GTell wrote:Hello,
This is probably a very simple question, but I am new to networking questions. I just bought a new house and I had every room wired up with cat5e cable. I play a lot of video games and I watch movies on the internet, so wired connection is a must. However, I still use from time to time wifi for my laptop when I go from one room to another. The thing is my house is too big for my router. The signal is not strong enough to cover all the rooms.
I saw that "wifi extender" exists, but also read that these things somehow "boost" the signal while losing speed. This is something I want to avoid. I was wondering if I could, say, plug another router via my cat5e cable in the particular room where the wifi signal is weak and repeat the wifi signal WITHOUT losing any speed. Is that doable?
I have my router upstairs since it's where my office is, my gaming rig, and so forth; and while our signal was fine through most of the house, we were having some trouble in the basement, so I ended up grabbing one of these
http://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-5508_RE200.html and plugged it in down in the basement.
So far I am completely happy with it. It seems to work great, I haven't noticed any drop in speed. I have it broadcasting a separate SSID on a different channel. Setup was a breeze, and I think it cost me around $30
I was concerned about interference, but frankly haven't seen any evidence of it. I will say this: The thing definitely has range. I get full bars from it on devices even on my second floor. I probably could have gone with the smaller (and $10 cheaper) model.
Given that you have ethernet all through the house and you're mostly looking for a "room to room" solution, it might be worth checking out.