WiFi Repeaters

[bruceb58]

Anyone have experience with WiFi repeaters? My wireless router is in one end of the house and I am trying to be able to get wireless at a guest house in the back of my yard. Right now its getting spotty connections so thinking about a repeater.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

Yes.


Go with good quality. If you go cheap, you'll have random disconnects. Connections without the web.

I set up the wireless in the hotel I work at. 3 floors.

What we did was run Cisco Wireless antenna. I ran Cat5e cabling to the 2nd floor, the spread out in the ceiling tiles of 2nd floor. 4 total antennas

Right after the the main router I have 4 power injectors. Those feed power to the lines and to the antennas. Been good since.

 

[j_martin]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

Most wireless routers will do a repeater scheme. Just remember it's splitting the bandpass to do it. The other thing that is a sleeper is if it has 2 antenna's on it (diversity) it only uses one at a time. If you use it as a repeater, use only one antenna in the setup, or it might lock on one leg and drop the connection.

It always works well to string a cable to feed a remote access point. You can daisy chain routers till you run out of addresses.

I manage a network of a dozen Cisco access points fed by several telephone gateways in a campus of metal buildings. They are interconnected with switches, cat 5, and fiber circuits. You can start a conversation on one of the portable IP phones as you approach the premises, and go anywhere without losing the connection. I calculated that I walked 14 miles, and climbed 850 feet of ladders the day I did the RF survey for the installation.

 

[j_martin]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

Yes.


Go with good quality. If you go cheap, you'll have random disconnects. Connections without the web.

I set up the wireless in the hotel I work at. 3 floors.

What we did was run Cisco Wireless antenna. I ran Cat5e cabling to the 2nd floor, the spread out in the ceiling tiles of 2nd floor. 4 total antennas

Right after the the main router I have 4 power injectors. Those feed power to the lines and to the antennas. Been good since.

For the newbie's. The Cisco Access points get their power, usually 48v DC on pairs 1 and 4 of an IP cable. Signal is handled by pairs 2 and 3. The power injector puts the power on the cable. Some routers have power injection built right into them. The scheme is also pretty easy to set up on 110 punch down blocks supplied by a common 24 - 48V power supply.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

Thaks J-Martin. When I got ATT U-Verse it came with the combo modem/wireless router so maybe I will just use my old Linksys WRT54G as an access point. That seem reasonable or better to use something else? I have CAT5 going up to where I was planning on putting it so sounds like that would be best. J-Martin, you agree with that?

 

[rbh]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

Bruce-
I know it is a pain in the butt, but if you can in the future bury a grease filled cat 5 (or better) cable out to the building if it is within 300 feet of the modem.
I like wireless myself, but there can be issues.

(how can you tell I have put landline in for years )

 

[DJ]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

I have a Linksys system with a repeater (amplifier).

Like you, my system is at one end of the house. I can move the "amplifier" around to improve my laptop signal depending on where I am in the house. It just plugs into any 110V outlet.

My garage is about 50 feet from the primary system. A lot of walls between. I can move the "amp" to about 20 feet away and it improves the speed and signal quality a great deal.

Worth it, IMHO.

 

[j_martin]

Re: WiFi Repeaters

Thaks J-Martin. When I got ATT U-Verse it came with the combo modem/wireless router so maybe I will just use my old Linksys WRT54G as an access point. That seem reasonable or better to use something else? I have CAT5 going up to where I was planning on putting it so sounds like that would be best. J-Martin, you agree with that?

That'll work.

Bruce-
I know it is a pain in the butt, but if you can in the future bury a grease filled cat 5 (or better) cable out to the building if it is within 300 feet of the modem.
I like wireless myself, but there can be issues.

(how can you tell I have put landline in for years )

Most internet runs well below 10 mbps. Cat 3 works fine for that.

You can run all kinds of stuff on buried telephone cable, even telephones.