Campground, wifi extender?

[PalmettoNurse]

Hi all. I live in a campground, no cable access. The owners have internet and they give the password for wifi. The problem is I am about 350 ft away from their router and the signal is too weak for reliable connection. Is a wifi extender the appropriate device for me to purchase? If so, what is the best one I should get. I am sorry I don't have any more information about the connection type, etc. Thanks!

 

[corroded]

if it is weak where you are the extender will not help. If the will let you put a repeater/extender half way, then you will be golden. You'll need a weather proof one.

Engenius make great weather proff repeaters or wired access point just for what you are talking about.

 

[PalmettoNurse]

Thanks corroded....I looked them up and they are affordable. I know the owners would not mind me putting one up. Pardon me if I don't know much about this, but do you have to run a power cable to it? Or could they run off something like a solar battery? Thanks

 

[byza]

An extender may be able to provide a more stable connection if the signal isn't too weak, but if it is too weak, even an extender won't help. Extenders can offer a more stable connection because they don't move, but if there is other interference it can still disrupt the signal to the extender. Also an extender is going to halve the bandwidth and also slightly inhibit the throughput. Halving the bandwidth shouldn't matter too much, nor should the slightly slower throughput, especially considering internet is better than no internet.

Without knowing what router they have, it's a bit difficult to recommend the best coarse of action. It's possible that buying them a better router might be more beneficial than an extender. Also if they have a dual band router than i'd go with a dual band extender as generally the 5ghz signal has less interference than the 2.4ghz signal, but if it's only single band than single band extenders tend to be cheaper. In any case this is a dual band extender that looks like it goes alright.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833389034&cm_re=dual_band_repeater-_-33-389-034-_-Product
It's also possible to get outdoor repeaters which may be better in your case if you could set it up a little closer to the router somehow, but I don't know where to find cheap ones in the US.
Many routers can also be set as repeaters or access points if you have a spare router for whatever reason.

 

[corroded]

Get the correct one and they are "PoE" (Power over Ethernet). the power is delivered over the network cable, if an access point. If it is just an extender out in "space", it will require power from somewhere. They can just hang it on an existing pole and cut it into the existing power there.

An Access Point on PoE is more desirable.