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Thread ID: 139282	2015-04-06 05:20:00	Can I use an old router as a wireless range extender?	Tony (4941)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1398132	2015-04-11 02:03:00	Tony, The idea is to give you access, it is by no means the best way to improve net speeds. Signal strength is used more like a radar and determines quality, look at TVs, if signal is poor it's fuzzier, network protocols however send the missing pieces. Speed however is decided on the components that drive it, so the ethernet to the router might be 100Mbps (assumed), that's a guide on the maximum you could expect from that router. It's signal could be stronger, this does not mean it's going to be faster, just means you're in a better location to receive from it. If you were considering speed, then the link should be more than what could be output, so 1Gbps ethernet would benefit the setup and all components would need to be changed to reflect that or you boost the signal strength at the main router, if you looked at how antenna are designed, you could quite possibly replace the existing one on the router with one you can make that could give you better coverage and boost your signal. Your setup is not a wireless range extender but is the easiest way to create access, an extender/repeater takes the wifi signal from the main router and receives that at the other router which then passes it on from there, difference is ethernet isn't the link but the wifi is and theoretically 300Mbps says it would be faster but because the second router is doing both sending and receiving, it's cut by 50% (can improve this result with routers suited for this), it has to receive and send instead of just sending like the main router. Also the signal from the main to the second, determines the quality and will then be reduced more so by the signal the second router sends to the device, so even more degrading, again things can be done here to improve quality. The reason to keep all the SSID the same, was to eliminate the need for multiple logins, but it's simple enough to change that design because even extenders/repeaters can have the same SSID or be changed, just depends on what you would do, e.g. slowest internet one could be used as bandwidth control for people you don't want to take up all your speed. The thing is, you're learning more about it which is great. I have extenders/repeaters, linked routers, powerline adaptors, all sorts of things around my house, most of it just to test what would be better in my situation. I wanted to be able to walk around and not worry about spots I couldn't get the net and basically just left everything connected. Same SSID because it's so easy to hit the WPS switch on the main router and get everything to clone themselves to that. Cheers, KK	Kame (312)
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