How to make wifi range better/reliable?

[FinGerSoFuDgE]

Hi all.

Just wondering if anyone can help/advise as to how to help extend my wifi.
I currently have an RT-N56U and been very pleased with it.
Shortly after moving into our new home I re-designed the living room and modified my chimney breast to house my tech and every cable is hidden. It looks brilliant but as the router is now in the brick chimney surround, the wifi signal suffers. I don't want to move the router so wondering what my options are?
At the moment I have 2 Solwise homeplugs so that I can get a wired connection for my consoles in my games room, which work ok, but I need to get the wifi signal better at the rear of the house and garden as I can't control my Sonos system unless I go back indoors which is a PITA? I did try a Solwise homeplug/wifi booster but it barely made a difference.
Should I try some bridge or extender, or if I bought a 2nd router, would that work? Was flicking through the RT-56U settings and noticed the Asus Access Point section but don't really know much about it or is there a simpler alternative

Thanks

 

[microchip]

Use either a range extender/repeater or an AP. AP needs cable while range extender uses the WiFi signal of the main router to extend the coverage

 

[4Leaf]

Use either a range extender/repeater or an AP. AP needs cable while range extender uses the WiFi signal of the main router to extend the coverage

Adding a range extender also takes up 50% of ur bandwidth just to extend the signal. its not worth it

 

[n2ubp]

Hi all.

Just wondering if anyone can help/advise as to how to help extend my wifi.
Thanks

Can you replace the router antennas with antennas connected to a few feet of coax, relocating them to a better spot?

 

[microchip]

Adding a range extender also takes up 50% of ur bandwidth just to extend the signal. its not worth it

I know, just offered him some options. Should have mentioned though that RE eats up BW

 

[FinGerSoFuDgE]

Use either a range extender/repeater or an AP. AP needs cable while range extender uses the WiFi signal of the main router to extend the coverage

To add an AP, would that be a secondary router? And would it work if I bought another homeplug and placed it in the dining room at rear of house then ran an ethernet cable from that homeplug into the 2nd router/AP or does the 2nd router/AP have to be directly connected to the main router?

Thanks for your help guys, all advice is welcome

 

[microchip]

To add an AP, would that be a secondary router? And would it work if I bought another homeplug and placed it in the dining room at rear of house then ran an ethernet cable from that homeplug into the 2nd router/AP or does the 2nd router/AP have to be directly connected to the main router?

Thanks for your help guys, all advice is welcome

Second router (operating in AP mode) needs to be connected to the main one with a cable going from one of its LAN ports to one of the LAN ports of the main router.

Basically, in AP mode, you disable the DHCP of the second router, and set a static IP to its LAN. On the main router you tell its DHCP to always give the same IP to the second router, ie. if you set the LAN IP on the second router/AP to say 192.168.1.200, you need to tell your main router to always give out that IP to the second router. This is can be done by assigning the 192.168.1.200 IP to the MAC address of the LAN of the second router

An AP does not necessarily needs to be a full-blown router. There are AP-only devices sold and they usually cost less than full routers

 

[FinGerSoFuDgE]

Second router (operating in AP mode) needs to be connected to the main one with a cable going from one of its LAN ports to one of the LAN ports of the main router.

Basically, in AP mode, you disable the DHCP of the second router, and set a static IP to its LAN. On the main router you tell its DHCP to always give the same IP to the second router, ie. if you set the LAN IP on the second router/AP to say 192.168.1.200, you need to tell your main router to always give out that IP to the second router. This is can be done by assigning the 192.168.1.200 IP to the MAC address of the LAN of the second router

An AP does not necessarily needs to be a full-blown router. There are AP-only devices sold and they usually cost less than full routers

That's great, I'll take a look at some AP devices too as it literally only needs to be for wifi and nothing else.
The problem will be running an ethernet cable to the LAN on the main router, wife will go mental if I need to start lifting new carpet to run a cable as no alternative if a homeplug can't be used...

 

[microchip]

That's great, I'll take a look at some AP devices too as it literally only needs to be for wifi and nothing else.
The problem will be running an ethernet cable to the LAN on the main router, wife will go mental if I need to start lifting new carpet to run a cable as no alternative if a homeplug can't be used...

Well, for a homeplug, you also need a cable going from the main homeplug to the router (but all other plugs need no cable)

 

[FinGerSoFuDgE]

Well, for a homeplug, you also need a cable going from the main homeplug to the router (but all other plugs need no cable)

I do already have the master homeplug connected to my router on the LAN port? The 2nd homeplug is in my games room and connects the consoles. So could I buy a 3rd homeplug, plug it in dining room and connect the 2nd router/AP device into it with an ethernet cable and set it up that way? That we be alot easier....

 

[microchip]

I do already have the master homeplug connected to my router on the LAN port? The 2nd homeplug is in my games room and connects the consoles. So could I buy a 3rd homeplug, plug it in dining room and connect the 2nd router/AP device into it with an ethernet cable and set it up that way? That we be alot easier....

I think it will work, but I've never tried it myself Make sure you use same brand and model of adapters

 

[wouterv]

I think it will work, but I've never tried it myself Make sure you use same brand and model of adapters

I used the early family of homeplugs (Devolo 11Mbps), they supported multiple devices and I had for some time four of them: one at the router end and 3 in different rooms to connect to PC's.
Only the laptops that time used the wireless part of the router.
I am sure homeplugs only got better these days and do support multiple devices.
There are even homeplugs with a build-in wireless accesspoint, e.g. the Devolo dLAN® 500 WiFi.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I have used as many as four of the older 85Mbps Ethernet over power adapters with no problems. Biggest use was streaming my SlingBox primarily on my LAN.

As the previous poster said the new technology is probably even better. Its not perfect but most of the time more reliable than WiFi.

 

[microchip]

Good to know. My last use of powerline was when it just came out and from what I was able to read on it back then, it was recommended to use same model and brand. Since then I haven't looked at this technology

 

[wouterv]

Good to know. My last use of powerline was when it just came out and from what I was able to read on it back then, it was recommended to use same model and brand. Since then I haven't looked at this technology

Although the current techniques seems to be standardised, I still recommend to use one brand of homeplugs/powerline modules in one system.
Specially the older models (11 Mbps and 85 MBps) used proprieatry protocols.

Wow...11 Mbps...can you imagine, it was in the time that 100 Mbps was called fast ethernet and my Internet connection was specified in kbps.

 

[FinGerSoFuDgE]

Ordered a Solwise homeplug wifi extender, it turned up and is exactly the same one as I tried before Xmas so I wasn't all that optimistic. Last time I plugged it into the dining room, it weren't all that great so sent it back. Didn't think to try it in a different room at the time - Noob:smileytongue:
So this time I plugged into my kids toy room and bam - Good solid connection right away and I can now control my Sonos from right at the back of my garden which is exactly what I wanted.