Hello everyone. I'd love a little advice about extending my home network.
My Comcast internet service enters the house upstairs. I have an Asus RT-AC66U router upstairs. The wireless signal doesn't quite cover the downstairs of the house.
I have two goals: first, the existing wireless network doesn't quite cover the entire (small!) house. Second, I'd like to have a few things (TV, BluRay player, and Bluesound music streamer) connected to the network via a wired connection.
I bought a TP-Link TL-WPA4220KIT powerline adapter/range extender and mounted the receiver piece downstairs. The TV and Bluesound have a wired connection to it. For those who aren't familiar with this particular product, the piece that goes downstairs also broadcasts a wifi signal. So I had hoped to use this as a range extender. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite right. I could detail the problems we've had, but I think I've decided to just use the TP-Link as a powerline adapter and buy a second device to create an extended wifi network downstairs.
Am I better off just buying a second router or is that overkill? Would I be better off with a wifi extender? I'm not quite sure what the trade-off is. Does 'matching' the brand of router and AP have any effect? Product advice is greatly appreciated.
Let me just explain one of the issues that I have with the TP-Link: The Bluesound music streamer is controlled with an iPhone app. So naturally the iPhone and the Bluesound both need to be on my home network. The Bluesound has a wired connection to the Powerline adapter and from there to the router. If my iPhone is connected to the wifi signal that comes from the TP-Link, the iPhone doesn't see the Bluesound at all. If I connect the iPhone to the wifi signal that comes from the router, it sees the Bluesound just fine. I've spent a bit of time with Bluesound technical support on this and we can't resolve it. I'm hoping that if I just use the TP-Link to establish the powerline connection and then use a different device to create a second wifi network, then everything will work fine.
My Comcast internet service enters the house upstairs. I have an Asus RT-AC66U router upstairs. The wireless signal doesn't quite cover the downstairs of the house.
I have two goals: first, the existing wireless network doesn't quite cover the entire (small!) house. Second, I'd like to have a few things (TV, BluRay player, and Bluesound music streamer) connected to the network via a wired connection.
I bought a TP-Link TL-WPA4220KIT powerline adapter/range extender and mounted the receiver piece downstairs. The TV and Bluesound have a wired connection to it. For those who aren't familiar with this particular product, the piece that goes downstairs also broadcasts a wifi signal. So I had hoped to use this as a range extender. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite right. I could detail the problems we've had, but I think I've decided to just use the TP-Link as a powerline adapter and buy a second device to create an extended wifi network downstairs.
Am I better off just buying a second router or is that overkill? Would I be better off with a wifi extender? I'm not quite sure what the trade-off is. Does 'matching' the brand of router and AP have any effect? Product advice is greatly appreciated.
Let me just explain one of the issues that I have with the TP-Link: The Bluesound music streamer is controlled with an iPhone app. So naturally the iPhone and the Bluesound both need to be on my home network. The Bluesound has a wired connection to the Powerline adapter and from there to the router. If my iPhone is connected to the wifi signal that comes from the TP-Link, the iPhone doesn't see the Bluesound at all. If I connect the iPhone to the wifi signal that comes from the router, it sees the Bluesound just fine. I've spent a bit of time with Bluesound technical support on this and we can't resolve it. I'm hoping that if I just use the TP-Link to establish the powerline connection and then use a different device to create a second wifi network, then everything will work fine.
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