Tired of Wi-Fi dead zone or feeling disconnected from the world when sitting in your comfort zone away from Router? All of us know our home/office’s weak or dead Wi-Fi spots and it’s frustrating when these are where you need the signal most. Maybe the dead spot is in the upstairs bedroom where you would like to play games or to stream a movie to your notebook or to listen to music on your iPad while sunbathing. Of course, you could get another router and Wi-Fi connection which is faster in the dead zone, but do you really want to spend more bucks on that new connection and want to mess up your home/office interior with long cables. The Solution to this problem is Wireless Repeater.
What is a Wireless Repeater
A Wireless Repeater catches a wireless signal and then rebroadcast it, which helps to strengthen the signal from any router. This device plugs into any type electrical socket and boosts a network’s wireless signal to extend coverage throughout the home and backyard. In addition to extending the range of your wireless home network, you can also use this range extender to create a Wi-Fi access point.
Uses of Wireless Repeater
- When in an area with no wireless hotspots.
- In an area with much interference.
- Interference can be caused by many environmental factors such as microwaves (such as from a microwave oven), metal appliances or metallic coating or an impeded line of sight.
- When the distance between the computer and the wireless access point or wireless router is too great for the internal wireless network interface card to receive the wireless signal.
- When networking in an environment with interference and multiple computers or Hubs.
If you are facing weak signals in parts or some areas of your office/home then you can use the wireless repeater to extend range without much difficulty as setting it up wireless is not all difficult and most wireless repeater now-a-days comes with easy to use interface to get you running easily.
Drawbacks of Wireless Repeater
Since only one wireless device can transmit at once, wireless transmissions are doubled (router to repeater and then repeater to client versus just router to client), and so:
- Wireless throughput is reduced by at least 50%.
- Wireless interference (e.g., with other networks on the same channel) is at least doubled.
Alternatives To Wireless Repeaters
Most wireless repeaters (or range extenders) are purpose built, but certain wireless routers can be flashed with custom firmware such as DD-WRT to give them a ‘range extender’ option.
A better option for extending wireless coverage is to configure a secondary box as a wireless access point, with a wired connection between a LAN port on this secondary box and a LAN port on the primary box (a router).
Here are some select Wireless Range Extenders for your convenience.