Improve Wi-fi range

[shrek]

I have a Dlink DIR-655 router. Bought this router because my cousin recommended it. He has the same router and gets pretty decent range. I on the other hand am suffering from bad range.

Looked for solution online
1) Place the router in the center of the house for best range.
Not possible because of the internet wiring

2) Add a wi-fi repeater to the setup
Which one? Will adding the repeater reduce the speed by half?

3) Add a access point
Don't know what is the difference between a repeater and an access point

Solution 1 is not possible. Looking for your advice on the other options.

Cheers

 

[StillWaters]

Hi @shrek,

DIR-655 seems to be a higher end D-Link product, I am surprised you are having range issues. Just to get an idea, what kind of range are you looking at? How many rooms, how many walls in between?

If possible, try to wall mount the router or keep it at a good height.

As for your 2nd query, a repeater can be used to increase Wi-Fi range. But your Wi-Fi throughput will be halved for devices connecting the repeater. Lets say your main router is A and has theoretical throughput of 300 Mbps. Now if you add a 2nd router B as a repeater and its a N300 also, then for devices connecting wirelessly to B will get half that bandwidth, i.e. 150Mbps. That's because the repeater has to retransmit every packet twice, once between the client station and once between itself and main router. Any devices connected to the ethernet port of router B will not be affected by reduced throughput.

The point to note is that the WiFi bandwidth of the REPEATER will be halved, not your ISP bandwidth.

For the 3rd query, Access point is nothing but a device that provides connectivity at a remote location where you can't lay down cables. An Access point can be a repeater, or it can be a bridge. Repeater provides connectivity via Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Bridge will only provide Ethernet connectivity. There are other difinitions also, and many of these terms repeater, bridge, AP are commonly interchanged, adding to the confusion.

For your purpose, you can look at placing a repeater half way between the main router and the area where you have signal drop.

Its generally advisable to have the WDS/AP/bridge of the same brand. For repeater it doesn't matter which brand you get. Just make sure that it allows setting the router up as a repeater.