How Many Wifi Extenders Can You Have in Your House

With a three GB bucket of wireless data from your cellphone company often costing more than than Usa$50, it makes sense to take advantage of the often unlimited or at least generous nature of a inexpensive, wired home Internet connexion when yous can.

Netflix reckons that its moving picture and Goggle box streaming service, using its Best Quality setting in High Definition, uses up to four.vii GB of data an 60 minutes — that'due south 282 GB a calendar month for a daily two-hr picture, or a theoretical $4,700 if y'all were to apply a phone'southward LTE connexion.

I've been writing about ways to improve things if you're having issues with your home Cyberspace, and recently looked at interference. In the past, I've likewise looked atvideo streaming improvementsyou can make and adding a single repeater to widen your WiFi network'due south range.

---

See update published May 21, 2020:How to Soup Up Your Dwelling WiFi With Multiple Repeaters and Access Points

---

However, large homes and older homes with thick walls can utilize multiple access points (hard-wired) and repeaters (wireless) to spread the indicate throughout the home. Hither'south how to get budget-friendly multimedia-streaming signals to the corners of your house.

Step one: Survey

Download a free analyzer app for your phone. I've been using Farproc's WiFi Analyzer for Android, bachelor in the Google Play store.

The app shows signal levels graphically. Walk around your domicile, making notes of the existing WiFi signal strength in far corners. Survey kids' bedrooms and the yard, including the iPad-popular pool expanse if you have one.

Tip: A signal strength reading of -80 or -90 dBm is unsatisfactory and tin cause poor functioning. It's a negative number, and then closer to nil is better.

Pace ii: Plan your Topology

Call up of the existing router every bit the hub in a physical star-based topology. This hub is the central device that provides the Internet from the street.

Ane or more wireless access points connect with cables to the hub. Think of the cable as the spoke and the admission betoken as the node.

One wireless repeater connects wirelessly to each wireless access point. The existing WiFi enabled router tin have its ain wireless repeater too.

The repeater extends the star outwards and extends the range outwards from the existing router. The existing router feeds an access point via a cable, and then the access point feeds the repeater, which in turn feeds the end user device.

Step 3: Programme the Layout

Rooms that have a satisfactory signal obtained in the initial survey tin be ignored. Areas with poor indicate strength should be hard-wired to the hub; areas with very poor or no signal strength should be covered past the wireless repeater.

For example, if the existing router is in the den on one side of the firm and there'due south very poor signal in the kitchen on the other side of the house, then place a wired access betoken in the hallway exterior the den, and a wireless repeater in the kitchen. The cabled wireless access point volition function similar a shifted existing router, extending the wireless signal down the hallway. The wireless repeater will pick the signal up and distribute it to low-ability devices in the kitchen.

Tip: Be aware that repeaters, simply not access points, reduce Internet speeds.

Step iv: Buy the Gear

I used a combination of Belkin products including Belkin F9K1106 Dual Band Range Extenders and Belkin F9K1102 N600 Wireless Dual Band Northward+ Routers, which you can convert to an access bespeak. Yous can use any existing WiFi routers.

Footstep 5: Convert the New Router to an Access Point

Open the new router'due south dashboard and expect for a "Configure as Access Point" or similar setting. Then save the configuration.

Step vi: Install the Access Points

Connect the access points to the existing router's LAN ports.

Tip: Use an unintuitive LAN Ethernet port on the new router — the one that's converted to an access point — and non the WAN port when connecting to the existing router.

Stride 7: Configure the Repeaters

Follow the product-included instructions to configure each repeater to repeat each access signal, or the existing WiFi-enabled router.

Tip: Each repeater/admission point or repeater/existing router combination should exist on different frequency channels. Each access betoken must have a unique proper noun, called an "SSID" — the repeater uses it to find the access betoken.

Brand configuration changes in the configuration dashboards.

At a family member'southward dwelling house recently, I hard-wired one access betoken to the existing router so placed that access point in the living room. I then placed one of the wireless repeaters, configured to echo the living room access indicate, in the previously-no-indicate yard, thus providing bespeak exterior.

I placed a second wireless repeater, configured to repeat the existing WiFi-enabled router, in an upstairs bedroom that had skilful signal coverage from the existing survey. This provided good repeated signal in a sleeping room down the upstairs hallway that had very poor signal force initially.

I obtained a strong, streaming-friendly signal throughout the house and yard.

Want to Ask a Tech Question?

Is there a slice of tech you'd like to know how to operate properly? Is in that location a gadget that'southward got you confounded? Please send your tech questions to me, and I'll endeavor to answer every bit many every bit possible in this column.

And utilize the Talkback characteristic beneath to add your comments!

edwardsworgalenly.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.technewsworld.com/story/how-to-boost-your-home-wifi-with-multiple-repeaters-and-access-points-79050.html

Share this post