For a 4 storied house - 2 basic routers or 1 extra range router?

1

We have a 4 storied house with good number of walls and blockages. I have a D-LINK DIR 300 wall mounted at the center of the house but the signal drops to zero towards the corner in a floor above.

So, to increase the wireless range to cover all the corners, shall I buy a TP-LINK 1043ND (or any other similar high range router) or shall I buy another basic router and use it as a WIFI repeater?

Please suggest other better alternatives if any.

Avinash Sonee

Posted 2014-05-02T13:11:12.320

Reputation: 123

Extended-range routers are generally a rip-off. If you use extended-range routers you need extended-range wireless adapters in your devices or you'll experience the same range problems. – Mr. Mascaro – 2014-11-10T14:42:43.737

What sort of materials are the walls made out of? I notice the router is 802.11g which would indicate its operating on the 2.4Ghz band can you confirm this? A high powered dual-band 802.11ac router would likely help. But if the walls are of the wrong material it won't. – Ramhound – 2014-05-02T13:17:28.733

Yes my present router is 802.11g operating on 2.4Ghz band and the walls are made of concrete. – Avinash Sonee – 2014-05-02T13:25:42.617

Answers

1

There are so many factors in wireless signal strength and range that is impossible to give a definitive answer.

You have 3 options:

  1. Buy a high gain WiFi antenna
  2. Buy a high range wireless router
  3. Buy a router as a repeater

No one solution is guaranteed to work.

Your best bet is to pick one option and buy it. If it works, great. If not, return it and try another option. Or you could hold off on returning it and try combining the high gain antenna with another option.

Keltari

Posted 2014-05-02T13:11:12.320

Reputation: 57 019

Thanks :) I'll buy a ASUS RT N12 C1 and use it as a repeater.

– Avinash Sonee – 2014-05-02T15:49:37.073

even if you get a high gain antenna you may not see good results if the pc's wireless card is weak. I was looking at some industrial wifi cards for my laptop a few years ago that were able to send/recieve with about double or better the transmit power than the average wifi card. Some wifi access points support enterprise settings that allow "seemless" fallover between several ap's which may do you well in this case. they are configured to be aware of other ap's near by and when configured right your pc will automatically switch between them which will change your ip and interupt traffic. – Kendrick – 2014-05-04T02:41:14.710

Asked: 2014-05-02T13:11:12.320

Viewed: 92 times

Active: 2014-11-10T14:38:48.613