WiFi Repeaters

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
SWMBO had complained about her Laptop, in her Study, occasionally losing contact with our WiFi Router.

As the Router is at the other end of the house and festooned with Ethernet connections, I couldn't relocate it and any amount of twiddling with the Antennae had no worthwhile effect.

So I took the easy way out and defaulted her connection to my neighbour's Router instead.

Until I twigged that the flaky performance of our Printer (also in SWMBO's study) might well be due to the same issue.

Well, after a bit of research, I came across cheap Chinese WiFi Repeaters (More expensive and no doubt more robust ones are available from Netgear etc, but folk might recall I am a Yorkshireman) so I took the plunge and lashed out just over £8 for this:

Repeater.jpg






Found a spare mains socket in SWMBO's study, plugged it in, pressed WPS button, dashed into the Drawing Room and pressed the main Router WPS key and lo, I had a nice strong signal throughout the entire house.

Has been operating for a month now and it hasn't set fire to the house.
 

sonnetpete

Grumpy Old Retired Moderator and quiz inquisitor..
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
8,948
Reaction score
3,491
Points
113
Age
73
Website
wordpress.com
My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
I couldn't relocate it and any amount of twiddling with the Antennae had no worthwhile effect.

Don't worry unduly, these things happen when you get older..........
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
Hi G, I replied originally but the restore wiped it. I have a few questions; does this repeater create another wireless SSID for you to connect to or does it use the same one as your router on a different channel...? Did you have to connect this repeater to the original router by the Ethernet cable or is it a proper repeater that connects to the router wirelessly? If it's the latter then I am pretty sure - but could very well be wrong - it halves the available bandwidth on the wireless network.
 

PaulR

Dazed and Confused Admin
Staff member
Joined
Jun 28, 2003
Messages
18,023
Reaction score
4,046
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
-----------See sig-----------
My Location
Wirral, NW UK and Vaucluse, France.
And as I replied originally, it was my supposition that the connection to the main router was wireless and that the Ethernet port on the remote unit is for connecting to devices, such as a printer, which have a LAN RJ45 connection but are not wireless themselves. I further posited that the SSID was cloned so that handover is seamless.

T then said I was pretty much right.

Halving the bandwidth? Don't know about that but speed of connection decreases with distance so there will inevitably be a drop-off due to the master and slave being apart but that is undoubtedly less than the very poor signal from just the master.

The last paragraph is all new.
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
If you start from scratch (or reset the device) and use WPS, it nabs the base SSID, sets itself to the same Channel and adopts the same security method, including the key - all without the need to connect up by Ethernet.

ie True plug and play

But, of course, you can get into it manually, via a Browser and Ethernet cable (WiFi works if you access it after a Reset).

Therein are Windows 8 style menus where you can configure it however you wish, either as a Repeater or as an Access Point.

I did actually later amend the SSID so I could use the excellent WiFi Analyser Andriod App. and check around the house what the comparative signal levels were from Router and Repeater so I could easily manually change Network if I wished (Of course, some newer fangled "Devices" will change seamlessly on their tod).
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
Paul is righter than the rightest right thing.

As for Bandwidth, I have read that myself but in practice it has no discernible effect. Speedtest results are identical and I can stream HD telly even with other devices online. And my Broadband is 10Mbps up and down (I chose to drop from 20Mbps as I didn't need it and saved a fiver every month!)
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
Thanks Paul and G, I missed your replies - clearly wasn't quick enough!

I realise that the speed drops off the further away you are from the WeeFee point but there's a technical reason that the bandwidth available is essentially halved. So, on a 54Mbit link, the speed would drop to 28Mbit.

Nabbed from a site...
Wireless is shared bandwidth and is half duplex. Unlike a wired connection that has one path dedicated for transmit and another dedicated for receive you only have 1 frequency in wireless. Means you can't be sending and receiving at the same time. So if you were to use a repeater on the same frequency it will indeed cut your bandwidth in half. It is actually much worse since there is no way to prevent 2 devices from talking at the same time only a method to correct it after it happens.

Good news is most repeaters allow you to use 1 channel to talk to the remote location and another channel to talk to your PC. You still of course will have your repeater competing with your pc's in your house but it is the same as use your shop PC in the house directly. All the PC compete with each other. The key reason people do not notice this is the PC;s are not actually active at the same time. If you have a number of machines streaming video...especially highdef from media servers you can really see the slow downs.

Either way, it seems like quite a useful device - especially for the price! I should get one for the in-law's whose WeeFee is atrocious in most points of the house.
 

PaulR

Dazed and Confused Admin
Staff member
Joined
Jun 28, 2003
Messages
18,023
Reaction score
4,046
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
-----------See sig-----------
My Location
Wirral, NW UK and Vaucluse, France.
Was the previous 20Mbps service symmetric? i.e. 20 up and down?

If the connection around the house is faster than 10Mbps, and it probably is, then doing a Speedtest to the Internet will inevitably show no reduction.
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
@CJ: Indeed - well worth a go.

Love mine!

@PaulR: To be honest, I can't remember! (All too common a state, I fear)
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
Further: OP now Edited to include piccy as promised

Thanks to all those who fix things! :)
 

A nonymous

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
3,586
Reaction score
913
Points
113
Where did you get it fom Tivu. I'm using an old Dlink router to acheive a pretty similar thing but to be honest the results aren't brilliant so for £8 its well worth it to shut my teenage daughter up :D
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
The Bay Of Fleas - wait one and I'll find the seller (There are many, but he was cheapest, UK based and sent it within a day)
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
Item #272048062812
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
Quite right - but don't say you weren't warned :p
 

A nonymous

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
3,586
Reaction score
913
Points
113
I should have been born in Yorkshire, I'm as tight as a ducks arse :D

I'm a bast**d for a bargain :-lmao
 

RimaNTSS

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Messages
5,601
Reaction score
6,079
Points
113
Age
58
My Satellite Setup
Some SAT-related hardware.
My Location
N-E from Riga
I have installed in several sites TP-Link TL-WR841N , it is not repeater by default but has bridge mode in original software. Not so difficult to set it up. So, couple of SAT-receivers, stationary PC and TV set are connected by wires. And, of course, it also disperses additional wireless network in the apartment. It is hanged behind the TV and asks for no attention.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20151217_185555 (Custom).jpg
    IMG_20151217_185555 (Custom).jpg
    135.1 KB · Views: 13

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
My D-Link DIR-615 reaches halfway down the garden through 10" thick stone walls, about 80ft or 25 Metres, what's wrong with your router? o_O
 
Top