2 Westell 7500 's as Wifi extender

[Legion]

OK a little background:
I have 2 Westell 7500's from Centurylink. I bought them at a yard sale for $1 ea. to replace the one from Centurylink so I would no longer have to pay the rental fee each month. They both work and I know how to use them pretty well as far as entering my user name and password to get them to work with Centurylink and how to forward ports for my games etc..

NOW for the issue at hand, my sons who live in the very far bedrooms of our house just got an xbox and new smart phones and are complaining about no wifi to at best poor wifi in their rooms. So, what I have researched has led me to this idea. Use both the Westell 7500's one as my main router(for lack of knowing what it really should be called, the one the phone line/DSL will be plugged in to) and the other as a wifi repeater in their room so they can have wifi.

P.S. We are trying to use what we have and not go out and buy hundreds of dollars in hardware we don't have right now, maybe later but for now we want to know how to make what we have work.

 

[bill001g]

You will need to have a ethernet cable between the rooms and use the second device as a AP.

The device does not have the ability to run as a repeater it is a special feature it must be built with. Even if it did a repeater is not some magic box. If you put it in a room that gets bad signal the repeater will also get bad signal and just retransmit that bad signal making it even worse. A repeater must be placed in a location it gets good signal and then still be close enough so it can repeat it to the area with poor coverage. Even then it still degrades the speed by at least 50%

 

[Legion]

You will need to have a ethernet cable between the rooms and use the second device as a AP.

The device does not have the ability to run as a repeater it is a special feature it must be built with. Even if it did a repeater is not some magic box. If you put it in a room that gets bad signal the repeater will also get bad signal and just retransmit that bad signal making it even worse. A repeater must be placed in a location it gets good signal and then still be close enough so it can repeat it to the area with poor coverage. Even then it still degrades the speed by at least 50%

Thank you bill001g ! I am not sure we could deal with a ethernet cable laying on the floor from the office through the living room and utility closet to another router/access point. That's why I was looking for something wireless, understanding it would have to be about half way to avoid it not getting signal too. I did not know the Westell 7500 was not able to do this, that was why I was asking here.

I talked to Centurylink and they suggested I get their new PK5001z ASDL2+ modem/router combo to try and solve the issue. That means I will be paying them a $6.99 monthly fee again or if it works I can buy it outright for $99.00 which is about 14 months rental cost. He said if it doesn't work I can send it back to them and try another solution, he suggested powerline adapters?

Do you all think this will solve the issue?

 

[bill001g]

power line adapters work pretty well in most houses. You would then run your other westel router as a AP using the powerline as a ethernet cable.

In general power line devices are pretty stable when you get them up and running. There is the rare house they refuse to work in so buy from someone you can return them. You need to plug them directly into the wall outlets. No power strips or surge protectors and avoid anything with motors especially the vacuum cleaner on the same circuit.

It is not likely their modem/router will be a lot different. Most routers transmit about the same power level. The small difference in routers is generally overshadowed by the house construction. Some walls you can put a router on one side and barely be able to detect it on the other.

The only good reason to pay the monthly fee is if you ever have network problems they can't blame "your" modem since it they are responsible for it. In general you are always better off buying your own hardware it is very rare that it fails and you could almost buy a new router every year for the fees they charge.

 

[Legion]

power line adapters work pretty well in most houses. You would then run your other westel router as a AP using the powerline as a ethernet cable.

In general power line devices are pretty stable when you get them up and running. There is the rare house they refuse to work in so buy from someone you can return them. You need to plug them directly into the wall outlets. No power strips or surge protectors and avoid anything with motors especially the vacuum cleaner on the same circuit.

It is not likely their modem/router will be a lot different. Most routers transmit about the same power level. The small difference in routers is generally overshadowed by the house construction. Some walls you can put a router on one side and barely be able to detect it on the other.

The only good reason to pay the monthly fee is if you ever have network problems they can't blame "your" modem since it they are responsible for it. In general you are always better off buying your own hardware it is very rare that it fails and you could almost buy a new router every year for the fees they charge.

Thank you for your help, I have tried a new ASDL2+ modem/router and NO it did not fix the issue. As of now I still don't have wifi in the back part of my home and my sons are not happy about it, I am on the lookout for power line adapters and will update when I have some, thank you again!