Wi-Fi

[man36]

Hello guys! 

 

I hope you can (and want) to help me with an issue in my home network. I have the problem (as almost everybody) that the signal is not strong enough to reach every corner in my house; so do you know about any wireless solutions that actually work? Such as repeaters?? 

 

On a completely different topic; what do you know about powerline?? Are there any major benefits? Any restrictions??

 

Thanks a lot!

[JamesDwho]

There are a lot of wireless range extenders on the market, most work without any major issues. As for powerline the major benefits are lower latency, higher bandwidth (in the region of 100-200Mbps) and more reliable than Wifi, because powerline uses the electrical cabling in your walls your quality and consistency of connection will vary on how old the wiring in the house is. If you're trying to connect a desktop to your network I'd recommend powerline over wifi for the aforementioned reasons.

[Elven]

Heya,

 

There are a couple of ways around this. The first being, you could buy yourself a "wireless repeater" these rely on receiving (wireless) signal from the source router and then extending it. it doesn't create a second wireless connection but just extends the existing. The only downside to these are, they must be placed within "a good signal" range of the source otherwise the extended signal would be insufficient. If it is a small area, then it shouldn't be a problem... usually placing it within a range of 20 metres, give or take.

 

For example like this one on Amazon:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-WS320-Wi-Fi-Repeater/dp/B007SU0BJU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371573129&sr=8-1&keywords=wireless+repeater

 

 

An alternative  could be using a wireless access point. Which is more a less a more elaborate version of the one above except you have the extra security features and creating separate networks which in this case I wouldn't recommend.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WA901ND-Advanced-300Mbps-Wireless/dp/B002YETVXC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371573474&sr=8-1&keywords=wireless+access+point

 

 

As for Powerlines, I use a couple for my WDTV live so I can stream my HD Films to my TV downstairs from my computer, wired. I personally don't like wireless networks.  So using powerlines for that situation is perfect for me. Obviously your network speeds are limited to whatever version of powerline you choose. Another fact you need to take into consideration is ethernet connections won't work in an excess of 100m range (bearing in mind powerline uses the existing electrical wiring and could be longer than you anticipate).

 

I hope this helps :)

 

Elven

[man36]

Thanks for the quick and helpful responses!! Couple of new questions; can I have powerline and wi-fi in my house? Also, can you recommend any good powerline hardware?? Thanks

[JamesDwho]

Yes you can have both, one end of the powerline kit plugs into your wifi router via a standard RJ45 Ethernet cable and the other the same but to your computer. As for brand they are mostly all the same, you can get kits from D-Link, TP-Link, Netgear, all good choices.

[Elven]

Sure, you can use a powerline adapter from your router to any plug socket in the house and attach another wireless repeater to extend the wireless coverage. I guess it depends where you live but a quick look on Amazon will help.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371580540&sr=8-1&keywords=powerline+adapter

 

 

They can be a little cheaper seen as the one linked above is 500 mbps.

 

Elven

[LAwLz]

A quick note on repeaters: They will dramatically reduce your bandwidth. Why? Because wireless devices are only half duplex (devices can only listen or send, not both at the same time, and this includes the access point/router). This might not sound like an issue at first, but when you realize that the devices which are connected to the repeater, and the devices which are connected to the main router/AP will be out of reach, and won't know when other devices are talking, things become complicated. I won't go into detail, but a lot of cheap repeaters (and even some of the more expensive ones) will effectively cut your bandwidth in half (and if you include the other normal overhead of WiFi a 100Mbps wireless router might be down to ~25Mbps).

 

I've tried powerline in a few houses and I can pretty safely say that it's sometimes better than WiFi, and sometimes worse. I got a pretty cheap kit so maybe I am more effected that some other but anyway, I think the way my house is wired makes it so that the power has a fairly complicated way from the bottom floor to the top floor, so with my PowerLine kit which is rated for 85Mbps, I only got ~10 (and it tended for overheat if I transferred big files which took like half an hour to send).

 

Personally, I solved my WiFi problem by getting a better router (went from my ISPs own router, to the classic WRT54GL, and then an Asus RT-N56U) and also beefed up all the wireless NICs I used in the computers.

 

Also, if you want range then use the 2.4GHz band and not the 5Ghz band. The lower frequency waves passes through objects easier.