Question Help finding the correct networking device?

[BGDN]

Hi all,

I'm a little unsure of what networking device, can you help please?

Our internet comes into a router. The walls are very thick here (I live in Portugal) so the wifi is completely absent in some rooms.

Fortunately, there is an RJ-45 socket which works fine. It's this socket that I want to connect a networking device to in order to act as a source of WiFi for this area.

However, I don't know what I need. Am I looking for another standard router? An extender? What do you all recommend?

This area only has two small rooms, and I am budget conscious (on the low end).

I'd greatly appreciate any pointers please. Thank you!

 

[COLGeek]

An access point, connected to the ethernet port you described, like this should do the trick:

Amazon.com

You should be able to find in local on-line stores.

 

[BGDN]

An access point, connected to the ethernet port you described, like this should do the trick:

Amazon.com

You should be able to find in local on-line stores.

Super, thanks very much, @COLGeek ! That is exactly what I was looking for.

The price is great, but it looks like something out of Warhammer 40k. 😀 I bet it works great tho. But I'm left wondering if the signal is significantly impacted in devices that hide the antennae (ie, the 'round' ones from various companies).

I've got some researching to do, thank you for putting me on the right track.

 

[COLGeek]

My pleasure. External antennas generally perform better.

 

[Paperdoc]

Good answers above. Just an FYI, you mentioned "the 'round' ones from various companies". You MAY mean ones from Ubiquity. Theirs are VERY good - we use some in our home system - but they do tend to be higher priced.

Also, getting a WiFi Access Point device to connect to your wired network is BETTER than getting a second Router. Routers and WiFi Points of Access are really two separate devices. BUT it is now SO common to need both in a local network that Router makers simply build in a WiFi POA on most models, and people have lost sight of the distinction. MOST small networks should be designed with only ONE router to control all of it, possibly with one or more SWITCHES (not added Routers) to connect several devices. Having an extra Router makes configuration of the entire network more complex to avoid control clashes.

Lastly, another FYI about the device linked by COLGeek. Power for it can be provided by the POE feature - that's Power Over Ethernet. This is a design that sends power to an attached device (like this POA device) over the Ethernet cable from the signal source (like your existing Router). Not all Routers have this built in. Further, on many that feature is available only on certain output ports, OR may be enabled for specified outputs in the Router's configuration. If you do NOT have that, or are not clear how to get it working, that TPLink unit comes also with a Power Injector. It looks just like a common "wall wart" power block you plug into a wall outlet and into the TPLink unit to give it power. Then you are not depending on the POE feature of the Router.