A decent universal wifi extender?

[Elfgore]

Long story short, I bought one from Belkin and it is a piece of shit. I tried looking online for some tips, but it seemed every site I visited put more effort into saying why I shouldn't get one. Simply put, I cannot make use of any other means. Cables would have to go from one side of my house to the other and thanks to Time Warner Cable, my router is also my modem. So I'm coming to the escapist for help.

Price-wise, I'd like to stick to around 80-120 USD. I of course want quality to come with it, mostly in the form of a stable connection and range extension. So, anyone got anything for me?

 

[Albino Boo]

Hmm the netgear EX6200 and Linksys RE6500 are both pretty effective. However I can offer any guarantees because I don't know how thick your internal walls are what they insulated with. Your could try using one of the homeplug kits that sends ethernet over the electrical system. You will get a faster speed than wireless.

 

[Elfgore]

Hmm the netgear EX6200 and Linksys RE6500 are both pretty effective. However I can offer any guarantees because I don't know how thick your internal walls are what they insulated with. Your could try using one of the homeplug kits that sends ethernet over the electrical system. You will get a faster speed than wireless.

That... I think I may be in love. Any clue if I can plug another router into that little thing and get wifi starting in the area I want?

Spoiler

I use the TP-Link "TL-WA901ND". It reaches the neighbor's wifi, despite being more than 50m away, over a small body of water, across a driveway, and through some trees.

It works as a standard wifi access point out of the box, but you can configure it into "universal repeater" mode, to piggyback off an existing wifi network.

It also comes with a power-over-ethernet injector, which allows you to power the unit by the ethernet cable alone, so you can place the unit somewhere where there isn't a power socket.

About how easy would you say that is to get wifi bouncing of that? Do I have to mess around with any WPS codes and the like?

 

[DoPo]

Just adding it as a suggestion - I've got a pair of TP-LINK TL-PA4030KIT and they work great. It's not a Wi-Fi extender, but depending on your needs, it might work. They use the power line to transfer the traffic, so, essentially, you plug one to your router with an ethernet cable and then, plug it in a wall socket, and the other one(s) you plug to the wall again and to whatever devices you want with ethernet again. Word of caution: whether they work for you or not may depend on your electrical installation, but if they do, they give you stable, reliable internet access. At pretty decent speeds, too.

 

[Albino Boo]

Hmm the netgear EX6200 and Linksys RE6500 are both pretty effective. However I can offer any guarantees because I don't know how thick your internal walls are what they insulated with. Your could try using one of the homeplug kits that sends ethernet over the electrical system. You will get a faster speed than wireless.

That... I think I may be in love. Any clue if I can plug another router into that little thing and get wifi starting in the area I want?

They have normal ethernet ports on them. If it has an ethernet port you can use it. I use one down to my shed, its 75 feet away and plunged into a wireless access point with a four port switch.

 

[Aramis Night]

I tend to game online so for me a wireless connection is unacceptable. It might be fine for some games, but if you play anything fast paced with pvp, wireless is a good way to lose. You will likely experience increased lag due to anything from people walking in the path of the signal to bad weather, on top of just the signal itself simply being slower than a plugged in Ethernet connection. In many games whoever has the least latency has the advantage so using wireless is simply handicapping yourself. If you play turn based games you should be fine.

That being said Belkin equipment is notoriously bad for gamers.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Hmm the netgear EX6200 and Linksys RE6500 are both pretty effective. However I can offer any guarantees because I don't know how thick your internal walls are what they insulated with. Your could try using one of the homeplug kits that sends ethernet over the electrical system. You will get a faster speed than wireless.

That... I think I may be in love. Any clue if I can plug another router into that little thing and get wifi starting in the area I want?

If you want something simpler and smaller there's also the EX6100 which I've found to be really good. It can extend WiFi from another access point and has an Ethernet port to connect a wired device or router, or it can create a standalone access point or one connected to a wired network. I've got one mounted on my roof under a little cover to keep the rain off, connected to my main network over Gigabit Ethernet. It provides WiFi access to my entire backyard (an acre) from the very front though it's a little spotty down the back where it's at the furthest point and in some pretty thick bushland. Outside of that it's fast enough to steam HD video from my network drive. The EX6200 would likely provide even better coverage but as a full sized router it's bulkier and more expensive.

 

[ffronw]

Just adding it as a suggestion - I've got a pair of TP-LINK TL-PA4030KIT and they work great. It's not a Wi-Fi extender, but depending on your needs, it might work. They use the power line to transfer the traffic, so, essentially, you plug one to your router with an ethernet cable and then, plug it in a wall socket, and the other one(s) you plug to the wall again and to whatever devices you want with ethernet again. Word of caution: whether they work for you or not may depend on your electrical installation, but if they do, they give you stable, reliable internet access. At pretty decent speeds, too.

Powerline kits are awesome. I have one that carries internet to my son's PC, and it's awesome. They're fairly cheap, easy to install, and there's no dropping of wireless to worry with.

 

[DoPo]

Just adding it as a suggestion - I've got a pair of TP-LINK TL-PA4030KIT and they work great. It's not a Wi-Fi extender, but depending on your needs, it might work. They use the power line to transfer the traffic, so, essentially, you plug one to your router with an ethernet cable and then, plug it in a wall socket, and the other one(s) you plug to the wall again and to whatever devices you want with ethernet again. Word of caution: whether they work for you or not may depend on your electrical installation, but if they do, they give you stable, reliable internet access. At pretty decent speeds, too.

Powerline kits are awesome. I have one that carries internet to my son's PC, and it's awesome. They're fairly cheap, easy to install, and there's no dropping of wireless to worry with.

Yes, the only problem I have with mine is...Windows. Seriously. For some goddamn, stupid reason, Windows just refuses to work with my Ethernet port. Keeps complaining about drivers - if I uninstall them, it installs it again and complains; if I completely remove them, it complains it can't find them. It's like a really fussy kid throwing a temper tantrum. For some reason, when I try googling the issue I'm getting, I keep hitting questions from people making a Hackintosh (apparently, my motherboard is often used in those) which is not really helpful, like, one bit.

 

[Albino Boo]

Yes, the only problem I have with mine is...Windows. Seriously. For some goddamn, stupid reason, Windows just refuses to work with my Ethernet port. Keeps complaining about drivers - if I uninstall them, it installs it again and complains; if I completely remove them, it complains it can't find them. It's like a really fussy kid throwing a temper tantrum. For some reason, when I try googling the issue I'm getting, I keep hitting questions from people making a Hackintosh (apparently, my motherboard is often used in those) which is not really helpful, like, one bit.

Weird, I use a TP link powerline and don't have any issues at all. Windows doesn't even know they are there. Try uninstalling the power line utility

 

[DoPo]

Yes, the only problem I have with mine is...Windows. Seriously. For some goddamn, stupid reason, Windows just refuses to work with my Ethernet port. Keeps complaining about drivers - if I uninstall them, it installs it again and complains; if I completely remove them, it complains it can't find them. It's like a really fussy kid throwing a temper tantrum. For some reason, when I try googling the issue I'm getting, I keep hitting questions from people making a Hackintosh (apparently, my motherboard is often used in those) which is not really helpful, like, one bit.

Weird, I use a TP link powerline and don't have any issues at all. Windows doesn't even know they are there. Try uninstalling the power line utility

It's not the powerline utility (actually, I don't have it installed) - Windows literally doesn't like the Ethernet port. It's not just the powerline kit it does it for.

I'm not too bothered about it, though. Everything works flawlessly on Linux, I also just use the wireless, anyway - I was just testing the powerline kit.

 

[DoPo]

- Windows literally doesn't like the Ethernet port.

I've had that problem in the past. Ethernet connections dropping out or giving me bizarre IPs such as "0.0.0.0" when I do an ipconfig.

It doesn't even get to a stage where I'm having these problems - Windows is just saying "Cannot start device: Code 10". For funzies, I went and looked up what Code 10 is - I mean, it could have been something more specific, like, I dunno - not enough power (for some reason) or, say, driver failure of some sort. No, it Code 10 means "Cannot start device". So, it's pretty useless.

Disabling the on-board ethernet and installing a separate ethernet card fixed it.

If it's really causing you problems, PCI/PCI-E gigabit ethernet cards are pretty cheap now.

I know external card should work, but it's not really an issue - as I said, I'm using the wireless anyway.

 

[renegade7]

Awesome, I get to talk about my major!

You want either a directional antenna for your router if you don't plan to move your computer around, or you want a high-gain receiver for your computer if it's a laptop and you'll be moving around the house.

Most wifi antennae are omni-directional, as a consequence signal power is lost by an inverse-cube relationship with distance. A directional antenna focuses the signal into a cone shape and you get much better range in that direction.

I recommend that if possible. A high-gain receiver will extend the range for a laptop, but you'll get much less speed at longer ranges.

This equipment can be purchased on the cheap or homemade for even less if you're feeling up for a challenge. No fiddling around with repeaters and cabling.

Also, another suggestion. Try reducing interference. Is there a lot of plumbing or wiring in between your router and where you use your computer? That will cause a problem, move your work area if possible.