WiFi Extenders that actually work?

[snapt]

I'm living in a guest house about 25 yards from the main compound. I can sometimes pick up the wifi signal but not strong enough to do anything. I have permission to try a wifi extender but the reviews for different models are all over the place online. Anyone have any real world experience with on that works consistently? Thanks

[ColMan]

We didn't have much luck with an extender and switched to Mesh instead. Using the Deco M5 and it kicks ass. Not cheap though ($150).

[adrenalated]

Never tried an extender, but I have the Google Nest mesh system with one of the points in my garage 30' from the house, and it works awesome.

[Skidog]

extenders stink. spend on the mesh. Ive seen them on woot, Orbi and linksys for under $200. I put in a linksys for $149 and its been fantastic. 5ghz throughout every part of the house now.

[TahoeJ]

Eero worked great for me.

[St. Jerry]

Orbi works well for me

[Core Shot]

Orbi works well for me

X2

There’s a thread somewhere
Search function Jong, I’m to lazy right now

[MESH]

If it was me I would put in a wireless bridge between the buildings and an access point in the guest house.

[RShea]

You have 2 options- if you have a wire available then the line of site between the 2 locations you can go with a Ubiquiti NanoStations on both sides for that distance would most likely work. Or you could go and get a mesh wifi setup and try and put one of the mesh units in the main structure close as possible to the outside wall toward the 2nd structure, and then another of the mesh inside the 2nd structure. How strong of a signal and if that works though also depends on things like the materials the walls are made of for the signal since both units would be indoors.

Other alternative maybe a directional antenna on the 2nd structure if you are getting any clear signal outside of the main structure and part way toward the 2nd structure. Pretty hard to say for sure on the internet without some site survey and signal strength information.

[mall walker]

I have this thing https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1WW638/ cuz our wifi wouldn't reach into the back yard for some reason. mind you our property is not very big. but it has worked great, with the caveat that you can't overwrite the SSID (I have "<myssid>" on my router and "<myssid>_EXT" from that thing)

[RShea]

I have this thing https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1WW638/ cuz our wifi wouldn't reach into the back yard for some reason. mind you our property is not very big. but it has worked great, with the caveat that you can't overwrite the SSID (I have "<myssid>" on my router and "<myssid>_EXT" from that thing)

I have installed similar (not the exact model) TP-Link Extenders and you can call the SSID on the models I've used anything you want. It defaults to the _EXT so you can differentiate the main router SSID and the extender's SSID.... Installation manual on the ones I have used state: "Either keep the default SSIDs (network names) or customize them for the extended networks" So if you want the FBI Surveillance Van and FBI Surveillance Van for the extender also you could but it is confusing and not recommended. So FBI Surveillance Van 1 and 2 would work if you wanted to differentiate the 2 signals. https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1400/ is another discussion of the setup.

[mall walker]

^ ah yeah ok. I couldn't remember if I set it up with different SSIDs because I had to, or because I wasn't sure if I could, or because of some other reason lol.

[RShea]

mall walker, also by the nature of those devices, your throughput is cut in half because of the 2 way traffic on extenders. If it is a small number of devices, and very little traffic (email standard web stuff like TGR and Facebook) you are fine maybe. But the Mesh devices are set up with a separate band for the overhead traffic and therefore are much better for streaming and higher end wifi traffic needs.

[Deebased]

Grab a Ubiquiti wireless bridge.

[riser4]

X3 for mesh. Orbi.

[snapt]

I guess I should have been more clear, landlord has an established router in his place and no desire to monkey with it too much. I don't want to invest in a mesh system as who knows how long I'll live in this spot? So I think an extender to try to get the signal to my place is my best/only option?

[skivan]

Ubiquiti or tplink outdoor radio wired to the main house modem as outdoor AP. I put one on my inlaws and you can pull 95% of bandwidth at >100’ from the house.

Edit - tplink CPE210 is what I did. $40 at amazon right now. Best if line of sight. Would work inside main house pointed at yours, but best outside. Not sure how many walls in your guest house it would go through. Or get 2, sender and receiver, and it acts as solid WiFi at your house, relayed.

[The Reverend Floater]

Eero worked great for me.

Me too. Killed the dead spots in the house and into the garage. Had some initial weirdness where it would kick my phone off but it seems to have gone away with the old unplug/replug. Overall, very happy with it.

[Kevo]

Thanks to this thread I just bought a Deco M5 from Amazon. My internet connection is terrible, so any help I can get from Wifi will be much needed.

[warthog]

As luck would have it, I am testing out my new Orbing 6 mesh right now and I found this thread.
So far so good. If my wireless sprinkler unit doesn't go offline every 2 days now, or if my kids stop bitching about the wifi being out, it will have been worth the money. I went top shelf due to the 2 prior mentioned problems.

Edit- just saw that the landlord has his own setup. Why not split the cost with him or get him to invest in a system? It would be a selling point when you move out.

[wannabe]

I have the first one listed in the linked review.

It works great, It sends the signal out to my office. I can work while my son streams video games on his xbox.


https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-wi-fi-extenders

It is pricey but if you can’t change the system to mesh this is a good alternative.


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

[RShea]

I guess I should have been more clear, landlord has an established router in his place and no desire to monkey with it too much. I don't want to invest in a mesh system as who knows how long I'll live in this spot? So I think an extender to try to get the signal to my place is my best/only option?

Directional Antenna would be worth a try!! If there is a signal to pick up just outside the main building/house/whatever and you do not have cooperation to put anything in the main structure. If there is no signal right near the main structure then you are going to have issues unless you plan on doing the wifi extender inside the main structure.

Also another question is do the 2 structures share the same electrical circuits, if so then you could also try a Power Lan Adapter. Uses the power line to transmit the ethernet and does not rely on wireless signal. But the landlord has to agree to have one on his side of the property and they work best as I stated if they have the same electrical.

[JongWhisperer]

We have this and it works pretty well

https://store.amplifi.com/products/a...h-wi-fi-system

[snapt]

Edit- just saw that the landlord has his own setup. Why not split the cost with him or get him to invest in a system? It would be a selling point when you move out.

He's my boss/friend and doesn't normally rent this spot out. Just doing me a solid post split until I get off my feet.

[schuss]

I have an Orbi as well and works great. Note that the Google offering will not work if it can't talk to Google cloud (other meshes are similar, but Orbi can work offline).
Ubiquiti is nice stuff, but when you price it all in it doesn't make sense unless you're also doing cameras or other PoE devices