Amazon. We have two separate electrical panels. One is to feed the house from a generator, the other carries all the rest of the house load. I'll see if this works with that setup.

It should work fine.

We have a transfer switch which is a separate panel with 8 circuits that feeds in to our main, that I plug a portable generator into when the power goes out and it all works fine both normally and also when the power goes out and we're running off the generator.

 

[Freedom56]

We have a Netgear Nighthawk X10. It has range of about 130 feet. We have very good wifii coverage throughout our home which is two stories and about 3400 sqft, and all around our property. This is by far the best router we have ever had. Our home is also wired with CAT 6E cabling and we also run a wired network for our desktop PCs, TVs, phone system, network storage servers, printer/scanners, security cameras, and other devices.

 

[Masquernom]

It should work fine.

We have a transfer switch which is a separate panel with 8 circuits that feeds in to our main, that I plug a portable generator into when the power goes out and it all works fine both normally and also when the power goes out and we're running off the generator.

That's the setup we have too. Thanks for the response. I look forward to giving it a try. If it works well, I'll order a second remote unit for our basement.