Router with range limiter?

I

indy1811

Skilled
My friend is looking for a simple router with a range limiter. He wants to limit the range of the router to only his house. Is it possible using consumer grade routers?

I know that you can restrict the amount of power transmitted by changing the "Tx Power adjustment" value in the router page. Does it limit the range if set to a lower value?

He wants the cheapest router available which supports this feature. The house is only around 800 sqft in size with a couple of walls. The router will be placed in the middle of the house.[DOUBLEPOST=1409111640][/DOUBLEPOST]Anyone? It's a little urgent.
 
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Almost all wireless routers have a parameter called transmission power. 100% power gives maximum range and 10% gives the shortest. Your friend can try varying that.
 
max_demon said:
or Hide SSID or something.. why do you want to limit range?
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blr_p said:
Curious about that too.
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He lives in an apartment and the people around his house, especially older people, keep asking for his Wifi password. He doesn't have the heart to say no to them. I told him about the hide SSID feature but he wants the range limiter if it is an option.[DOUBLEPOST=1409225213][/DOUBLEPOST]
vaibhavyagnik said:
Almost all wireless routers have a parameter called transmission power. 100% power gives maximum range and 10% gives the shortest. Your friend can try varying that.
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Any routers within 2k which definitely have this feature?
 
Routers with stock firmware do not keep the 'transmit power' parameter exposed. Only DD-WRT/Tomato firmware will expose this setting, so look for a router that supports DD-WRT/Tomato.
I'm not sure which TP-Link routers support DD-WRT, but I do know that the Asus RT-N10U and RT-N12 C1/D1 support tomato.

This is still going to be tricky since no house is perfectly symmetrical and as a result he may get good signal at one end and nothing at the other end. Moreover if he limits the signal range by reducing the power, it means the signal will be really weak at the furthest points inside his house which will basically make it unusable for him as well. Hiding the SSID really is the best option. He can keep the router hidden (or use a router with inbuilt antennas so as to not draw attention) and tell his neighbours that he no longer uses wifi.
 
I have a 700 Rupee TP Link router and the stock firmware has the transmit power option but the only values you can select are High, Medium and Low.
 
Crazy_Eddy said:
Routers with stock firmware do not keep the 'transmit power' parameter exposed. Only DD-WRT/Tomato firmware will expose this setting, so look for a router that supports DD-WRT/Tomato.
I'm not sure which TP-Link routers support DD-WRT, but I do know that the Asus RT-N10U and RT-N12 C1/D1 support tomato.

This is still going to be tricky since no house is perfectly symmetrical and as a result he may get good signal at one end and nothing at the other end. Moreover if he limits the signal range by reducing the power, it means the signal will be really weak at the furthest points inside his house which will basically make it unusable for him as well. Hiding the SSID really is the best option. He can keep the router hidden (or use a router with inbuilt antennas so as to not draw attention) and tell his neighbours that he no longer uses wifi.
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Great, will let him know that. I've told him to use the Wifi Analyzer app on Android to first check the signal readings outside his house and then tune it accordingly once he gets a router.
 
indy1811 said:
He lives in an apartment and the people around his house, especially older people, keep asking for his Wifi password. He doesn't have the heart to say no to them. I told him about the hide SSID feature but he wants the range limiter if it is an option.
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Hide SSID won't hide the network, it will show up as a blank network. Won't take long for others to figure out.

What will hide it is operating on a different frequency (and presuming others can't see that higher frequency) but that brings its own range problems let alone being able to share it. It means he needs equipment that can work at that frequency and a more expensive router.
 
I think he wants them to see that the network is there but it will be weaker so that they won't be able to access it from their home
 
If it is a sharing issue (as in, your friend is selfish - and nothing wrong with that), then it's best to politely say no. Hiding SSID will work fine in that kind of a setup and keep out all but the most snoopy hackers. Another way is to use a very official looking SSID 'Avantech Corporation' or similar, so people see the SSID but don't associate with a particular person.

If it is a privacy issue, then it's best to set up a guest network and not allow guests into the LAN. My Netgear JNR3210 supports the guest network feature, it is possible that even cheaper routers might.

Some routers will have transmit power control, but I'm guessing that is close to useless as good routers will be detectable at lowest strength (even if the connection is not very usable) and poor ones will crap out within the house. It's a very fiddly adjustment and will require him to repeatedly check both within and outside the house, which will give up the game anyway.
 

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blr_p said:
Hide SSID won't hide the network, it will show up as a blank network. Won't take long for others to figure out.

What will hide it is operating on a different frequency (and presuming others can't see that higher frequency) but that brings its own range problems let alone being able to share it. It means he needs equipment that can work at that frequency and a more expensive router.
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max_demon said:
I think he wants them to see that the network is there but it will be weaker so that they won't be able to access it from their home
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cranky said:
If it is a sharing issue (as in, your friend is selfish - and nothing wrong with that), then it's best to politely say no. Hiding SSID will work fine in that kind of a setup and keep out all but the most snoopy hackers. Another way is to use a very official looking SSID 'Avantech Corporation' or similar, so people see the SSID but don't associate with a particular person.

If it is a privacy issue, then it's best to set up a guest network and not allow guests into the LAN. My Netgear JNR3210 supports the guest network feature, it is possible that even cheaper routers might.

Some routers will have transmit power control, but I'm guessing that is close to useless as good routers will be detectable at lowest strength (even if the connection is not very usable) and poor ones will crap out within the house. It's a very fiddly adjustment and will require him to repeatedly check both within and outside the house, which will give up the game anyway.
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The best option would be if the network wasn't be visible at all. I understand that won't be possible.

It is definitely a sharing issue. First problem is limited bandwidth and secondly, with all the news about people being arrested for posting and forwarding derogatory stuff, he doesn't want to take a chance. End of the day it will be his IP that will show up if anybody investigates it.
 
indy1811 said:
The best option would be if the network wasn't be visible at all. I understand that won't be possible.
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Only way is a different frequency and assume others can't see that frequency or if they do its too weak to be usable.

Depending on how his house is laid out, 5ghz might be difficult to use himself if he wants it.

indy1811 said:
It is definitely a sharing issue. First problem is limited bandwidth and secondly, with all the news about people being arrested for posting and forwarding derogatory stuff, he doesn't want to take a chance. End of the day it will be his IP that will show up if anybody investigates it.
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To cover himself from any legal hassles requires him to log all data in the event of a problem. More headache than its worth.

have been to a few houses where to my surprise the neighbours all run, get this... open networks. Anyone can jump on.
 
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blr_p said:
Only way is a different frequency and assume others can't see that frequency or if they do its too weak to be usable.

Depending on how his house is laid out, 5ghz might be difficult to use himself if he wants it.


To cover himself from any legal hassles requires him to log all data in the event of a problem. More headache than its worth.

have been to a few houses where to my surprise the neighbours all run, get this... open networks. Anyone can jump on.
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Ya, that's how it started. He had kept his network open.
 
Yeah totally forgot to mention the Guest SSID. He can limit their access, make it unusable, etc.
Another option is to configure the DNS server to only assign IP adds to devices in a MAC whitelist.

Or put steel plates on the walls :D

blr_p said:
Hide SSID won't hide the network, it will show up as a blank network.
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Err blank network? No it won't show up at all in Windows' pop-up list of Wifi networks to connect to. You will need to manually set up a profile and manually key in the SSID name. Of course as mentioned above, you can use a couple of snooping tools to search for them. But then I'm guessing these neighbours aren't savvy enough to do that.
 
Crazy_Eddy said:
Err blank network? No it won't show up at all in Windows' pop-up list of Wifi networks to connect to. You will need to manually set up a profile and manually key in the SSID name.
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checked this and don't see the SSID anywhere in the default wifi network list. Without knowing the ssid name its as good as invisible.

So all he has to do is change the ssid name and disable ssid broadcast in the settings.

Crazy_Eddy said:
Of course as mentioned above, you can use a couple of snooping tools to search for them. But then I'm guessing these neighbours aren't savvy enough to do that.
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yep until a more tech savvy relative shows up.
 
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