Question WiFi Extender query

[chrisauk1]

Hi all, apologies if wrong forum but wasn't quite sure where to put this.

OK, I work away from home a lot and there are one or two AirB&B's where I stay that have awful WIFI reception. The main router being within the main family home whilst I am staying in another building within the vicinity.

Thought of purchasing an extender that I can plug in to try and amplify the signal that I receive. However, I have no access to the main router at all so wondered if that would cause an issue with setting up an extender? OR, can I just plug the extender in without needling router details?

Finally, any recommendations for such an extender that wont break the bank? UK based.

Appreciate any help, thank you.

 

[COLGeek]

You would need the router info to configure the extender and to place the extender close enough to the router to be effective. This is likely not a good solution.

 

[chrisauk1]

You would need the router info to configure the extender and to place the extender close enough to the router to be effective. This is likely not a good solution.

oh really. Is there not a device that I can plug into my room to amplify the signal coming into the room?

 

[Corwin65]

No.

 

[chrisauk1]

ok, what info would I need from the router exactly? I could ask the homeowner to provide, maybe.

 

[USAFRet]

oh really. Is there not a device that I can plug into my room to amplify the signal coming into the room?

No.

Currently:
Source -------------------------------------------------->your laptop - Crappy signal.

Proposed:
Source -------------------------------------------------->Magical device ->your laptop - Also crappy signal.

You really need:
Source -------------------> device --------------------->your laptop - Better signal, probably.

 

[kanewolf]

Hi all, apologies if wrong forum but wasn't quite sure where to put this.

OK, I work away from home a lot and there are one or two AirB&B's where I stay that have awful WIFI reception. The main router being within the main family home whilst I am staying in another building within the vicinity.

Thought of purchasing an extender that I can plug in to try and amplify the signal that I receive. However, I have no access to the main router at all so wondered if that would cause an issue with setting up an extender? OR, can I just plug the extender in without needling router details?

Finally, any recommendations for such an extender that wont break the bank? UK based.

Appreciate any help, thank you.

There are some things that MIGHT improve things, but no guarantees. A device like the Nanostation M2 -- https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-wireless/products/nsm2 has a directional antenna so you can 'point it" toward the WIFI signal. It is also weatherproof, so you could hang it outside pointing at the WIFI source. It has a full user interface and you can input the WIFI SSID and password to connect. You would use an ethernet cable to setup the connection and power the device. It has been a while since I played with mine, but I think you can set it up as a router that has a unique WIFI signal, in addition to receiving WIFI as input.

 

[bill001g]

As a added comment to the above. You generally need control of the main router.

If we ignore so called "mesh" solutions which are mostly proprietary you look at more generic repeater or extenders.

Technically none of these type of device should ever work. They all directly violate part of the wifi encryption standards.

The key problem is the mac address of the router and the end device are used as part of the generated encryption keys. This helps to ensure no unauthorized person can connect to the router.

What all the manufactures have done is use a unused field called WDS to pass mac addresses. This is a hack to bypass the encryption. This used to not work very well but in the all the years they have done it most device now do it the same way.

Because it is consider a security exposure even though most routers support it many have it disabled by default. Some router require you to manually allow the mac address of the repeater to connect using the WDS "feature".

So you might need to have this feature enabled on the main router and might need more configuration.

Now tplink routers have another hack they call universal repeater. This uses their own method of "nat" to spoof the mac addresses. If you can not get the main router changed you can use a tplink extender/repeater. There might be other brands that do things like this also.

Mostly the exposure would be say you are a dumb ass. You use these feature to connect to the main router and then you connect another AP/router that allows free open access. The owner of the router now has no control over who is connecting.