Using a spare wireless router as a repeater

[Peter.Steele]

I bought a couple of netgear power line adapters about 2 years ago. My house is 4 years old. They work great as long as they are on the same circuit, but don't work at all across the breakered circuits. Have they improved them to work over the entire house now?

The product that I have is from Netgear, and it works just fine across different circuits. No problems at all. The speed is substantially slower, but there is no additional latency, and it's still 4-5 times faster than what my internet speed is, so I really don't care. It's a lot faster than wireless in the same location.

You have to add a powerline bridge between the circuits at the main board. The bridge only passes the Ethernet signal (no power). I would suggest a electrician install at least the 1st one.

For most homes a MOCA solution via coax is the best solution for extending throughout the house without mucking with things.

Huh? Again, no problems here across different circuits in the house.

[cfm117]

Add a second router at powerline adapter

I had the same problem you did. My ISP issued gateway was upstairs in the corner pretty much covering the upstairs. Downstairs had nothing, maybe one 1 bar. My WII, 2nd PS3 sucked, and of course I sometimes use ipad while eating, etc. Sooo, I put a powerline adapter at modem/gateway upstairs to start it, and put a wireline adapter downstairs in the kitchen area, with a Linksys WRT54G router I had laying around. Plug the ethernet cable into port 1-4,not internet port. It will tell router it is router behind router. I disabled DHCP in linksys so modem/gateway upstairs would still be DHCP server and everything can ping everything. I made my names different so i know which one is which. Wireless coverage solved. I also put a 3rd powerline adapter into master bedroom, and put a 4 port Gigabit switch to serve a desktop and network printer. Im not a network expert by any means but it worked for me. For ipads or mobile devices, it only takes a second to switch wireless networks since passwords are stored.

[SoCal Gunner]

I have the Actiontec supplied by Verizon FiOS and bought a Verizon branded MoCA device off Amazon. Best $70 I spent. Funny part was the tech that came to swap my set-top box out had never seen or heardthe of one.

[JDay]

You can't use a wireless router as a wireless repeater. You would have to hardwire the second router with to the first, then use the same SSID on both. They have the standalone "repeaters" available, but don't work well. Although it's been a few years when I tried one.

You are completely wrong here. With third party firmware such as DD-WRT, OpenWRT, and Tomato you can easily set up a wireless access point to be a repeater.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_Routers

[JDay]

Interesting. You use these?

Powerline adapters have known issues.

[andrewj]

Powerline adapters have known issues.

Go on...

[JDay]

I know how to wall fish.

However, my wife has never seen this skill demonstrated, and unless she sees it demonstrated, she refuses to believe that it exists. I refuse to pay someone else to do something I can do just fine on my own. (Actually, this is what she said about surround sound speakers, but it can be extended to any sort of household wiring.)

Therefore, powerline adapters. Cheap, quick, easy and oh so functional.

Do it while she is gone then. And I would stay away from powerline adapters. You will have problems with them since the upstairs is more than likely on a different circuit.

[JDay]

Go on...

Google.

[Jeepers]

Powerline adapters have known issues.

so what are those issue when compared to WIFI ?

i would like to know what known issues there is with them as i have been Beta testing them for 3-4 years now ....

[andrewj]

so what are those issue when compared to WIFI ?

i would like to know what known issues there is with them as i have been Beta testing them for 3-4 years now ....

How dare you ask him to elaborate, use google dammit!

[JDay]

Sounds like you need a better router. I too have my network come into a corner of my house and had trouble reaching across the house with everything from A,B to G, even MIMO, but my newest router is N and I have no problem anywhere in my house.

MIMO is an antenna implementation. The truth is that your new router is transmitting at a higher power output and/or has better antenna (higher gain) than your old one.

[JDay]

so what are those issue when compared to WIFI ?

i would like to know what known issues there is with them as i have been Beta testing them for 3-4 years now ....

They're not very secure, you can hack the network by plugging into an outside power outlet. They're useless if the room you're trying to connect is not on the same circuit. Latency is high, speeds are not constant. Bad power will cause data loss due to noise.

EDIT: It also opens your computer up to another possible source of surge damage.

[Jeepers]

They're not very secure, you can hack the network by plugging into an outside power outlet. They're useless if the room you're trying to connect is not on the same circuit. Latency is high, speeds are not constant. Bad power will cause data loss due to noise.

i have never had issue with data loss or streaming useing 40+ year old wiring, there is security in them and if used the key will still need to be hacked..... so i dont call either one of these "issues"


edit to add after your edit ...lol

i ping 20-40 in a COD server in L.A. on my ole 6 Mbps dsl so latency is not a issue either for me

have any proof that a surge on the powewrlines damage any NIC card anywhere ?

i am calling b.s. to most of this


and on a side not Netgear is testing some new features for future homeplugs that are kinda cool

and on that note i am out .....

[JDay]

[Jeepers]

and to all the way at the end at 29 min 30 seconds ...

the actual only issues we have seen in the home plugs is the default keys used by vendors

again same issue that 99% of WIFI routers out there with default passwords ....

besides the point in a residential setting you might notice someone with a 50 foot extension cord running out your window to the van down the street ...

ETA one more fail on what you say wont work , you do not have to be on the same circuit . my main unit is on a separate circuit from where most of my connected equipment is and still works fine and no WIFI drop outs ...