What should I do to get more range out of my wireless?

[Jocosity]

I have an ASUS RT-N66U. It works great around the house, but my dad has a workshop about 60 feet or so away from our house and he has trouble getting a signal at times (the building's walls are made of metal, so even though the distance isn't that far the interference makes it more difficult to reach). We have a repeater near the workshop, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I've been considering replacing two of the antennas on the router with Asus WL-ANT-157 directional antennas to help the signal reach both back to my room and down to the workshop, but since that would total up to around $50 anyways I'm wondering if it would just be better to replace the router itself with one that might have better range. Is there anything below the $150 price point that would have better wifi range than the RT-N66U, or should I just try directional antennas?

 

[stevech]

I have an ASUS RT-N66U. It works great around the house, but my dad has a workshop about 60 feet or so away from our house and he has trouble getting a signal at times (the building's walls are made of metal, so even though the distance isn't that far the interference makes it more difficult to reach). We have a repeater near the workshop, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I've been considering replacing two of the antennas on the router with Asus WL-ANT-157 directional antennas to help the signal reach both back to my room and down to the workshop, but since that would total up to around $50 anyways I'm wondering if it would just be better to replace the router itself with one that might have better range. Is there anything below the $150 price point that would have better wifi range than the RT-N66U, or should I just try directional antennas?

To improve coverage, the best thing is to add a WiFi access point (AP). Place the AP near the area of poor coverage. Connect the AP to the router's LAN port via one these alternative methods. Set it up as usual for same WPA encryption. Put it and the router on different channels, in 2.4GHz band that's channels 1, 6 or 11 as a rule.

• Cat5 cable direct - run in attic, under house, etc, if possible
• IP over power wiring, a.k.a. HomePlug and other names. See forum section here on that
• IP over existing TV coax cables in walls. See forum section on MoCA

Antenna changes on the router will not help significantly.
Using a different WiFi router, ditto.

A $40 WiFi product that IS an AP, or a product with a router and AP mode choice, is best. It is also possible to reconfigure and repurpose any WiFi router (a retired one), to behave as an AP.

Here's a low cost but good one I've used.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320168


This might be helpful too
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...best-way-to-get-whole-house-wireless-coverage

 

[Jocosity]

To improve coverage, the best thing is to add a WiFi access point (AP). Place the AP near the area of poor coverage. Connect the AP to the router's LAN port via one these alternative methods. Set it up as usual for same WPA encryption. Put it and the router on different channels, in 2.4GHz band that's channels 1, 6 or 11 as a rule.

• Cat5 cable direct - run in attic, under house, etc, if possible
• IP over power wiring, a.k.a. HomePlug and other names. See forum section here on that
• IP over existing TV coax cables in walls. See forum section on MoCA

Antenna changes on the router will not help significantly.
Using a different WiFi router, ditto.

A $40 WiFi product that IS an AP, or a product with a router and AP mode choice, is best. It is also possible to reconfigure and repurpose any WiFi router (a retired one), to behave as an AP.

Here's a low cost but good one I've used.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320168


This might be helpful too
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...best-way-to-get-whole-house-wireless-coverage

Do any of those function between buildings? The distance is too far to realistically run a physical cable, and I haven't heard anything about HomePlug or MOCA being able to reliably work between two buildings.

 

[jegesq]

Do any of those function between buildings? The distance is too far to realistically run a physical cable, and I haven't heard anything about HomePlug or MOCA being able to reliably work between two buildings.

HomePlug can work if all of the electrical is on the same circuit, so it all depends on how the wiring of these two buildings is set up, i.e., if there's one main panel and everything is essentially on a single meter and all tied to the same circuit, then maybe it would work. If they're on two different circuits, forget it.

And MOCA is a whole different concept, and require coax, so if there was a coax line out to the other building which you say is 60 feet away, yeah, you might be able to set that up.

Replacing the antennas on your router is probably not going to be a very tenable solution, and is likely to either decrease coverage in other areas, or if you're increasing gain significantly, is also going to increase noise and introduce signal distortion. And if the signal can't penetrate the metal building, you're likely not going to be able to get through unless you move your router/wireless AP significantly closer to the building anyway.

I'd suggest that you use another router closer to the building as a repeater, but this metal building construction tells me that probably would just be a waste of your money and time.

How does this workshop building get its power? If you're on cable, the only real solution may be to simply do another cable drop and pay for an additional cable modem to get coverage there. What about a 4G LTE/cellular wireless hotspot? Maybe that's the best solution. I mean, you're talking about a workshop, right? Should your dad be working and not playing on the internet (just kidding). But I think your solutions are going to be somewhat limited....

Now if you could run some CAT6 cable in a shielded underground run from your house to the workshop, that would be ideal. Then you could simply hook up a cheap old router and put it into AP mode and you'd have it made in the shade.....

 

[Jocosity]

I checked things out, and the workshop doesn't have cable and it's on a separate power grid. I guess I'll just look into trying a directional antenna.

 

[stevech]

60 ft. Can you do what I just did....

Run buried cable between buildings.
choose route.
Soak soil along route.
Use a flat-bladed shovel to make a slit 6 inches deep, or more.
Shove cat5e cable rated for buried usage into the slit. Be sure it's 6 in. down.
Stomp on ground along slit to close it.
Connect each end - one to router LAN port, other to a PC or an ethernet switch, and/or put WiFi AP on far end.

I had to go under two sidewalks. Took about 20 minutes each using a 3/4 in. drill and a garden auger about 2 inches in diameter. With a 40 inch extender. Garden augers are often used to make holes in soil for planting lots of bulbs or starts.

The slitting part took 15 minutes. The two sidewalks took about 45 minutes each. I also stuck PVC pipe under the sidewalks. You might want to include a run of RG6 coax for TV.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Foscam FR305 is $23.99 on Amazon right now and has better range than the RT-N66U. The Tenda FH305 is the same router. Both state wall penetrating Wifi. I have 2 of the Foscam FR305 routers and can confirm they are beasts.

http://www.tendacn.com/tendacn/Product/show.aspx?productid=445

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LV0YPFE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[sfx2000]

The slitting part took 15 minutes. The two sidewalks took about 45 minutes each. I also stuck PVC pipe under the sidewalks. You might want to include a run of RG6 coax for TV.

Run 2 UTP cables and the coax, if one is doing the effort... It provides a level of redundancy and the unused UTP can be leveraged into a Telco line drop for a phone extension..

And with a run over 50 feet, esp. if the outbuilding has it's own panel/service, be sure to check ground potential before hooking things up (or consult with a qualified electrician).

Some cities/counties/states require each building to be grounded separately as per electrical code.

 

[jegesq]

Foscam FR305 is $23.99 on Amazon right now and has better range than the RT-N66U. The Tenda FH305 is the same router. Both state wall penetrating Wifi. I have 2 of the Foscam FR305 routers and can confirm they are beasts.

http://www.tendacn.com/tendacn/Product/show.aspx?productid=445

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LV0YPFE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Per the Amazon link: "Twice the range of standard routers with adjustable amplification up to 200mW at 802.11n & 500mW at 802.11b/g for deep wall and multiple story penetration"

Not legal for use in the US (500mw tx power), and also not in EU under ETSI either. No wonder they call it "wall penetrating."

Interesting though, you don't see that same claim about 500mw TX on the
product's official site page at Foscam. Wonder how accurate the claim is?

Can't seem to locate the FCC certification page for this product. Anyone else able to find it?

 

[sm00thpapa]

Per the Amazon link: "Twice the range of standard routers with adjustable amplification up to 200mW at 802.11n & 500mW at 802.11b/g for deep wall and multiple story penetration"

Not legal for use in the US (500mw tx power), and also not in EU under ETSI either. No wonder they call it "wall penetrating."

Interesting though, you don't see that same claim about 500mw TX on the
product's official site page at Foscam. Wonder how accurate the claim is?

Can't seem to locate the FCC certification page for this product. Anyone else able to find it?

Couldn't find it either but all I can say is this little $23.99 router outperforms my N66U, N66W, WRT1900AC and EA9200. I'll keep looking. The FH305 is the same router.

 

[stevech]

Per the Amazon link: "Twice the range of standard routers with adjustable amplification up to 200mW at 802.11n & 500mW at 802.11b/g for deep wall and multiple story penetration"

Not legal for use in the US (500mw tx power), and also not in EU under ETSI either. No wonder they call it "wall penetrating."

Interesting though, you don't see that same claim about 500mw TX on the
product's official site page at Foscam. Wonder how accurate the claim is?

Can't seem to locate the FCC certification page for this product. Anyone else able to find it?

Marketing hogwash.

Remember too: A thousand watt WiFi router will not improve the signal strength FROM the client TO the router. WiFi is two-way.

 

[Jocosity]

I ended up getting the Foscam FR305. I didn't like it enough as a router to replace my old one like I had planned to, but it works great as a wireless bridge down at the workshop. Thanks!

 

[sm00thpapa]

I ended up getting the Foscam FR305. I didn't like it enough as a router to replace my old one like I had planned to, but it works great as a wireless bridge down at the workshop. Thanks!

Glad to hear you gave it a shot. It works great as an additional AP or repeater. I have 2 and they work great in my application. Good luck Sir.