Hey everyone, I went to Best Buy and saw many wireless extender options. Some of them sort of have their own SSID and plug right into an Outlet. I have 3 floors I am trying to reach with the main router located in a basement (first floor).
This is for some older folks so I would prefer something that just extends the wireless. The primary router is a cheap Cisco Linksys so I can replace that as well. Who makes the best wireless routers based on range these days?
Thanks.
I've been very pleased with the setup described just below. My problem is mainly horizontal range, though, not vertical, so I've got two range extenders on either side of the router, about 30-40 feet away. Upstairs, I get a surprisingly good signal, I guess because it's nearly a straight shot through the ceiling from the main wifi router.
Main wifi router: Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (5th gen.)
Repeater/Extender #1: Amped Wireless SR20000G (SR10000G would work well, too)
Repeater/Extender #2: ASUS EA-N66 (a tiny marvel)
The Amped Wireless and ASUS are nearly identical in performance in my case. The ASUS has an amazing design; the Amped is more traditional, but just as powerful and reliable.
I'd go with either one. If you're going in a straight line out (or up, in your case) from the the original router, there's no advantage in "chaining" extenders.
I actually tried the plug-in solution at one point. I had read
an intriguing description of how someone had avoided wifi altogether by strategically placing two different Netgear plug-in access points, one near a home theater and the other near a desktop (with the main router in the basement, I believe). It sounded great, but when I tried it in my house, the results weren't very impressive; plain old wifi worked much better. Maybe that's because I have 60-year-old wiring in the main part of my house and much newer wiring in an later addition, with separate fuseboxes for each part. (I don't know a thing about home wiring, so I could be completely wrong.)
