Straightforward out-of-the-box solution for extending WiFi range

My grandmother, in another state, has the same problem that everyone else has, which is that her standard home broadband wireless router just isn't powerful enough to feed the entire house.

So she asked me if she needs a new more powerful router.

Googling, I find *this* AP device, which purports to solve the problem:

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Before I ask her to buy it, does anyone have experience here with that problem (of extending range inside a house)?

The option to move the router from the basement doesn't exist, due to the hard wiring, so, it has to go up two floors.

The out-of-the-box suggestion is because she's not going to do much configuration. I can do some of the configuration for her, but, it mostly has to be *designed* to extend the range of a WiFi router.

Currently she has a Linksys WRT54G so, maybe, an N router will extend her range. But that's why I ask what her options are.

Any other suggestions for improving range that a noob can perform out of the box (i.e., she's not gonna make a can'tenna).

Reply to
Danny D'Amico
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It is 18dbM and still needs a router. That is, the device is just a wap. So you need to turn off the wifi on the Linksys, then run a POE to the Unifi LR box. So you will need a POE device too.

Why not get a Buffalo N450 and junk the Linksys box? You get 24dBm and DDWRT.

Most of the time when people have trouble with wifi, my first question is are you using Apple gear as a client. Their wifi is shit. Ipad, iphone, doesn't matter. Wifi just doesn't seem to be a priority with Apple.

Incidentally, the higher speed modulation techniques tend to work at shorter distances. It is like they obey the Shanon principle. ;-)

Some homes will never work well for wifi. Steel studs for instance. ICF with rebar.

I've used buy.com in the past (now Rakuten). They are reputable, but just try getting off their spam list.

Reply to
miso

Hi Miso, I didn't know that the WiFi had to be turned *off* on the router! I'll have to google if that's truly the case (I would have figured both SSID's would work at the same time).

Also, I'm surprised if it's only 18dBm, which is about the power of the Linksys home broadband router.

I googled for the EIRP of the UAP-LR which seems to be 36dBm (4 Watts!) This is the legal limit in the USA.

I got that number based on this post in the ubnt forums:

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Where it says the Ubiquiti UniFi AP Long Range (UAP-LR) is

27dBm transmit power + 9dBi antenna gain = 36dBm EIRP

That's huge!

Legally, the most you can have is 30dBM transmit and 36dBm EIRP, so, the UAP-LR *seems* to me to be the most powerful thing I can find.

The POE comes with it, although this review intimates (at 2:35 timepoint) that it's a *special* POE (which I find hard to believe):

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I consider that a plus, as we won't have to run power wires to the ceiling.

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

I have no experience whatsoever with Apple products, but, yes, she is on an iPad most of the time.

If what you say is the case, then she needs the most power and sensitivity I can get for her, at around the $100 price range.

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

I had to google that.

Is this it?

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The enemy knows the system?

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

Rakuten was 39% higher in price!

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Reply to
Danny D'Amico

Actually, she's leaning toward buying the same router as we have, which is the NETGEAR N750 Dual Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router (WNDR4300).

I'm not too thrilled with it, as the UAP-LR is 36dBm (4 Watts) as compared to about 25dBm (1/3 Watt) for the Netgear router.

Looking at the Buffalo N450, the price is good (at about $80). I couldn't find the EIRP in any reviews, but, I did find that the antenna is 5dBi:

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So the EIRP of the Buffalo N450 would be 24dBm + 5dBi = 29dBm (8/10 Watt).

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

Add stucco to the list -- think chicken wire covered with dried mud. You end up with an RF cage -- especially if you have "Low E" windows.

Tho', it could be a blessing -- if you want to keep everything _inside_ the house.

Jonesy

Reply to
Allodoxaphobia

Rather than focusing on a single AP with the highest possible power, what about adding a second AP in another area of the house? Or a third AP if two still don't cover the area adequately?

You can join the AP's to the main WiFi router via power lines, phone lines, TV coax, or by running good old Ethernet cable inside walls or through the attic/basement.

Reply to
Char Jackson

It's made by Ubiquiti, not Microcom, and it's probably not suited to what you're intending to do. You would need to run the Unifi server software on something in order to manage the AP, so look for something else.

alexd

Reply to
alexd

That's EXACTLY what I was trying to do with the Ubiquiti UniFi AP Long Range (UAP-LR).

I was hoping it would be the second access point, in addition to the router. Apparently it doesn't work that way. Too bad.

I wonder what else does?

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

I realize your grandmother lives in another state but does she have other relatives or friends that can do a little physical research for you? Reason I ask is that many older homes have a chimney that goes from the basement through the roof. True they are supposed to be fire block but many older homes still are accessible for low voltage cables using this avenue. Many times when researching a problem just like yours I am able to go up into the attic, move some insulation from around the chimney and then shine a flashlight all the way down to someone else looking up the chimney access in the basement.

If we we can "see the light" we are then usually able to run an electricians fish tape down or even better one of those fiber glass extendable units down or up the chimney access in order to get an Ethernet cable up to the attic from the basement.

With that done it's simple to put a suitable wireless access point (WAP) in the attic and provide power to it using power over Ethernet (POE) from the basement. Hook it into the existing network and go on from there.

Reply to
GlowingBlueMist

Thanks for clarifying the name. I was wondering why it was called Microcom when it looked just like the $100 Ubiquiti UAP-LR access point!

As for the power ...

The power of a normal home broadband router is something like 15dBm into an antenna of something like 3 to 5dBi, so that's an EIRP of less than about 20dBm (1/10th of a Watt).

This Ubiquiti UAP-LR access point puts out 27dBm into a 3dBi antenna according to the datasheet, so that's an EIRP of 30dBm (1 Watt):

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So, for the same $100, we can either transmit 1/10th of a Watt with a standard home broadband router, or we can transmit ten times that, at 1 Watt, with the Ubiquiti UAP-LR.

That's why I asked my question. It seems too good to be true.

PS: Where is Jeff when you need him! :)

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

I may be wrong, but if I understand it correctly, that server software (i.e., the controller) is only needed for the initial setup if we only use one access point.

That is, the access point doesn't need the control software to run; it just needs it to be set up because the access point doesn't have its own web server.

So, the access point only knows SSH commands. So, if I understand it correctly, the control software is used only as a web server to send SSH setup commands to the access point.

That is, if I understand it correctly ... (Please correct if I err!)

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

Yes. Plenty of relatives live near her. The only reason I'm involved is I'm supposed to be the "techy geek" in Silicon Valley. I'm not as techy as they think I am ... but I'm trying to play the role as best I can since they asked for the help.

That's an interesting idea, to go through the chimney passageways. Thanks for suggesting that as an alternative to the stronger powerful radio transmitter.

Reply to
Danny D'Amico

Just to make things a little clearer for those who might be easily confused. The Ethernet cables goes outside the chimney itself, between the chimney and the walls as it were. ;)

An alternative way to get the wire up the chase is to use fishing line and a large fishing weight covered in electrical tape. You bounce the weight down along the chimney until you get to the bottom or loose the weight on an obstruction. If that happens I just start over with another fishing weight on another side of the chimney.

The fishing line is actually safer than using a metal electricians fish wire in case the house is old enough to still have working knob and tube wiring going up beside the chimney. Something that was quite common in many parts of the country when the knob and tube wiring was used.

Reply to
GlowingBlueMist

Danny,

I'm no expert, but if I understand your problem, it is similar to the situation at my house. I solved it with two routers in a repeater bridge setup using DD-WRT firmware. The base unit is an ASUS RT-N66, on the ground floor, and the repeater is a Linksys WRT160N, one floor up. Both are available as AP's, but the Linksys connects to the ASUS for WAN access. This connection cuts the Linksys speed in half, but no one notices.

The DD-WRT wiki has step-by-step instructions at the following page:

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It's not an out-of-the-box solution. However, once you install DD-WRT on both routers, the instructions are fairly simple, and the system has run with no significant interruptions at my house for almost five years. Installing DD-WRT can be intimidating, but it is actually not too hard, either. But you will need to have someone on site who is slightly tech savvy and very detail oriented, or go there yourself to do it.

If you go the DD-WRT route, be sure to check the forum for which version of DD-WRT to install. Their installation database is not always up to date.

Neil

Reply to
NeilG

Maybe I found the wrong datasheet. Put a link to the manufacturer data sheet rather than a vendor or forum so we can be on the same page.

I suppose you don't have to turn off the linksys. Just put it on a different channel and SSID. I'd find that annoying, but perhaps using two different channels at the same time has some advantage. Just don't use auto on either device.

Reply to
miso

I like this solution rather than just blasting a signal.

And everyone should run open source firmware on a router. Not just because of worries about the NSA hacking, but rather to eliminate the morons at these router companies that have put in back doors. Who would have thought they would use the useragent as a backdoor to get around passwords. What the hell were they thinking?

Reply to
miso

It is like a law of thermodynamics, but for information theory. If you exceed the Shannon limit, people will shout FRAUD! Well at least the patent office would do so. OK, I hope so. You never know with the patent office these days.

Not so much in wifi, but some of these fancy satellite comm schemes are really getting close to the limit.

This knowledge and two bucks will get you a 16 ounce coffee at Starbucks.

Reply to
miso

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