So our new house is a 2300 sq ft and single story. Our cable internet is at one side of the house along with our wireless router (a linksys that is probably close to 10 yrs old). Our master bedroom and office are located at the complete opposite side of the house and our internet sucks on there. Should I upgrade our router or just get some of those wireless range extenders? I'd guess there is about 120' or so between the  router and our master bedroom.

Wow! I was about to post this same question. Router in living room, bedroom speed sucks to point its unusable.

I would upgrade the router if its 10 years old. There have been big improvements in speed and coverage. Looks at the latest Asus routers... IMO, I think they are the best currently.
 

This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC68U-Wireless-AC1900-Dual-Band-Gigabit-Router/dp/B00FB45SI4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1427816691&sr=8-2&keywords=asus+router

...and try to find a more central location for it.



 

If your router is 10 yrs old start there. I would also look into an extender as your speed will drop off at 120' esp with walls in between.

 
The problem is that is where the the family tv is, and the cable has to be run there. The cable is there, or in our bedroom.

Yeah you need a range extender then.

I'm in the same boat.  School us on extenders please.

Agree, I just went from a 5-6 year old Netgear WNDR3700 to one of the newer 802.11AC routers (Archer C7). Best $90 I've spent in years. The coverage throughout a 1,900 sq ft house is amazing, 5 bars everywhere and hitting 60-70MB/s (480 - 560Mbps) writing wirelessly to a NAS from two floors away is a freaking joy.

If you aren't afraid to run a wire or two, it can work miracles.

CHeck out this site: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/wireless-extender/bar/121-2-4ghz-dn-extended

Hawking Technology. http://hawkingtech.com/



Regardless of your router, it's just basically a radio transmitter/receiver. A lot of range can be gained by using a higher gain antenna. Most routers have a 'unity gain' antenna, but you can buy or build an antenna that will increase your signal gain (strength).










 

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1435114/

That's a good price for a good router.

Your house is 20' 19' wide?

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/

If your Router is a Linksys and close to 10 yrs old does it happen to be WRT54G if so flash it with DD-WRT and turn the power up.

Still only Wireless-G.

I think Wireless AC is the new standard.





 

Agree. While most devices are still 'N', if I were buying a new router today, I would get one just for future proofing.

How hard is it to turn an old N router into an access point?  My house is wired with CAT-5, so i want to use my old router as an AP instead of using the extender I have now, as the switching back and forth is annoying.  So, i figured the guys on here that are much smarter than me when it comes to this stuff would have a nice easy way to set this up.

Thanks

What router do you have and I'll look at how to do it. I'm bored right now anyway.

+1 to all of this.  I have this router, and the range is ridiculously good.

Just went through this last week, 3400sqft home same thing office at one end of the home. Mikrotik Look at the reviews for this router.








 

My new router is an ASUS N-66U, and the one I will be turning into an AP is a Netgear WNDR3400.  Thanks for the help.

They are still popular due to the ability of the various aftermarket firmware options.

Seems easy enough, looks like Netgear has an automatic wizard setup utility.

Try this: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23784/~/how-to-automatically-configure-a-netgear-router-to-ap-mode-(ap-mode

ETA: and I would skip the Static IP step and use a Dynamic.

Ok, cool...I will try that when I get home!!  Thanks again!!

Get a chance to set things up? Working for you?

Lol..not yet...I am offshore for another week.  Should have been home already, but have to stay for a bit longer.  I will post back here once I get it set up.

**I read the thread and it looks like I might be a bit behind the 8 ball.  I'll leave what I posted anyway for others thinking about something like this.**

If you can get in your attic and drill down into your top plates to fish a wire in the space between the studs then you should run a few CAT 6 cables from one end of the house to the other and terminate them at wall plates on either end.  Then you can simply add a wireless access point at the far end of your house and be hardlined back to your router.

You will also have the opportunity to simply plug your computer into the wall and skip wireless all together and have an infinitely better connection if you are working from a desktop or a laptop that sits on a desk.

It's not as much work as you think.  Just by a few 150' CAT 6 cables with plugs on both ends (so you don't have to crimp your own) and then buy wall plates that you can plug into the back rather than ones that require a punchdown tool.  Then you just get some low voltage single gang boxes, cut a hole in your drywall with a dry wall knife, fish the cable down through the wall on both ends and plug and screw everything into place, and you are done!

My only tip is that if you only need to run ONE wire for the access point, go ahead and run TWO (or THREE, or FOUR) while you are at it.  Connect all TWO (or THREE, or FOUR) to a wall plate at the router and for the other end leave the spares coiled up in the attic unconnected.  You'll thank me later when you come back to ARFcom asking about IP Surveillance Cameras or Media Servers.  

I'd skip the repeater.  Wireless sucks (relatively) to begin with so a repeater is just going to be suck on top of suck.  A separate access point for your far end of the house hardlined to your router is much better.

I have this router as well. I got it from tmobile for free. I walked in and told them i have shitty cell reception at home and they handed me that to install. Usually it's a $25 deposit to get one. Dunno if they're still handing them out or taking a deposit.

Thanks for the info. Is this one worth a damn?

Get a TP Link Archer C9.....yeah it is more than a C7,  but has awesome coverage.  $150 from Amazon

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Sorry it took me so long, but I was finally able to get everything setup.  The Netgear router works great as a WAP, and it was very easy to set up.  Thanks for the help davisac!!

Double post....

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Try the FREE solution first!





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I run three access points in my house that are hard-wired together with infrastructure cabling, (CAT5e.) Each are connect at full gig with one acting as router (connected to my cable modem and acting as DNS/DHCP master.) the other two have these features turned off and point back to the master as their default gateway.

I have two wireless SSID's, one a 'public' one with simple WPA2 and the 'personal' one with a much more robust code. The public one is rate-limited to 5mbps and has extra security features enabled. All three broadcast the same SSID's so I can roam anywhere on my property and have fast wireless speeds.

The residential hardware is mostly the same for all these units, some are better than others with faster processors/more memory/external antennas but all three run DD-WRT.

If you can hardware two or more 'routers' together you can easily extend your wireless signal and boost your speed but you're not going to be able to do it with most OEM software that comes pre-loaded. If you don't want to dick with all that, spend a few hundred bucks and buy a lightly used Cisco Aironet (make sure you get at least the G versions.) Aironeta are 'commercial' grade hardware, have more power output and of course run a more feature-rich IOS.

If you decide to go down the DD-WRT route, get all the same 'routers' down to the same hardware revision. Some versions of Linksys, Buffalo or Asus routers are the best choice and can be picked up pretty cheap on FleaBay but it's not as simple as plug and play.

Google search DD-WRT and read up on the capabilities. You can extended SSID's across a wireless link, (each router connected wirelessly) but the throughput isn't that great and drop outs will occur. Hardware is the best way to go.

ETA...Not all consumer-grade 'routers' will run DD-WRT so check the database and real ALL the install notes. Some are simple to load, others require a boot-loader and special configs. I'm a big fan of the Asus line, I run three N16 routers with a fairly recent code revision.

 
1.  Move the cable internet drop from where it is to your office so you can hardwire any networked items in your office;

2.  Replace your existing router.  I like these;

3.  Run a CAT 5e or CAT 6 ethernet drop from your router to the other end of your house and install an access point - I like these.


My problem was similar, except my cable modem and router were at one end of the house and the TV was at the other, with a former exterior wall (brick) in the way.

I second this router, it's fantastic and has some great features. I have the RT-AC68P model but basically the same thing.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-wirelessac1900-dual-band-gigabit-wireless-router-black/8448381.p?id=1219334566012&skuId=8448381

I had my sister ask me for advice on a new router about a month ago and I recommended this one and she bought it within minutes of me telling her which one I had. That's how much she trusts my judgement, anyway my brother in law was ticked because he apparently had his eye on another router and he was a bit butt-hurt and she said he was acting like an A-hole about it saying it sucked and the worst router, blah blah blah. They decided to upgrade Internet (he got a discount on some sports channels or something If he bundled Internet with cable) and the guy came out to hook them up with the new service and the tech was like "WOW, fantastic hardware you've got for a router!! Then started talking very highly of it saying it was one of the best routers on the market etc... My brother in law said well I was also looking at "insert router he wanted here" what do you think of that one. The guy goes this one is by far the better option so it's a good thing you went with this one, the other one is okay for a lower end router but this ones much better.
My sister laughed and was like SEE!!! He apparently ate his words and was like, okay....fine this ones better we'll keep it