are wifi extenders worth the money?

[ShaggyKids]

Beautiful day here so I take my tablet into the backyard going to do a little Kindle reading and find I have no internet connection. My Nexus 7 always had a connection in the back yard but disappointingly my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 and my Note 2 do not. Testing shows I lose connection at the back door. So I'm wondering if wifi extenders are worth the money? How much more range might I expect? Anyone have any brand recommendations or other suggestions?


Deb's Note 10.1

 

[B. Diddy]

They work pretty well, but keep in mind that many extenders will decrease the overall connection speed by as much as half. Not that big a deal if you're not doing any heavy duty gaming, but if you want to stream HD video, a drop from 5 MBPS to 2.5 MBPS might become noticeable.

 

[ShaggyKids]

Does it matter how far the extender needs to extend the signal? I need about 8-10ft from my door where the signal seems to drop off completely. Should I set up an extender in the drop area or near my computer?

 

[B. Diddy]

I think it all depends on the extender. Higher quality ones will be able to extend the signal much farther than cheap ones.

 

[ShaggyKids]

Yeah, I see they're not cheap, sheesh! I figured I'd be spending about $30 ....

 

[B. Diddy]

Here's one for $30--and it's new, not refurbished! ZyXEL is a decent company, but maybe not top-tier. 3.5 stars on Amazon. Might be worth trying.

ZyXEL WRE2205 Wireless-N Range Extender - Extends and Repeats Your Wi-Fi Network

 

[ShaggyKids]

Looks like some good prices on eBay, too. Maybe I can pick up a high end one for cheap.

 

[DenverRalphy]

Actually, in your situation, it would be cheaper to just buy some cat5 cable, and just move your wireless router to a more efficient location in your home.

SwiftKeyed/Flowed via Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[gone down south]

If you have an old router lying around, it's easy to make it into a wireless bridge.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Rukbat]

They work pretty well, but keep in mind that many extenders will decrease the overall connection speed by as much as half.

That's the wifi speed, not the connection to the provider speed. IOW, if your speed to your provider is 5mbps, and your wifi speed is 54mbps, an extender will cut that wifi speed down to 27mbps, which will decrease your connection speed to about 4.9999mbps. It's not a real world consideration.

As far as location, the extender should be getting a good signal from both the router and the computer (phone, tab, whatever), so about midway between the router and where you want the signal extended to should work best.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's interesting, because the one time I tried an extender, my download speed (checked with Speedtest.net) was cut from 15 MBPS to around 6 MBPS. Not sure if there was something else causing problems, but once I went back to using a separate access point rather than an extender, the speed went back up to 15 MBPS.

 

[ShaggyKids]

That's interesting, because the one time I tried an extender, my download speed (checked with Speedtest.net) was cut from 15 MBPS to around 6 MBPS. Not sure if there was something else causing problems, but once I went back to using a separate access point rather than an extender, the speed went back up to 15 MBPS.

Doesn't VZW charge a monthly fee for an access point? This is for my home network which is not on any cell connection, it runs on my cable connection. I'm probably misunderstanding - would someone please explain the difference between an extender and an access point? I have a Linksys Router, maybe there's a way I can increase distance directly from it?

 

[Shadowriver]

Doesn't VZW charge a monthly fee for an access point? This is for my home network which is not on any cell connection, it runs on my cable connection. I'm probably misunderstanding - would someone please explain the difference between an extender and an access point? I have a Linksys Router, maybe there's a way I can increase distance directly from it?

Access Point it's a heart of wifi network, bringing your cable Ethernet network (or diffrent else) with wifi network (it makes all wifi devices act the same as they would be connected by cable) and also as a switch of for Wifi devices, If you connect to wifi network, you connect to it. Wired Router and access Point are technically sperate devices, but now days they are in 2 in 1 package, If you got wired-only router and you want to include wireless network you don't need to buy new router, just buy Access Point

Extender, is very simple device, it just work as retransmitter of Wifi network and amplify it from different location extending the rage of wifi network, in reality you connecting to original access point thru that relay.

Some routers with Wifi have also Brige mode which combines 2 wired networks wirelessly and pending on router also combines 2 wireless networks, but it's more complex solution

 

[ShaggyKids]

Thank you, Shadowriver Did I get this right? It sounds like if I get an Access Point I hook that up to my router wirelessly and then put the Access Point hardware closer to my back yard and it will make my signal stronger for when I want to be in the backyard with my tablet or phone connected to my network instead of to VZW. The Access Point will not lessen my signal like an extender? Yes? No?

I've now done a little bit of research. I have a Linksys G router that's probably about 2 years old. If I get a new router that has more signal strength this might solve the problem, correct? It looks like the Linksys AC would have the best signal strength, your input?

 

[B. Diddy]

An Access Point is any additional wifi transmitter in your house that transmits the original signal. In my case, I use Powerline technology (that can transmit your internet signal over the house's own electrical wiring) to extend my signal. I have my primary wifi router connected to my cable modem in my study, and an Ethernet cable running from router to a Powerline adapter in a wall socket. This gets my internet signal into the electrical wiring, so I can plug another Powerline adapter into any electrical outlet and connect another Ethernet cable there to create an internet jack.

Instead of plugging a computer into that additional internet jack, I plugged in another wifi router, which I configured as an Access Point. All this router does is pick up the signal and transmit it via wifi.

There are 2 reasons why I did this convoluted connection: (1) the 2nd router that I'm using as an Access Point was supposed to function as an Extender as well, but it didn't function well, and (2) Extenders often cut down the speed of the data transmission.

You are correct that getting a new Wireless N router should give you more range.

 

[ShaggyKids]

Then a new router it will be.. Thanks!