Improve Mifi 6620l range

[bgandypt]

I have a novatel mifi 6620l. I am using it as my only source for Internet since I live in a rural area. I am trying to improve the range of the signal to dead spots in my home. I also have devices that continually disconnect from the wifi network. Should I use a wifi extender or purchase a router. I have Ethernet ports throughout my home, but unable to use them because the mifi does not have an Ethernet connection.

 

[kanewolf]

I would get a wireless bridge and an ethernet switch. The wireless bridge will convert from WIFI to ethernet and the switch will let you connect all the rooms. Although this says "outdoor" it makes an excellent wireless bridge indoors or outdoors -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168115

 

[bill001g]

Those device tend to be a pain to deal with. I had/have a similar device from sprint. It does not transmit even close t the full power allowed by law...unlike almost every normal router. I suspect because it is deigned to be portable and run on battery power. So you get poor coverage.

The next problem is many of these devices do not support WDS. You will be able to tell many times because end device will tell you if WDS is enabled when you search for networks. The one I have does not support WDS. I suspect this is so the vendor can put the limit on the number of clients...not sure why there is a limit.

The problem will be you can only hook 1 device per bridge when WDS is not supported which gets expensive. Some of the bridges support running in router mode. Not sure if engenius does. I forget which but engenius or ubiquiti had devices that did.

If it runs in WDS mode it will be trivial to get a wireless bridge and switch to work.

 

[kanewolf]

Those device tend to be a pain to deal with. I had/have a similar device from sprint. It does not transmit even close t the full power allowed by law...unlike almost every normal router. I suspect because it is deigned to be portable and run on battery power. So you get poor coverage.

The next problem is many of these devices do not support WDS. You will be able to tell many times because end device will tell you if WDS is enabled when you search for networks. The one I have does not support WDS. I suspect this is so the vendor can put the limit on the number of clients...not sure why there is a limit.

The problem will be you can only hook 1 device per bridge when WDS is not supported which gets expensive. Some of the bridges support running in router mode. Not sure if engenius does. I forget which but engenius or ubiquiti had devices that did.

If it runs in WDS mode it will be trivial to get a wireless bridge and switch to work.

The Engenius I linked does run in router mode. That is how I used it when Frontier took over for Verizon and FIOS was out at my house for 1 week. I was able to setup a link to an obliging neighbor that didn't have problems with FIOS transition. Unplugged the FIOS router and plugged the Engenius into my network. Nothing on the network knew the difference.