I have a very simple at-home issue I can't solve. Cost effective way to extend at-home wireless.

zamardii12

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So, we have Verizon at my house. The Verizon signal comes into the Verizon router in the living room, but the signal is too weak in the furthest bedroom. I have tried using one of those WIFI extenders from Amazon but they simple don't work. The only way it works is using it to power my 5 port switch in the bedroom.

What is a cost-effective way to extend the wireless network in the house? I tried plugging one of the CAT5 cables into the LAN side of a wireless router I had bought figuring it would just re-transmit the existing network connection in the room without giving out IP addresses... it worked for maybe a day and then stopped working.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
So, you definitely can't just connect a wireless router via its switch ports to a network and have it extend an existing wireless network. Wireless networks don't work that way (fortunately, and unfortunately). What you need is probably just a better wireless router, or some dedicated APs. Either way, it's getting rid of the terrible wireless that's often provided by carrier routers in the home. You could either go a simpler route with an out of the box mesh solution, or you can do something a bit more feature rich.
  • So this is a Verizon WISP router right? LTE to the home via the Verizon router?
  • This router then acts as your wireless router for the home?
  • It sounds like you have ethernet runs into different areas of the home?
  • How large is the home?
  • Single floor, multifloor, basement?
 
Buy 2 of these or one depending on you square footage and 1 or two story home/townhouse.
and follow this guide
 
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Yeah, if all you want to do is get Ethrnet on the other end of your house, Powerline Ethernet works pretty well for me. The latest 1Gbps tech gets over 300MBps real-world transfers, and that's in my 75 year-old house.

I use it for my Brother printer, which has a wireless sleep bug, but works fine on Ethernet. And I use this to feed my HTPC.

They're pretty cheap nowadays. IF you only need two ports, you don't even need t add an unsightly switch on the other side.

https://smile.amazon.com/TP-Link-Po...ing=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&ie=UTF8&th=1
 
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Sounds like you already have a cable ran from 1st router to second. If you dont mind not having seamless roaming (1 or 2 second disconnect) then log into second router and:
1 set its ip address to something different then 1st
2 disable dhcp on 2nd
3 set wireless settings the same as first
4 plug cable from lan to lan between routers

This has worked great for me and I've used this setup for years setting up for clients and family. As long as you don't mind a slight disconnect it works great (as long as the signal from both is not at a very weak point standing in the middle of both APs. In that case the client will switch back and forth constantly. Just make sure the signal is at least 25% mid distance between)
 
I disagree entirely; powerline is not the better solution. It may be more comfortable, but that's it. Plus you end up with three extra hardwire connection in each location the routers are placed. There is no comparison regarding performance. What I proposed is better than Ubiquiti, Velop, Orbi, Airports, or any other mesh wifi. Do the math read some reviews. I wouldn't have posted it if it wasn't right.
 
I disagree entirely; powerline is not the better solution. It may be more comfortable, but that's it. Plus you end up with three extra hardwire connection in each location the routers are placed. There is no comparison regarding performance. What I proposed is better than Ubiquiti, Velop, Orbi, Airports, or any other mesh wifi. Do the math read some reviews. I wouldn't have posted it if it wasn't right.

Humility is definitely one of your strong characteristics, apparently.
 
Humility is definitely one of your strong characteristics, apparently.

Yes I'm a very humble guy thanks for noticing unless you were being a sarcastic demagogue in which case I wouldn't want to be you and please spare me anymore personal attacks. Try staying on topic and being constructive. For example; prove me wrong. That might help the OP which is why I'm here.
 
Yes I'm a very humble guy thanks for noticing unless you were being a sarcastic demagogue in which case I wouldn't want to be you and please spare me anymore personal attacks. Try staying on topic and being constructive. For example; prove me wrong. That might help the OP which is why I'm here.

Other than the fact that the TP-Link C1200 is not even in the same ballpark as far as hardware goes vs a Ubiquiti UniFi setup. Your recommendation probably works, but to say that it's better than Ubiquiti is objectively incorrect. Good luck to anyone dealing with wonky roaming issues and terrible backhaul performance.
 
If you set up 3, you know the three pack so familiar, by the time you get to the third repeater it is less than the TP C1200 at peak performance and for that matter the OP expressed a desire for a cost-effective way. I interpreted that meant the best bang for the buck. There are indeed much better routers out there but at a significant price increase.
 
The latest 1Gbps tech gets over 300MBps real-world transfers, and that's in my 75 year-old house.

I'm using a (now discontinued) Netgear set to pass my home theater stack through a wall; basically didn't want all of that crap competing for already crowded spectrum in what is a new apartment building. I also get >300Mbps per the management page.

However, I would not purchase a powerline networking set without the intent of testing it and the ability to return it. Just no way to know whether it will work on your power infrastructure with your placement and bandwidth needs.

Worth trying though.

Here's the newest version of what I'm using. The built-in AP on my older set actually works surprisingly well, though I don't use it much; it's a backup for when I'm messing with my UAP-AC Pro :D.
 
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If you set up 3, you know the three pack so familiar, by the time you get to the third repeater it is less than the TP C1200 at peak performance and for that matter the OP expressed a desire for a cost-effective way. I interpreted that meant the best bang for the buck. There are indeed much better routers out there but at a significant price increase.

That's definitely fair on the cost-effective approach - but I was mostly concerned with the claim about being better than a Ubiquiti setup, or anything similar. I would honestly still use powerline ethernet over any range extender type setup. But in any case, there's tons of ways to achieve what OP wants, it just depends on performance requirements and latency/reliability sensitivities.
 
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