Help: Buying Wireless Repeater

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Satan

Satan

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This thing is driving me crazy. Consumer wireless repeater and access point options are all over the place.

Let me paint the picture for you.

# 4 storey house with the ADSL Router (TP-Link w8968) on the 1st floor.
# Need coverage for the Ground, 2nd and 3rd floor.
# No option to wire the router to an AP.

Any connectivity solutions will have to be
# Purely wireless (repeater / extender) (an option to perform like an AP for future proofing in case we can wire them together, would be good to have)
# Support WPA / WPA2
# The repeater will also have to have an Ethernet port to connect a non-WiFi device to the network (CCTV DVR)

I was thinking of getting 2 other w8968 router since they have WDS (Wireless repeating function) and are cheap, but it turns out that it only supports WEP which is no good.

Please let me know what would work best. Also, I use the Guest network feature available with the TP-Link. I don't suppose that could be extended as well, but if there is an option, please let me know.

TP-Link WDS.jpg
 
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Are there any other routers out there that have the WDS function and also support WPA/WPA2. I wouldn't mind buying 2 or three of those and getting rid of the TP-Link. I prefer buying routers since they usually are cheaper than dedicated APs / extenders and there's also the redundancy benefit in case one of the routers fails.
 
Keep the existing setup as is on the ground floor, wire LAN wires till the window and put in a pipe and goto all floors. In each floor take one out and connect to AP/Router acting as AP. You may need to only keep router on alternate floors.

Optionally, you can go for a high powered router which has higher wifi range.
 
Repeater cut speed in half.. I would suggest to your access points connected to powerline adapters or get powerline adapters which can act as wifi access points.
 
I am looking for something similar. I am however looking to kill two birds with one stone. Does anyone have any experience with wireless security cameras that also act as range extenders.
 
chetansha said:
To link 4220kit. Installed at my friends place recently. Works awesome.e
Click to expand...

The power line option looks good. Hows the throughput on these things and how much did you end up paying?


Also, for future reference, is there any advantage to going in for a dedicated AP like the TL-WA801ND, or can one just get another router like the w8968 to perform as an AP? The reason I ask is because the router has so many extra features including a 4 port switch and also happens to be a lot cheaper.
 
I did not check the through puts and stuff. earlier i had put a tplink router in wireless repeater mode and it sucked bad, then we put the powerline kit and jinga la la. and i think i paid 4k something for it,
 
chetansha said:
I did not check the through puts and stuff. earlier i had put a tplink router in wireless repeater mode and it sucked bad, then we put the powerline kit and jinga la la. and i think i paid 4k something for it,
Click to expand...

Did you get the wired or wireless kit?
 
The wireless one. In this one part takes input from your router and the second part has 2 lan ports and wifi which is to be plugged into any electrical socket in your home.
Just don't use power strips.
 
Just install the router on 2nd floor ceiling height and see what kind of coverage you get , your overall coverage should increase in 2.4ghz freq, then identify blind spots ( probably on 4 floor and install a wds repeater there
 
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