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Thread: Need advice on wifi extender

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  1. #1
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    Need advice on wifi extender

    Long story short. My brother has cable internet installed in our house, prior to this my nephew was repairing a wall in our living room and said repair added an extra thickness to that wall and now trying to get wifi through said thickness is impossible. A cable service rep said an extender would make it work.

    I found this and wondered if this will work to do what we need:

    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-283-_-Product

  2. #2
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    I should add, our walls are plaster so there is a metal grid behind them, which also deters the wifi somewhat. And the extra thickness of drywall is 3/8".

  3. #3
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    FWIW, our office (and network [FIOS]) is setup in the finished basement. For about a year and half we've been using a little NETGEAR AC750 WiFi Range Extender (EX3700-100NAS) - $39.46 in a dining room receptacle to handle everything Wi-Fi upstairs: Two Amazon Fire TV's, two smart light bulbs, three smart plugs, one smart switch, wife's 10" tablet, three smartphone's Wi-Fi ... No complaints. We don't have plaster walls though. Standard stick-built (studs and sheetrock).

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    Okay thanks Doc. Now I'm trying to decide where best to put it. I want to wifi my printer mostly but have my desktop wired, so I have a router I just bought and hope I can wire off it to my desktop.

  5. #5
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    Try to place the exender halfway between the Wi-Fi router and the Wi-Fi printer. Mine has two little LEDs for link quality: One is the router link, the other for device link. A solid green LED means best connection, solid amber is good, solid red is poor and off means no connection.

  6. #6
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    Okay. The extender will be plugged into an outlet on the wall in my bedroom which shares my brother's wall and his modem/router is just on the other side of that wall. Think unside down L shaped with short part as where the extender will be plugged into, and long portion his and my wall shared. The thickness of the wall is about 6 to 7 inches.

  7. #7
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    That's wrong, I meant, turn the L upside down so the short end is topside, but if you do that, the long side is in the wrong place. So I did the almost drawing below, and it should look like this:

    ---
    l
    l

    The two small L's are the long wall (which is the shared wall of my brother's room) , the three dashes are the short wall (is an outside wall) and where the extender will be plugged in.

    I hope that made sense.
    Since I'm not a mode here, I can't edit my posts, and it's annoying too to say the least. I also can't PM anyone yet. Steve said he couldn't remember how many posts you have to have to PM someone. I was a member here a long time ago but changed ISPs and email changed then too so I couldn't get the email new password sent to me because I no longer had that email. So when I came here this time, I had to register again. Of course under a new improved photolady.

  8. #8
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    See if your PM is working yet?

    It that 6-7" thick wall has wire mesh in it will hinder the Wi-Fi signal. Do you have a smartphone or tablet running Android?

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    Yes, PM is working and I answered you and then PM'd you back, by going to your name in the other thread I have here, clicking on your name, I saw 'send private message" and did so.

    I have a smartphone running android and a smart TV. And my printer is wifi too. I'm hoping I can wifi my printer, but I'm not sure about that either. But I still have the Wifi Router and Wifi NIC in my desktop if I need to go that route.

    Ok, I asked and found out the wire behind the plaster is more like chicken wire than close together like mesh. Maybe an inch and a half wide to two inches wide.
    Last edited by photolady95; 10-29-2018 at 10:56 AM.

  10. #10
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    Cool. On your smartphone, download, install and run Wifi Analyzer (by farproc). Wander around the house (slowly) and watch the WiFi signal increase/decrease as you move about. You want between say -50 up to -35. Also, check and see if your WiFi router is on a channel that is not on the same channel as other WiFi routers in your area. You'll figure it out.

    Good to hear that it's more like chicken wire than mess. Less interference.

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    Okay where I have the printer sitting I get -50, and where I plan on putting the extender I get between -50 to -40. That's good right?

    But where I planned on putting the router, i get -60. But it is a wifi router so that shouldn't matter right?
    Last edited by photolady95; 10-29-2018 at 12:09 PM.

  12. #12
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    -60 is a bit weak but, it should be enough. -50 up is better.

    Did you check the channel? You want one that is offset from anyone else's top dead center.

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    Yep, it's not close to any other channel.

    I tried showing this app to my brother but it was like talking to a wall, he had no clue what I was talking about.

  14. #14
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    Chuckle, same happened with my wife. Her eyes glazed over as she says something like "and why do I need to know this?"

  15. #15
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    LOL. Tell her it's so you don't forget. If you explain things to others, you're less likely to forget things too.

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