WiFi extender vs repeater

[Ray Gin]

I am on the edge of the WiFi signal range in my room and occasionally the PC drops the WiFi signal altogether. The router (Bt) is under the stairs and can’t really be moved.

Question(s)

Is an extender meant to be plugged into a socket next to/near the router and hard wired to the router? That’s what I’ve seen elsewhere online, although I don’t see how that would help with signal to the PC upstairs, if it’s just sat next to the router. Unless it can transmit the signal further than the router can?

As for the repeater, they are meant to be ideally plugged in halfway between the router and the device, right? If so that wouldn’t really be practical.

Previously I’ve always gamed with a wired connection so I’ve never needed to look into this, but that doesn’t seem possible in this house.

I’ve seen a thread on this before but it was from 8 years ago so I figured new gadgets may be out by now etc.

Advice welcome along with recommendations for which extender to buy 👍🏻 Cheers.

 

[Bluebeard]

My parents live in an annexe to the side of my house that is about 3-4 feet away. So maybe 6ft by the time you add in both of our walls?

We are on the same ring main so we’ve plugged a WiFi extender next to their router in their downstairs living room and a WiFi extender to the upstairs landing in our house. I get amazing signal everywhere apart from our kitchen. Brilliant things and they were less than £60 I think. Bargain.

 

[Ray Gin]

Ah yes, so there’ll be one plugged into the router and another one plugged closer to your devices. Makes sense. This appears to be highly rated

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07J652QRY/?tag=cliospnet01-21

 

[c4pob]

Ah yes, so there’ll be one plugged into the router and another one plugged closer to your devices. Makes sense. This appears to be highly rated

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07J652QRY/?tag=cliospnet01-21

These things are mega. I’ve got them at my house. Rock solid reliability for me. My lockdown office (a detached garage) has perfect internet and wifi through this system.

 

[c4pob]

 

[Ben]

Ah yes, so there’ll be one plugged into the router and another one plugged closer to your devices. Makes sense. This appears to be highly rated

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07J652QRY/?tag=cliospnet01-21

That won’t boost any WiFi though mate. Ethernet only, which isn’t a bad thing tbf.

 

[Ray Gin]

These things are mega. I’ve got them at my house. Rock solid reliability for me. My lockdown office (a detached garage) has perfect internet and wifi through this system.

Nice one cheers 👍🏻

That won’t boost any WiFi though mate. Ethernet only, which isn’t a bad thing tbf.

Ah I see. I guess if I can just plug it in near my desk I can just run an Ethernet to the pc. Ideal actually

 

[c4pob]

Nice one cheers 👍🏻

Ah I see. I guess if I can just plug it in near my desk I can just run an Ethernet to the pc. Ideal actually

You can get them with WiFi built in. That’s what I’ve got in my garage (the top one on the pic) more expensive but then it offers Ethernet and WiFi.

 

[c4pob]

TP-LINK TL-WPA4220KIT AV600 Powerline 300 M Wi-Fi Extender/Wi-Fi Booster/Hotspot with Two Ethernet Ports, Starter Kit/Twin Pack (Easy Configuration, Wi-Fi Clone for Smartphone/Tablets/Laptop) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DHB2T44/?tag=cliospnet01-21

 

[Ray Gin]

TP-LINK TL-WPA4220KIT AV600 Powerline 300 M Wi-Fi Extender/Wi-Fi Booster/Hotspot with Two Ethernet Ports, Starter Kit/Twin Pack (Easy Configuration, Wi-Fi Clone for Smartphone/Tablets/Laptop) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DHB2T44/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Ordered. Cheers 👍🏻

 

[Rob]

These things are mega. I’ve got them at my house. Rock solid reliability for me. My lockdown office (a detached garage) has perfect internet and wifi through this system.

You may be able to answer my question then... I assume this garage has a dedicated power supply, so it’s not on the same circuit as your house plugs? And this still works? I assumed everything would need be on the same circuit? I.e downstairs power circuit or similar.

 

[c4pob]

It’s a 70’s house. It should be on a separate circuit but fortunately for me, it’s not.

 

[Cub.]

I run power line into my external office. Brilliant.

 

[leeds2592]

Anyone know why powerlines would suddenly stopped working? I've been using them for a ip camera on my garage about 20ft away from the house and it's been faultless for around a year then all of a sudden its decided to stop pairing.

Brought them both in the house and they pair fine. Took them both into the garage and again, they pair fine. But put one in the house and one in the garage and they're having none of it.

 

[barnesautos]

Anyone know why powerlines would suddenly stopped working? I've been using them for a ip camera on my garage about 20ft away from the house and it's been faultless for around a year then all of a sudden its decided to stop pairing.

Brought them both in the house and they pair fine. Took them both into the garage and again, they pair fine. But put one in the house and one in the garage and they're having none of it.

I run those power line ones and recently had issues where the slave would drop out the signal as I run a camera off of it . It only comes to light when you try and log in and it don’t happen.
Quick txt to the other half to pull it out and back in and it’s sorted again .

So after some digging about , I found out you can actually update them .
So now after doing that they have actually been spot on .

One day I’ll run a cat5 cable up it’s ass [emoji16]

 

[R3k1355]

Mine occasionally drop out and all need rebooting, probably more an issue with old electrics, the s**t local power grid and stuff.

 

[Ray Gin]

Still dinosaur speeds compared to my old gigafast deal, but much improved 👍🏻

 

[Ray Gin]

Weird issue with this extender. Had some connection issues earlier, rebooted router which seemed to speed things up on the home WiFi network, but the extender would no longer connect to the internet. I figured that rebooting the router may have disrupted some settings in the adapter, however the power, paired, Ethernet, and WiFi lights were all still on, but no internet connection. Tried a reset on the extender box, paired the 2 boxes again, and tried the extender in a different socket, but it still doesn’t want to connect to the internet anymore. On my PC it’s just showing as Ethernet connected to TP Link adapter, but no internet connection.

 

[barnesautos]

Weird issue with this extender. Had some connection issues earlier, rebooted router which seemed to speed things up on the home WiFi network, but the extender would no longer connect to the internet. I figured that rebooting the router may have disrupted some settings in the adapter, however the power, paired, Ethernet, and WiFi lights were all still on, but no internet connection. Tried a reset on the extender box, paired the 2 boxes again, and tried the extender in a different socket, but it still doesn’t want to connect to the internet anymore. On my PC it’s just showing as Ethernet connected to TP Link adapter, but no internet connection.

Have you tried updating the units ?
Made a more reliable connection for mine after I did.

 

[Ray Gin]

Have you tried updating the units ?
Made a more reliable connection for mine after I did.

I repaired them again and tested them in same room as router and it worked. Moved the extender to my room to it’s usual socket and it didn’t work. Moved it to a different socket and it worked. Weird.

 

[barnesautos]

I repaired them again and tested them in same room as router and it worked. Moved the extender to my room to it’s usual socket and it didn’t work. Moved it to a different socket and it worked. Weird.

I have found that if the socket is on a different ring main then connection fails . I have had the same issue.

 

[Ph1 Tom]

I ran a cat 6 cable from my router to a Netgear wireless switch. Works faultlessly if you're able to run a cable.