wi-fi range extender, distance and square footage claims ?

@jimbo45 , I did not say extenders "weaken a Wifi SIGNAL". You added the word "signal". If you noticed, I put quotation marks on the word "weaken". I was to referring bandwidth degradation (see my previous posts) which in turn also affects speed. We all know that the more clients are connected to a wifi, the slower the connection becomes. An extender also acts as a permanent client to a network by connecting to wifi, process the signal and then transmits it. In effect, an extender is just like another laptop continously using the wifi. It degrades wifi or internet from the source.



The signal bar is not an indicator of good speed. Just shows how stable the connection is.









I agree with 5Ghz. Even with 1 bar signal of 5Ghz, it's still faster than a full bar 2.4Ghz.

It won't effect the rest of the clients per say any more than adding another normal client. The problem with extenders are through put loss. Read my first post. But if you are finding enough band width to stream a movie you should be good to go.
Where you might have problems are things like skype calls and gaming.
Most extenders only have one radio, so one way traffic works well, so up or down traffic have to take turns. That is why a
Normal router converted to an access point will work better. The up/ down traffic is optimised for through put.

I live in a 3000 square foot house. Because of certain factors(my wife) I had to place my router in the downstairs office. I fiddled with powerline and extenders and none were satisfactory. I finally went with a premiun router. I now have whole house coverage on 2.4 and 5 which extends to the garage and back yard. The problem I found with powerline was the connections were only reliable if I could keep them on the same circuit. It did get me to install a whole house line conditioner/surge proterctor though.

badrobot said:

If you can make them understand how extender can "weaken" their wifi, they will agree with a new router. It's just a matter of plugging in another cable on their existing router. The only problem there is how to go about the cabling. :)

Shouldn't be too hard to convince them... it will be a matter of 'do we need a newer one' and the cost.

The extender I found, don't remember the brand, said it had a 800 mWatt output. The other two I bought seem to have weaker signals and barely reach the shed where my ham shack is located. I also have a computer out there, with mostly intermittant connectivity. We always change the passwords from default.

rvbfan said:

It won't effect the rest of the clients per say any more than adding another normal client. The problem with extenders are through put loss. Read my first post. But if you are finding enough band width to stream a movie you should be good to go.
Where you might have problems are things like skype calls and gaming.
Most extenders only have one radio, so one way traffic works well, so up or down traffic have to take turns. That is why a
Normal router converted to an access point will work better. The up/ down traffic is optimised for through put.

Since our DirecTv setup is partially wireless, it causes additional load on the router. And some of us do game. I play Everquest, and there are 2 Mine Craft players in the house. The extender I had bought last fall had both 2.4 and 5 GHz. But it doesn't connect well out in the shack since the DirectTV install. That is why I was thinking an extender with a higher wattage signal would be better.

Upgrading the router may be the way to go for you then. I run 1 desktop,2 laptops,3 phones,1 tablet, a Plex server and a Roku wirelessly off of my router. Plus one desktop on Wan. They can often be on the internet at the same time. No issues. I can tell you what I run but to each there own.
OfficeStaples

I bought the Netgear R6200 today. Excellent signal out in my shed... but its local only. I come in the house, local and internet.

I see a large number of blocks in my AVG Internet Security firewall labelled 'System'. So that might be the problem. I have the software set to Interactive, so it is supposed to ask me and only block if I tell it to.

edit: the desktop out in the shed downloaded email, then lost conection to the internet and I was never able to get it back out there. I think its my firewall letting it through, then bocking it, without it asking me if I want it blocked. I hate software dvelopers who think I need hand holding or blocking things without letting me decide for myself.

My brother-in-law did suggest we just run an Ethernet cable out there, but it wont be this week. Too many holiday and other things going on. There is a place right behind the router cabinet, wood, that would let us connect a cable and then run it out to the shed.

That would be the best.
Is that Netgear set as AP by default? Otherwise, you need to manually set it first either as AP or Bridged to make it work.