Can we control the signal strength of TP Link Router?

[simmbadon]

Hi,

I wanted to know if I can control the signal strength of TP link router? For example, if it is transmitting wifi signal in the area of 20 meters, and I want to restrict the signals only with the area of 5 to 10 meters or only to a medium size room.... Is this possible?

 

[BigJug]

I think the short answer is... NO.

The power regulations are built into the wireless chipset the manufacturer uses... I believe there was some government regulations a while back saying you could possibly modify other parts of the router (such as adding custom firmware, and changing some settings from there) but the "power" output of the wireless chips are locked and not adjustable.

 

[umarmung]

Some consumer routers do offer minimal control of the power output to reduce the power. TP-Link routers, in general, do offer such control via the Wireless -> Wireless Settings -> Transmit Power option, but only to the extent of "Low", "Middle", "High". Further fine tuning is not possible without installing third party firmware like OpenWRT, but that may require some technical proficiency and a lot of experiments.

TP-Link access points controlled via the Omada Controller can be configured with a custom Transmit Power up to the regulatory domain power of that region.

Many more enterprise/SOHO APs and routers do directly offer fine-grained WiFi transmit power control, but their learning curves are in general (much) higher, even when the devices themselves can be cheaper than consumer routers, e.g. Mikrotik.

While I am unsure of what exactly you are trying to do, you can achieve lower interference from other APs by making sure your WiFi settings only use the channels 1, 6, or 11 for 2.4 GHz. Even better is to use 5 GHz channels only (disable the 2.4 GHz radio), especially DFS channels if they are available for your country and AP. Check for free channels nearby with a WiFi channel scanner app or program.

If you are trying to hide your AP, your options are much more limited and in general this is not possible, i.e. anyone determined can always find it, often with little effort. However, there are ways to make it overlooked ...

 

[simmbadon]

Looks difficult, as I can't find the signal strength option Low Middle and High.

Actually, I live in a hostel where people around me always ask for the wifi password to use FREE internet. I have no problem in sharing my internet connection until they use it only for studies.

But they watch movies or live streaming matches which slow down the overall speed and in that case I myself can't browse the internet while other users are watching some online streaming.

I wanted to block by using the MAC filter but in that case, there will be bad feelings for me as they knew that I have blocked their MAC...

Is there any way that I provide them the password and they should be able to connect as well, but their browsing should be very slow or zero at all??

I mean, a way they can connect to the wifi but can't use the internet MBs...???

 

[umarmung]

Looks difficult, as I can't find the signal strength option Low Middle and High.

What is the device model? Also, you have to make sure you clicked on the "Advanced" tab before looking for the option.

Personally, I would get a router with modern SQM (fq_codel or Cake) support. That would fix all latency contention issues almost no matter how many users there are, assuming you have decent enough Internet throughput for sustained traffic. If you are lucky, your model is one that can install OpenWRT or DD-WRT open source firmware which supports such options. The alternative is to experiment with the QoS options in your router to prioritize different types of traffic.

If you cannot do that, then your best bet is to change your WiFi SSID name to something that it is easily overlooked, e.g. to a printer name like "HP-Print-27-Officejet". That will take care of most new people asking, then remove/take back control of Internet access to existing users by changing the password.