Newbie looking for help extending his Wireless network

[Dooms87]

Hi everyone i'm here because i'm looking for some help setting up a wireless bridge to extend my home network. I'm not really sure as to what i'm doing and several videos and sources have directed me to towards this site so hopefully you guys have the patience to help a newbie

I have Optimum as my service provider and they provide a Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router WNDR3400v2 with that odd custom firmware they have

My secondary router is my Old Linksys E3000 that i want to use to extend my network wirelessly allegedly i can if i install custom firmware which i'm really not sure?

So my questions are
Will Cablevisions firmware prevent me from doing this ?

What firmware do i need for my E3000 i was trying to do some research and i got confused between tomato/dd-wrt/other types of wrt??

Will there be any special type of setup or tinkering i need to do to get the network extended for my needs ?? i have 3 floors on my house router is on the top most of the second floor gets full bars, I'd would like to have the basement/outside get more then 1-2 bars Have a smart TV and a computer that cant be fully utilized because of weak signal

Thanks in advance hopefully you guys can help me figure this out

 

[stevech]

if "extend" means improve coverage, then you can purchase a WiFi Access Point (AP). Or you can re-purpose any wifi router to be an AP, See FAQ on this.

No special/custom firmware needed.

 

[Dooms87]

if "extend" means improve coverage, then you can purchase a WiFi Access Point (AP). Or you can re-purpose any wifi router to be an AP, See FAQ on this.

No special/custom firmware needed.

Yes Sorry for poorly wording it i do want to Improve my Wireless coverage in my house.

Can you provide a link to that FAQ because i cant find it. Also i asked about installing custom firmware because i was reading that the Linksys E3000 cannot be used for wireless bridging on stock firmware hence why i asked. I'm still very confused by all these terms people use wifi extender/access point/wireless bridge. Thank you again for your patience and support

 

[stevech]

Your WiFi router is a router + a WiFi access point (AP) all in one.
Adding APs creates new coverage. Nothing to do with all the routing that goes on in a WiFi router. Adding APs is the usual way to improve coverage. APs must connect by cat5 ethernet to the one real router. In lieu of wired ethernet for this run, one can replace the cat5 wire with MoCA (IP on existing TV coax) or with IP on power wiring such as HomePlug; see the forum sections on those items.

A WiFi bridge - client bridge- appears to be a client to the AP, just as laptops and handhelds do. But the bridge passes data packets to/from an ethernet port to a PC or an ethernet switch connecting to many PCs. A bridge is used to service wired client devices that cannot each connect by wire to the router. Example: an out-building.

A WiFi repeater (WDS) is just that, it retransmits whatever it hears, after changing the destination address in the LAN. Most don't have two radios so retransmission halves the data rate. And there's no standard for WDS so it's hit and miss among vendor products.

This might help... see the ones on whole house coverage. See also the ones on re-purposing a WiFi router as an AP
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics

 

[Dooms87]

Your WiFi router is a router + a WiFi access point (AP) all in one.
Adding APs creates new coverage. Nothing to do with all the routing that goes on in a WiFi router. Adding APs is the usual way to improve coverage. APs must connect by cat5 ethernet to the one real router. In lieu of wired ethernet for this run, one can replace the cat5 wire with MoCA (IP on existing TV coax) or with IP on power wiring such as HomePlug; see the forum sections on those items.

A WiFi bridge - client bridge- appears to be a client to the AP, just as laptops and handhelds do. But the bridge passes data packets to/from an ethernet port to a PC or an ethernet switch connecting to many PCs. A bridge is used to service wired client devices that cannot each connect by wire to the router. Example: an out-building.

A WiFi repeater (WDS) is just that, it retransmits whatever it hears, after changing the destination address in the LAN. Most don't have two radios so retransmission halves the data rate. And there's no standard for WDS so it's hit and miss among vendor products.

This might help... see the ones on whole house coverage. See also the ones on re-purposing a WiFi router as an AP
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics

......Soo I cant do this wirelessly then ???? I do not want to run Ethernet cable or buy adapters if i can do this with the equipment that i already have. I've read the articles you told me to read and they provided me next to no insight into how to resolve my problem. Between you,your articles, youtube and other forums i'm just getting more and more confused your telling me theirs 4 different ways to do the same thing and they're all called the same thing. This is very frustrating I just want to know if it is possible to use my E3000 to wirelessly extend the range of my Wifi signal in my house. IF So How ?

 

[thiggins]

The best way to extend coverage is to add access points connected by a wired method. Ethernet is the most preferable connection method, MoCA second and powerline third. Wireless connection is a distant last. This and other methods are described in The Best Way To Get Whole House Wireless Coverage.

You can try wireless extenders. But they cut throughput in half and are really only suited for bringing a low level of wireless throughput to areas that currently have either very low signal or none. They are not helpful to improve wireless performance, i.e. raise throughput, to areas that already have a wireless signal.

If you are not skilled in networking, you are better off buying a ready-made solution vs. trying to install custom firmware on the E3000 and get it to work. You are certainly not going to get a step-by-step guide.

We have tested a few wireless extenders, which you can find listed here.