[SOLVED] what is the typical gain of these wifi amplifiers?

[magnogreato]

I have trouble maintaining signal level thru Roku and my tv, from my router and want to boost the signal, but none of those I've seen or tried to contact have or will provide how much gain the amps have.
They all say they are fantastic, yet do not publish what gain they provide.
I'm not spending bucks on undisclosed specs!

 

[bill001g]

This is because many of those devices are illegal. This is especially true for things you buy from china and directly import it yourself.

The FCC must certify that all wifi devices meet their limitations. The added benefit to us consumers is you can now read the reports which are public and see what the device actually does. Without the fcc the vendor could claim anything they want and ship you a worthless device and you have no way to tell....and if you complain too loud you can get in trouble for importing equipment that is not fcc approved.

The legal limit is 1watt of power including the antenna gain in most situations. Things like routers already put out very close to that. So even if you were to get a legal amplifier it would still be limited to the same 1watt and not help. Now some end devices do not put out a full 1 watt of power but it would be tricky to get a amplifier connected if it does not have external antenna. You can take the FCCID of the device and go to the fcc site and dig through the reports to find the output power.

Microwave amplifiers are extremely expensive because they need to amplify the signal without amplifying the noise. Most device use 250mw amplifier with a 6db gain antenna to get the 1watt of power. They make say a 10watt amplifier that you can legally buy if you have a licensee....like a cell phone company... but these cost many thousands of dollars.

Your best and cheapest options is likely to use powerline networks and either connect via ethernet or buy a powerline unit with a wifi AP in the remote powerline unit.

 

[gggplaya]

Your roku device is likely the bottleneck. Especially if you're using the Roku Stick which has smaller antennae and likely less power output from the wifi due to thermal constraints.

Like said before, get a MOCA wifi extender or Powerline wifi extender.