I know there are a lot of IT whizzes in STW land so suggestions please on how to extend the range of my Wi-Fi.

We have a long house with separate accomodation on one end which I need to extend the Wi-Fi into. The router is the other end of the house and doesn’t quite reach. It’s a stud wall separating the two, so not an impossible barrier. I do get a poor Wi-Fi signal in the nearest corner of the annexe but I need it to be decent strength throughout.

The router is a pretty new Linksys 2000 so probably as good a range as I’m going to get from a router, and moving it is not an option. Is there some kind of repeater I can get to boost the signal at the far end?

I think if you google wifi repeater you’ll find loads of stuff

(I have a powerline adaptor that does ethernet & wifi as well so I have a networked storage disc and wifi repeater upstairs away from the “main” computer)

Repeater will work but tend to be expensive ish.

Another alternative is to get (beg, borrow, scrounge – people will have them) another router and configure it as an access point and link it to the first one via network (length of cat 5 or use powerline connection).

I had a spare old router knocking about and did the latter which also gave me a wired hub I needed for plugging in some non-wi fi hardware (Sky box, receiver etc). Easy to do and works a treat.

I have a router here. Looks good, simply that we got a new one when we changed provider. Yours for postage…

We use a router as an access point in one part of the house and one of these powerline adapters that has both an RJ45 socket and wireless fro the other part. Works very very well indeed.

Thanks guys. I like the idea of the powerline adaptor as I also have a couple of other devices that would be good to connect by cable to speed up the connection.

Jerome, thanks but I actually have an old router around somewhere I think. If I can’t find it I will ping you

Another alternative is to get (beg, borrow, scrounge – people will have them) another router and configure it as an access point and link it to the first one via network (length of cat 5 or use powerline connection).

If you do this what is best practice re SSID names – both the same or different?

If you do this what is best practice re SSID names – both the same or different?

suffix one with _1 and the other with _2 🙂

Different SSID names

I wondered if you could have same ssid and it move seamlessly between the two routers…

I wondered if you could have same ssid and it move seamlessly between the two routers…

I read that it should work so I tried it but the iPad kept asking for passwords even though they were the same for each access point – laptops seemed to be better but the iPad gets used 99% of the time.
Last night I changed the SSID’s and the iPad now seems to be swapping from one access point to the other seamlessly.

I have a router/AP set up completely wirelessly and it’s set up with the same ssid. seems to work well though there is a few seconds delay ( not disconnection) when switching from one router to another.

cost about 25 quid from ebuyer iirc.

Folks

The recommended approach is to set multiple access points up with the same SSID and same security mechanism and password. You should however assign each adjacent access point with a different channel and ideally one which doesn’t overlap with any others. ie. 1, 6, and 11.

You should then be able to roam and your device should swap from one access point to the other depending upon signal strength. Some wireless cards swap as soon as they detect a stronger signal with the same SSID, some wait until the signal strength becomes unacceptable and then scans for an alternative. Either way the swap between the two should be seamless.

PS. Those powerline thingamajigs work great if you can’t run a cable between the router and the access point.

You should however assign each adjacent access point with a different channel and ideally one which doesn’t overlap with any others. ie. 1, 6, and 11.

Yep, tried this and the iPad wasn’t impressed – odd. May try again sometime.

SB

Dodgy things those ipads 😉

Praps give it another try and reset both routers/access points with a new password? also check both devices are using the same security mechanism WPA/PSK etc too.

I have large scale wireless networks set up like this in order to get roaming working, so you should be fine.

too right – shame they’re so bleedin good 🙂