Router or wifi repeater/extender

[evonyyin2yang]

I live in a building that I cannot get a wired connection in. Because of this, my options are limited. The building offers wifi, but at some points it's extremely weak, and anytime someone walks through the hall in front of my apartment, it goes out entirely. I'm on the 10th floor, and I have access to public wifi if I can extend far enough (it's almost 2 blocks away, but very little obstruction). I would rather use the buildings net, just because that is why it's there. It's very fast, when I can connect and very stable, but there are thick walls to penetrate between me and it no matter how I look at it. At least 3, as well as a lot of interference from other wifi sources in the building.

I'm currently using PDA net which works, but it's limited to 20 mbps on a good day. It's a 150 mbps connection down, and I've pegged 30 up when I am close to the source. My question is, should I use a wifi router, or repeater for the best signal strength and penetration? If so, which version (brand etc.) would you all suggest?

ALSO, I'm planning to use a VPN, considering it's such a broadly shared net I want to secure my connection a little more than just plug and go. It's password protected, but that doesn't mean anything with 300+ people logged in. Don't want to have someone jack my credit card info etc. because I didn't secure the connection right. lol.

The connection, according to my landlord, is supposed to be good enough we can stream movies and games and the such without lagging everyone down significantly. I don't mind spending a little more money to get a device that penetrates things well enough to have a much lower signal loss when people walk by.

I just need it to maintain signal and be easy to set up with a VPN, or at least need my pc to be able to use a VPN and still connect properly lol. (new to the VPN area as well here).

 

[bill001g]

If you do not control the router/ap you may not get a common repeater/extender to work since to run a repeater you need to have WDS enabled. This is a security exposure so many times it disabled by default.

You can use outdoor directional bridge equipment indoors. It really is not meant to go through walls but because it is directional it is your best bet to get a signal. The directional antenna would concentrate signals...but you will have to experment sometimes the best signal may not be in a straight line when you use it inside a building.

You would then hook the bridge to any common router or AP via ethernet to provide the signal inside the house. Using 2 devices solves the WiFi repeater/WDS problem because you are not actually repeating the wifi directly. You can also load vpn software on the router if you buy the correct router.

Ubiquiti sells a large number of different devices, you need to decide if you need 2.4g or 5g and if you need 802.11ac or not. It is going to depend what the landlords devices is putting out. You can also consider engenius but ubiquiti products tend to be easier to get in most countries.

You can also attempt to point the bridge at the public wifi but I suspect you are going to have better luck with the building wifi since you at least can get some signal currently. The signal from the public hotspot may not be strong enough without directional equipment on both ends.