Need to extend my wifi to another apartment in the same building

[Vallenator]

hey, my mom moved into an apartment in the same building i live in. Its on the same side but one floor above and a couple apartments down the hallway. I have 250 mbit fiber internet and it feels unnecessary to pay for another if theres a way to extend my wifi to her apartment. I cant drill holes in the wall to pull through cables to the balcony (so i cant have antennas on the balcony)

Heres a picture, red one is my balcony, and black one is my mothers:

http://imgur.com/a/2dU3w

cheapest broadband costs 35 bucks a month (10 mbit) which will ad up to 420 a year, and if we live here for lets say 5 years, it will ad up to 2100 dollar

ps: sorry for my bad english

 

[kanewolf]

Since this is an apartment situation, you need to create a 5Ghz point to point link between the two apartments. There is too much interference on the 2.4Ghz band. UNFORTUNATELY, to do that you would need something on the patios creating the link.

You could try running flat ethernet cable -- http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9548 through a window opening. One of these -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168116 on your patio and one on hers, pointing at each other. These are about the size of a paperback book.

 

[Vallenator]

Since this is an apartment situation, you need to create a 5Ghz point to point link between the two apartments. There is too much interference on the 2.4Ghz band. UNFORTUNATELY, to do that you would need something on the patios creating the link.

You could try running flat ethernet cable -- http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9548 through a window opening. One of these -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168116 on your patio and one on hers, pointing at each other. These are about the size of a paperback book.

do they have to point exactly at each other? if you look at the picture, that will be hard because of other balconies inbetween

 

[photonboy]

Two solutions that exist:

a) wi-fi extenders, and
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wi-Fi-Extender-Essentials-EX2700/dp/B00L0YLRUW

b) Power (AC) range extenders.

The wi-fi extender is probably your best choice. Line-of-sight (or close as possible) is key here. But before you try that, just try and see if it works okay.

*Make sure your network is SECURED with a password and that she also logs into your network as well.

Other:
Her connection to you is also based on:

a) the quality of your ROUTER's wi-fi, and
b) the quality of her wi-fi adapter
c) 5GHz vs 2.5GHz (5GHz is faster, and 2.5GHz may even have interference from portable phones)
d) how good line of site is (such as moving ROUTER or placing wi-fi extenders near the window for each apartment)

A good "AC" router is the best but it can be expensive. you need the wi-fi adapter to also be "AC" to take full advantage of it.

Summary:
Start with seeing how good her connection is. I suggest you run SPEEDTEST on your own computer, then have her run it when you aren't using the network.

www.speedtest.net

If she's browsing fine (her signal strength for the wifi antennae is probably all you need but verify with Speedtest and just using it) then nothing more needs to be done. If you're low or borderline then a better wi-fi adapter may be all she needs.

You can look at pcpartpicker to compare.

 

[photonboy]

Update:
I presume your FIBER is a pretty high-speed network. You will be limited by using wi-fi, however it may be more than adequate for her usage.

Netflix (normal HD) appears to use less than 1MB/second and my slowest wi-fi experience a few years ago was 2.5MBps. I got a better ROUTER and it jumped to 7MBps. I later got an AC wi-fi adapter and it jumped to 20MBps.

It may be fine for HDTV, though any 4K content might not work. Netflix has stated between 15Mbps and 50Mbps depending on the 4K content (I think the highest is 3D 4K). 7MBps translates to 56Mbps (a Byte = 8 bits) so it's actually quite feasible to achieve this even without the best router and wi-fi adapter.

*keep in mind many devices can't have the wi-fi adapter changed, so that leaves the ROUTER and wi-fi extender.

Finally, make sure the USB or PCIe adapter you get is compatible with Windows version being used. For example: http://www.trendnet.com/support/view.asp?cat=4&id=60

 

[Vallenator]

Update:
I presume your FIBER is a pretty high-speed network. You will be limited by using wi-fi, however it may be more than adequate for her usage.

Netflix (normal HD) appears to use less than 1MB/second and my slowest wi-fi experience a few years ago was 2.5MBps. I got a better ROUTER and it jumped to 7MBps. I later got an AC wi-fi adapter and it jumped to 20MBps.

It may be fine for HDTV, though any 4K content might not work. Netflix has stated between 15Mbps and 50Mbps depending on the 4K content (I think the highest is 3D 4K). 7MBps translates to 56Mbps (a Byte = 8 bits) so it's actually quite feasible to achieve this even without the best router and wi-fi adapter.

*keep in mind many devices can't have the wi-fi adapter changed, so that leaves the ROUTER and wi-fi extender.

Finally, make sure the USB or PCIe adapter you get is compatible with Windows version being used. For example: http://www.trendnet.com/support/view.asp?cat=4&id=60

my router has 5 ghz and 2.5 ghz. Its super low range, it reaches about 2-3 meters outside my apartment with all doors open, which is about 15 meters in total from the router, no way its gonna reach her, despite i dont have long enough enthernet cable to put the router right by the window and my mom uses an old macbook with crappy adapter. Id say my budget is max 300 bucks. Do you think i could buy two extenders, one powerful from my balcony window that reaches her balcony, and one on her balcony window that extend that signal further throughout her apartment?


also, did your speedtest on her macbook (close the router), it says 244 download speed and 209 upload speed