Question effect of range extender on ping TP-Link AC750 ?

[.valkyrie.]

archer c20 v5 ac750

hi, i am using this router as a range extender and signal is 65% when this router find my main router.
basically its exactly on a floor on top of main router.

but unfortunately, the ping in gaming is sux and there are lot of freez and no Matter i am using 2.4 or 5ghz band, problem exist.

also i use adobe conect to attend online class. when i conect to this, although my WiFi bar is full, my ping and connection quality is Yellow but when i directly use main router, the ping is green and everything fine.

so i bought this 3 week ago and i wonder if its normal for R.Extenders or this device have problem and i should refound it?

 

[bill001g]

It is a very common issue when you use any kind of extender/repeater/mesh system. Pretty much you use these systems when any wifi signal is better than no signal. You really need to try any other option first.

It greatly depends on where you place these units. Although all the fancy marketing diagrams make it look like you just place them in the remote rooms and they work by magic that is not true. They need to be place in a location that they can get strong signal from the main router and still be able to provide a good signal to the remote room. Generally about 1/2 way but with walls and floors in between it is not that simple most times.

If you are using your pc in the same room as the repeater it is silly. You will get worse signal than if your pc connects directly to the main router. The repeater signal interferes/competes with the main router for radio bandwidth. You in general lose 1/2 the speed even though the signal strength appears higher.
When you use repeaters you have 2 wifi signals that can get interference and you have all the overhead of transmitting the data 2 times rather than 1.

You might consider using MoCA if you have coax cable or powerline network. If you can directly use the wifi connection to your router that will likely be better than placing a repeater in the same room.

 

[.valkyrie.]

It is a very common issue when you use any kind of extender/repeater/mesh system. Pretty much you use these systems when any wifi signal is better than no signal. You really need to try any other option first.

It greatly depends on where you place these units. Although all the fancy marketing diagrams make it look like you just place them in the remote rooms and they work by magic that is not true. They need to be place in a location that they can get strong signal from the main router and still be able to provide a good signal to the remote room. Generally about 1/2 way but with walls and floors in between it is not that simple most times.

If you are using your pc in the same room as the repeater it is silly. You will get worse signal than if your pc connects directly to the main router. The repeater signal interferes/competes with the main router for radio bandwidth. You in general lose 1/2 the speed even though the signal strength appears higher.
When you use repeaters you have 2 wifi signals that can get interference and you have all the overhead of transmitting the data 2 times rather than 1.

You might consider using MoCA if you have coax cable or powerline network. If you can directly use the wifi connection to your router that will likely be better than placing a repeater in the same room.

speed is fine, i just get same speed as the main router. problem is the ping time.

so 65% signal strength btw main router and repeater is not enough?

and the repeater is fine and its in its nature?

 

[bill001g]

If you have issues between the main router and you pc. If you place the repeater in the same place as the pc the repeater will have the same exact issues. The repeater will the create a new wifi signal to sent to the pc. Now that signal between repeater and the pc might be stronger but the damage to the data has already been done before it sends it to pc. In addition this extra signal being sent to the pc interferes with the signal going between the router and the repeater so it makes the problem even worse.

 

[gggplaya]

and the repeater is fine and its in its nature?

Repeaters are trash. I've never seen any power users have good success with them. They're fine for grandma that just needs to connect her phone to check facebook and stream Netflix. But I would never recommend them to anyone trying to game or do anything timing critical.

If you have a TV coaxial outlet in both rooms, as Bill said, the easiest solution is MOCA, which will give you actual gigabit speeds with no ping poblems.

Next, you can try powerline, though bandwidth isn't usually as good and they are prone to interference from things like LED lights and power adapters.

 

[.valkyrie.]

Repeaters are trash. I've never seen any power users have good success with them. They're fine for grandma that just needs to connect her phone to check facebook and stream Netflix. But I would never recommend them to anyone trying to game or do anything timing critical.

If you have a TV coaxial outlet in both rooms, as Bill said, the easiest solution is MOCA, which will give you actual gigabit speeds with no ping poblems.

Next, you can try powerline, though bandwidth isn't usually as good and they are prone to interference from things like LED lights and power adapters.

unfortunately i have no access but Wi-Fi to main router.
let me clear the situation.
router is in floor one, i am on 2nd and my parents are on 3rd floor.
if you say device is fine, then its oK i do something else.
maby i can rename wifi of repeater so that i be able to connect directly to main router. (i can with 2 wifi bar and works fine)

my problem and the reason for this topic was that IF the repeater is broken and IF i should refound it....
which you guys said it's normal and all in its nature.

buy the way, this repeater router support 2.4 and 5ghz.

my main router is just 2.4

by this explanation, shouldn't it work fine if i use 5ghz? but i do have problem on that as well

 

[bill001g]

What also could be happening is the repeater is getting a slightly lower signal level than your pc does when it connects to the main router so it gets more errors or runs a bit slower. Even tiny difference in placement of device in a room change the wifi signal a lot. It is highly unlikely buying different repeater will work better.

If you attach to 5g the repeater still has the bad signal on 2.4g. It is slightly better that your pc is also not competing for bandwidth on 2.4g but there is so much interference from neighbors and other devices in your house it tends to make little difference.

For this to work optimually the repeater would have to be able to get a signal level of say 5 bars (its actually Db) from the main router and at the same time provide 5 bars of signal to your end pc. This would reduce the chance of interference causing as many errors. You still have all the added delay and complexity of have to send and receive 2 different radio signals but it always better to have stronger signals. Maybe moving the repeater might help. No way to predict since it is all related to how much signal your house absorbs.

Because it is less complex path the signal you get directly from the router even though it is weak will likely be better. Generally you only use a repeater when there is no usable signal at all from the main router, likely the case on the third floor of your house.

If renaming the wifi so you can connect directly works then that will likely be the simplest solution.

For gaming you really don't want to use any kind of wifi at all. You could be sitting in the same room as the router and get massive lag spikes in a game because someone drove by with one of those fancy cars that has wifi hotspots in them and interferes with your signal.
I would first look at MoCA if you have coax cables by the router and in your room. This will give you full gigabit speed (not that games need it) and no packet loss. If you do not have coax I would look at powerline networks that use the electrical wires to simulate a ethernet cable. These work very well in most houses but they will only get about 130mbps max but have do not have the problem of added latency or packet loss wifi does. In your case powerline will likely be faster than using wifi on 2.4g. Key here is games don't really care about the speed they care about the quality of the signals.

 

[gggplaya]

unfortunately i have no access but Wi-Fi to main router.
let me clear the situation.
router is in floor one, i am on 2nd and my parents are on 3rd floor.
if you say device is fine, then its oK i do something else.
maby i can rename wifi of repeater so that i be able to connect directly to main router. (i can with 2 wifi bar and works fine)

my problem and the reason for this topic was that IF the repeater is broken and IF i should refound it....
which you guys said it's normal and all in its nature.

buy the way, this repeater router support 2.4 and 5ghz.

my main router is just 2.4

by this explanation, shouldn't it work fine if i use 5ghz? but i do have problem on that as well

I don't like Repeaters for this reason. They can "work" but they aren't very good at their job. It's like hiring a lousy employee to bring you things in your bedroom, they'll do it, but they won't be very consistent and at time be a little slow. If you're within the refund window, I'd return the unit.

If you have coax outlets near your main router and in your bedroom. I would use MOCA as bill said. It's the best employee you can get for the job. Though, a little more expensive.

If you don't have coax outlets. Then I would get a powerline wifi extender. This will send signals through your homes power outlets. Not the best employee, but not a bad one either. They'll be on time for work and do a decent job.