Dual-Band WiFi Repeater with Single-Band Router

[Pascla]

Hey guys,

 

I want to extend my WiFi signal to my terrace by using a WiFi Repeater. Now there is the problem with effectively cutting in half my bandwith, because my router is only capable of sending a 2,4 GHz signal.

After some research I was wondering if it would be possible to bypass this limitation by buying a repeater which is capable of 2,4GHz & 5GHz, so it can communicate with the router through the 2,4GHz channel while itself producing a 5GHz network.

I'm sure someone here can help me out. Thanks in advance

[Lurick]

The repeater would advertise the network on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands but still have to relay the data back over the 2.4GHz band and will still result in bandwidth to the devices connected to the repeater being half of what they would be if they were connected to the router instead.

[Pascla]

3 minutes ago, Lurick said:

will still result in bandwidth to the devices connected to the repeater being half of what they would be if they were connected to the router instead.

Even if they themselves are connected to the 5GHz network of the repeater?

[goto10]

the dualband is a device using 2.4 ghz and then adds a second transmission on the 5 ghz to add more information to the transmission, more megabytes

 

if the device that originates the source signal only uses 2.4 ghz the repeater will only repeat that, the 2.4 ghz signal and nothing more

 

the repeater can generate a second signal using the 5ghz alone, a ac network but your devices must be capable of use 5 ghz signals and the coverage of a 5ghz network is more limited when compared to 2.4 ghz, any obstacle like walls, doors, furniture eats that signal fast and what would be transmitted would be what it can gather from the 2.4 ghz connection with the modem

 

in general if you want coverage you get a 2.4 ghz network, if you want speed the 5g is the answer

 

if the internet speed you want to share is not close to 100mbps the 5 g will not improve anything anyway, remember that ac connections are meant to go over 500 mbps, any 2.4 ghz does well up to 150mbps if the signal strength oa good enough, after like 6 meter the 5 ghz will not have much luck with 80mbps

 

ymmv

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, Pascla said:

Even if they themselves are connected to the 5GHz network of the repeater?

Yes, the data still has to travel back to the main router over the 2.4GHz connection and due to how repeaters work the speed will diminish.

[Pascla]

Alright, so the only options to get less bandwith loss are to purchase a dual-band repeater or use something different than a WiFi repeater, is that correct?

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, Pascla said:

Alright, so the only options to get less bandwith loss are to purchase a dual-band repeater or use something different than a WiFi repeater, is that correct?

I think you mean get a dual-band router but yes, although even then you'll still see reduced speeds from the repeater, either look into a mesh system with a dedicated 5GHz band for the backhaul, or get a stronger router (easier said than done usually) if you don't want to deal as little speed loss as possible. One thing to note, and I should have asked, is what speeds are you getting on the router to a speedtest site? If you're getting say 10Mbps download then you'll be fine with the router you have and a repeater. It cuts the maximum throughput you can achieve down, and if that's still far above what you're getting from your ISP then it won't matter unless you're doing wireless file transfers locally on your own network.

[goto10]

i asked my isp to disable the wifi signal on my modem, then i proceeded to connect 3 routers each one for a apart of the house, each signal isolated from the others

 

this way i can connect wired the device i want where i want, manage the wifi signal the way i want and i placed the router where i considered necesary

 

im not telling you to buy 3 routers, but a well placed router and a signal repeater connected via ethernet and not via wifi is a really good proposition in many ways

 

depend on the connection between those devices via wifi that is so problematic on cities because everybody has a wifi signal, well, is a problem that i prefer to avoid

[Pascla]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

I think you mean get a dual-band router but yes,

Yep, sorry, misspelled.

3 minutes ago, Lurick said:

either look into a mesh system

Since I'm also planning on getting my basement finally WiFi'ed up (while skipping one floor in the house) I'm already thinking about using Powerline and converting the whole thing into a mesh system. Thats why i wanted to finally get good signal on my terrace and simultaneously connect everything to a fancy mesh system.

 

And yeah, my router is barely above the speed I'm getting from my ISP so sadly it's not possible to just not care about the cutoff

But thanks alot, I appreciate the fast responses!

[Alex Atkin UK]

Theoretically you can use a dual-band router to act as a WPS Client on 2.4Ghz then broadcast on 5Ghz.  You would get the full bandwidth of 2.4Ghz as its just acting as a slightly specialised client.

The catch with this is the existing router probably doesn't support this, so as you'd need need hardware a proper mesh system makes way more sense as its more optimised to the task, especially if its using a dedicated 5Ghz channel for backhaul to the main router.