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Wirless Range Assistance

fireandfrost

New member
Joined
Dec 19, 2011
Messages
4
Hey everyone,

I was just watching the NCIX Tech Tips episode Linus put together on the Linksys RE1000 range extender and it got me thinking that I might be able to find an answer to our problem here on these forums so I thought I would explain the situation and find out if anyone has any ideas.

My family & I currently live in an apartment building in Panama and like most of the construction in this region our place is built out of solid concrete and cinder block with a large amount of steel re-bar in the walls. As you can imagine this causes quite a bit of signal degradation. In fact, by the time our wireless signal passes from our computer room to our living room (approximately 30 feet) the signal is down to about 20% strength and is all but unusable.

To address this problem I first tried the RE1000 device, however the next closest power outlet down the hallway is already out of range of a strong enough wireless signal for it to boost (getting about 1-2 out of 5 bars). If I try to relocate it closer to the router then it winds up on the wrong side of the choke point where the signal starts to degrade rapidly.

The next thing I tried was to purchase a significantly stronger repeater in the form of the SR600X. Since this device boasted of being able to broadcast a wireless signal a mile & a half I figured it should be powerful enough to blast past the choke point and reach our living room at least. It also offered a power over ethernet option that helped make it's placement far more flexible. To a certain degree I was correct and it was able to broadcast a strong connection to the part of the apartment we needed it too. However I am having some issues with this repeater not staying configured properly. Twice now I have had to re-set up the repeater by going through the initial setup process. I believe this has something to do with the DHCP license expiring and since it seems to happen on a daily basis (the duration of my IP leases).

Our router is a few years old now (a WRT610N ) so it's possible that it is starting to wear out and have conflicts with the newer hardware. However I am reluctant to throw yet more money at this problem and *hope* that it will be the final key that resolves the issue.

I believe that the biggest culprits to our signal degradation are a combination of the general makeup of the walls, the 2 metal door frames that the signal must pass through on it's way to the living room, and finally the solid metal door and frame that sits in the main hallway between our computer room and the living room.

Incidentally I found an excellent application to help me identify exactly where the weakest point begins, however it is only for Android phones/tablets and we own an iPad2.

I think an ideal solution would be to run a hard wired connection out to the living room that then broadcasts the wireless signal again from there. However I haven't been able to find anything that functioned in this manner.
 

fireandfrost

New member
Joined
Dec 19, 2011
Messages
4
That does sound like a viable solution for some of the devices in the living room. However looking at the products that are available using Powerline Ethernet technology it seems that any device that wants to connect to the home network would require a physical cat5e connection?

One of the biggest reasons we are looking for a solution to this problem is so that my wife can use Skype and browse the internet from her iPad, which has no hard line connectivity option.
 

enaberif

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
11,412
Location
Calgahree, AB
That does sound like a viable solution for some of the devices in the living room. However looking at the products that are available using Powerline Ethernet technology it seems that any device that wants to connect to the home network would require a physical cat5e connection?

One of the biggest reasons we are looking for a solution to this problem is so that my wife can use Skype and browse the internet from her iPad, which has no hard line connectivity option.

You could hook up a cheap router at any spot in your home that has a plug to provide wireless capabilities.
 

fireandfrost

New member
Joined
Dec 19, 2011
Messages
4
You mean connect the Powerline Ethernet to get the signal out to the other room, then connect a wireless router out there to broadcast the signal again? Wouldn't that cause a conflict having 2 routers on the same network?
 

martin_metal_88

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
4,162
Location
Quebec City
You mean connect the Powerline Ethernet to get the signal out to the other room, then connect a wireless router out there to broadcast the signal again? Wouldn't that cause a conflict having 2 routers on the same network?

Set the second router as an acces point so all IP request will be directed to the primary router. Or just buy a acces point to hook on the powerline.
 

enaberif

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
11,412
Location
Calgahree, AB
You mean connect the Powerline Ethernet to get the signal out to the other room, then connect a wireless router out there to broadcast the signal again? Wouldn't that cause a conflict having 2 routers on the same network?

As long as you set up the routers properly you coul have 3 4 5 6 if you wished.
 

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