[Habanero City]

Originally Posted by KL01toKA03

I need some help for fixing a WiFi range issue. I have a situation where 4 people need to access internet at a good speed for work/studies.

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

[*]Getting a LAN cable and having an electrician run it to few rooms is even better and most stable option. This will cost ~2k for extender that can take LAN an input and ~2k for cable + electrician cost for snaking the cable though existing electric cabling.[/list]

I faced similar situation like you and opted for running LAN cable so that speed and stability of the connection is not compromised.
Depending upon the requirements you may consider temporary cabling to reduce cost and time.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by KL01toKA03

Are there any significant cons to using a repeater? Can anyone using a repeater confirm if there are any major issues. The main concern is a stable connection and not speed.

Thanks for all the responses.

I use a Digisol repeater for the past 5 years. Like Viddy mentioned, the throughput reduces by more than 50%. OK for Video streaming and browsing but if you want low latency and higher stable speeds then repeater is a no no. Same is using a spare wifi router as repeater.

The TP link repeater listed above is one of the better ones available in the market. Lower cost is the main advantage of the repeater.

If more than 4 devices are simultaneously using the internet access through the repeater then the performance drop is more.

Finally, it depends on your use case. If casual browsing, Youtube Netflix/Prime/Hotstar, repeater will work well. If online gaming, work from home involving connection to remote computers over VPN, definitely not a good choice.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by shreyak_ss

probably the TP Link Deco M4 -3 pack. Does anyone have any experience with it?

My requirement is to cover 2 floors of my house as of now with an option to add more satellites in the future if the need arises.

This is pretty good for the price (~13k).

1. This mesh system has the same drawback as repeater (no dedicated channel/band to communicate between units)
2. With three units, it covered 3 floors for one installation (all three were in line-of-sight, so made things easier)
3. Worst case, you might have to plan for 2k to 3k spend on LAN cable + electrician cost to run the cable with existing concealed wiring between units.

[shipnil]

Experts, need your help to clarify few things. But before questions, let me explain the setup and the things that I did.

I have a 16 mbps connection. The primary router is one Asus AC750 router. It is placed centrally in my apartment. But even if it's a central location, there are concrete walls or doors on all sides. Due to this I get weak signals in couple of rooms even on 2.4 Ghz band. I have 2 other routers, received from different ISPs, lying around, that I tried to setup as repeaters (wirelss only). I was able to do that but faced different kind of problems.

1. It has always been told here and other websites that the speed would halve if you connect to repeater. But in my case, both my repeaters were able to give full 16 mbps, on both bands. How is this possible?

2. The main reason to use old Asus, as a router, is for its parental controls. One Totolink router which is newer and may be powerful than Asus does not have parental controls. But when devices connect to Totolink (repeater), they are able to bypass the parental controls. So is there a way to make repeaters follow Asus parental controls on devices connecting to it?

3. Are there any other ways to setup parental controls on routers that don't have them, in-built?

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by shipnil

1. How is this possible?
2. So is there a way to make repeaters follow Asus parental controls on devices connecting to it?
3. Are there any other ways to setup parental controls on routers that don't have them, in-built?

Wireless linking of routers is not repeating, i think. Atleast when i linked my routers wirelessly using DD-WRT i set the routers as access points if memory serves me right.
I now use three routers connected to my main netgear router as access points, by ethernet cable and not wireless. So the main router is providing dhcp and hence access control. My connected access points have different ssids for different rooms of my house.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by shipnil

The primary router is one Asus AC750 router. It is placed centrally in my apartment. But even if it's a central location, there are concrete walls or doors on all sides. Due to this I get weak signals in couple of rooms even on 2.4 Ghz band. I have 2 other routers, received from different ISPs, lying around, that I tried to setup as repeaters (wirelss only). I was able to do that but faced different kind of problems.
?

Even I have similar requirement. I have one spare router (wireless) which I want to connect it as a repeater to my main modem+router. Is it possible to use the spare router as repeater without connecting a LAN cable? That is wirelessly?

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Is it possible to use the spare router as repeater without connecting a LAN cable? That is wirelessly?

- ensure your main router is connected and doing good. Note it's IP. (assuming 192.168.1.1)
- login to your spare router and go to Advanced settings of wireless
- look for site survey; then do a site survey. your main router should be displayed when the survey is over
- select it and set the spare router as repeater
- when it connects it will ask for the main router's WiFi password
- change the spare router IP to 192.168.1.2
- the router will now reboot. After that it will be relaying signals to/from the main router

This is how it should be done. Be advised, trial and error is norm.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

- ensure your main router is connected and doing good. Note it's IP. (assuming 192.168.1.1)
- login to your spare router and go to Advanced settings of wireless
- look for site survey; then do a site survey. your main router should be displayed when the survey is over
- select it and set the spare router as repeater
- when it connects it will ask for the main router's WiFi password
- change the spare router IP to 192.168.1.2
- the router will now reboot. After that it will be relaying signals to/from the main router

Thanks for your response. When i logged in into my spare router, i don't see any option as 'site survey'. I went to all the tabs, but did not find anything that is related to site survey.
I am attaching the settings page of my router.

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by kavensri

I am attaching the settings page of my router.

Which router model is this? Did you look at WAN setup?

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Which router model is this? Did you look at WAN setup?

Yes, i did look into WAN Setup as well, but did not find any option there.
PFA the WAN Setup options and also you can see the router model details.

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Yes, i did look into WAN Setup as well, but did not find any option there.

Here's the user manual for this router:
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/fi...UM_14May08.pdf

You may want to watch this video and upgrade the firmware (ensure uninterrupted power supply when you do). Notice wireless repeating function on the side menu under Advanced > Wireless Settings in it; this is apparently missing in your router.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHDP11qrD_k

After that search for wgr614v9 repeater in YouTube and follow the video advisors.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Here's the user manual for this router:
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/fi...UM_14May08.pdf

I downloaded the firmware and upgraded my router. Now, i can see the repeater option. I following the instructions given and it did not work. When i tried to connect to this router, it is not able to obtain the IP address. As you mentioned, it is definitely 'trial and error' method. So I will try again tomorrow and i am hopeful of making it work.
Thanks a lot for your help.

[shreyak_ss]

So I got a TP Link Deco M4 - 3 pack, installed as per the guidelines on the app. It worked fine for a couple of days but now I'm facing a peculiar issue.

My main router is placed next to my Jiofiber router connected through LAN on the first floor and the two satellite routers are placed on the ground floor, 1 just below it and the other one some 20ft apart. When I connect to the main router on first floor there's no issue with the connection, however when I connect to the satellite ones on the ground floor, it shows "IP configuration failure" on my android phone. It worked fine for a bit initially but now it just doesn't connect to the satellite routers. Same is the case with other devices also both iOS and Android. I have a Jio set top box on the ground floor that also refuses to connect even though its showing range of the satellite routers. I'm in a fix now because this totally defeats the purpose of getting a mesh system in the first place.

Can anyone help me out, if I have to change any router settings or something else? I tried to relocate the routers in the ground floor but the problem still persists even though the routers are connected with each other.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by shreyak_ss

if I have to change any router settings or something else? I tried to relocate the routers in the ground floor but the problem still persists even though the routers are connected with each other.

For troubleshooting, reset all three routers to factory settings. Does that fix the problem ?

[shreyak_ss]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

For troubleshooting, reset all three routers to factory settings. Does that fix the problem ?

Went ahead and did that two days back. It seems to be working fine after that. Fingers crossed.