Wireless Extender

[TomT]

Hi
I've added a TPLink wireless extender to my network connecting to my Asus rt-ac68u.

For best results should this have the same ssid and use the same channel as the wireless on the Asus ?

I want to make sure we get the best from it.

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

By definition, wireless extenders operate on the same channel as the network they are extending.

Same SSID, or different? There is no right answer. A different SSID lets you make sure a device is connected to the extender network. With same SSID, you have no control, but you don't have to keep switching networks. A device might stay connected to the weaker network, defeating the purpose of having an extender.

This behavior is device dependent. So you need to experiment and see what works for you.

 

[remixedcat]

range extenders halve B/W.... remember that

 

[TomT]

range extenders halve B/W.... remember that

Sorry.. Can you clarify this.

Half bandwidth or speed ?
Is it just the 'extended' WiFi or all WiFi ?

The issue I currently have isni can stream a video from my tablet to a chromecast.

The video is on the tablet, it starts to play but stops, starts and stutters.

Could the extender be effecting this ?
Thanks

 

[stevech]

Any WiFi repeater halves the "throughput" because it must receive then retransmit. A repeater is often marketing-speak called a range extender. In IEEE jargon, the term WDS is used for a repeater than is wireless in and wireless out. There are "extenders" that use the AC power line on one side and WiFi on the other - but in converting from AC power line signals to WiFi, it's a repeater none the less.

People use the term "bandwidth" to mean speed or throughput. Not correct.

Bandwidth in engineering terms is the channel's width or capacity for a particular data modulation and framing method, like WiFi's speed steps.
The throughput within that channel is less than the capacity of course. This is due to overhead, delays for clear channel assessment, forward error correction, etc.

The stuttering has many causes. If you turn off the repeater/extender and the move the tablet near the WiFi router, does it stutter? If no, try moving farther away and see if it stutters (dropped frames). It will at some weak signal point.

If the tablet has a good signal from the repeater, AND if the repeater has a good signal from the WiFi router, AND if you are watching modest-speed videos like Netflix, you should see no "stutter".

Wireless is hard. But you can't have a weak signal into the extender/repeater and expect great results.

 

[sfx2000]

Sorry.. Can you clarify this.

Half bandwidth or speed ?
Is it just the 'extended' WiFi or all WiFi ?

The issue I currently have isni can stream a video from my tablet to a chromecast.

The video is on the tablet, it starts to play but stops, starts and stutters.

Could the extender be effecting this ?
Thanks

Speed is the same actually, but where the impact is - it's time...

WiFi is a shared medium - a Repeater is on the same channel as the master AP, and for clients that access the repeater, well, the repeater needs to receive and transmit those frames - and the repeater to AP link needs to keep the air clear for everyone on that SSID set until the Client-Repeater comms are done...

sfx

 

[sm00thpapa]

Go with powerline adapters and another router as an AP to extend your network. Just cascade them to be on the same subnet.

 

[thiggins]

The issue I currently have isni can stream a video from my tablet to a chromecast.

The video is on the tablet, it starts to play but stops, starts and stutters.

If the video is a file on the tablet, increasing signal strength might help. If it's a web-streamed video, maybe not due to too much bandwidth expected from the tablet's 1x1 radio due to retransmission.

That's why Chromecast works best with apps. All the tablet does is let you select the video and control start / stop. Once the video starts playing, the stream is direct to the Chromecast.

Have you tried using Android screen casting or mirroring? That connects directly to Chromecast, so your WiFi network doesn't come into play.