Extending Home Wireless Network

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Chris Whitman

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Pickering, ON
Hey guys,

Wondering if anyone has any ideas of how I can extended the Range of my Wireless network. Trying to allow a friend on the other side of the street access.

Wondering if I put a the router in my Garage, is there something we can buy and put in his Garage that will pick up the signal and repeat it in his house?



I have walked across the street with my laptop and I can connect at this front door but once in the house the signal dies.



Looking for some help...



Thanks guys!



Cheers

Whit
 
We pick up the neighbor's just fine. It's not encrypted either, which makes me wonder why I bother to pay for ours. My wife/computer whiz says something about being honest, I dunno.:lol:
 
Chris27, what you describe is an "extender" and they do sell them. Try to get the same mfgr as your existing router (If Linksys get Linksys, if Netgear...).



Here are a list that NewEgg sells:



 
I have the Linksys wireless range extender. It works great. You can program it manually or have it auto-configure itself.
 
What is the difference between an Access Point and an extender?



I want to try and make the signal as strong as possible across the street...



So is it possible to put an extender in my Garage and one across the street?



Or do I need to put an access point in my garage and than the extender in his garage across the street?



Cheers

Whit
 
access points are the actual router, repeaters are devices you associate to your access point and which repeat the signal at a slight degredation. you can have more than one repeater, but at a certain point you'll begin to lose performance.



For example, if you have a 108Mbps Access point, that 108 is probably good within a certain distance. The repeater will probably only work at 54Mbps, as the 108 is usually due to performance boosting tricks the manufacturer uses with their hardware if all devices in the wireless network are the same brand.



Placement depends on signal strength and obstructions. You want to eliminate as many walls as possible. If your router has a max distance of 300ft. a wall can take up as many as 20ft. Realistically you usually need a boosting solution, every 100ft indoors, and you want to place your AP in the very center of your house.



Theoreticaly, you could stick a repeater in your window, and one in his...



Also take a look at high gain antennas for your devices.



Also... please, please, please use high security on your devices and change the SSID periodically. Don't connect to any unsecure networks for financial use, and this includes WIRED networks which have an unsecure wireless access point built in.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Also, it may not be a problem, but just be aware. With setting up the wireless network, your cordless phones at home could possibly cause some interference. Though infrequent, make sure they do not share channels if they are operating on the same frequency.
 
The easiest thing to do is make sure that the router is at full power. The router I use and most that I have setup have a power setting for the antenna. If I set mine at full power, I can get the same signal in my neighbors house across the street and see my router from nearly a block away quite literally.
 
we can pick up 2 other wireless networks in our neighborhood, one next door (sisterinlaw) and one 2 houses up (200 ft max)
 
Be aware that some Cable Internet providers will only allow one IP address per cable modem. So it may work, but only one of you will have access to the Web at any one time. If your cable service allows you to have multiple computers (most do) there should be no problem if you have one of the extended range routers.



...Rich
 
just tell your neighbor if he wants access to buy a wireless router then has long range.
Click to expand...



2 routers won't work unless you have a router that can act as a repeater, or run a cat5 cable across the street.



The easiest thing to do is make sure that the router is at full power. The router I use and most that I have setup have a power setting for the antenna. If I set mine at full power, I can get the same signal in my neighbors house across the street and see my router from nearly a block away quite literally.
Click to expand...



Assuming great conditions, yes.



Be aware that some Cable Internet providers will only allow one IP address per cable modem. So it may work, but only one of you will have access to the Web at any one time. If your cable service allows you to have multiple computers (most do) there should be no problem if you have one of the extended range routers.
Click to expand...



this is regardless of cable modem. If you have a router, you can have 253 IP addresses internally (your side of the router) the router takes the 1 external ip address from the ISP, your 253 addresses share that IP via NAT.



High gains are replacement antennas for the little dorky one that came with your router. You can go from a 2db gain to a 7 or 15db gain. Look for Omni-directional, or directional if you're just going to point it at your neighbors house.

 
Nobleman,

Not true! If the cable company restricts access by the MAC address, you can put all the routers you want on it and it will not work.



...Rich
 
I really like the high gain antennas from Hawking. I purchased a 7db omni directional a few weeks ago to extend our network so I could chill at the neighbor's place and still be on my own network. My dad has several Hawking antennas at home, including one of the 15db directional antennas that lets him have access from the work shop almost 300ft from the house. The Hawking antennas come with connectors to hook up to most big name routers.
 

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