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Time to bring back a decade-old question about extending wireless range over a few hundred feet. I have an ASUS RT-AC66U running stock firmware. My neighbor was hoping to use our WiFi for a bit to stream some security camera footage while she's away so she can see what's going on around the house while it's being sold; she has some reasons to be concerned and we want to help if we can. This router dies right at the walls of her house, which is something between 200 and 300 feet house-to-house. I'm still using my ISP's wireless normally so I was thinking of flashing dd-wrt on this thing--if possible--and set it up as a repeater. I assume I could then slap it by the window and replace one antenna jack with a directional antenna like this. I would assume Internet-enabled cameras would be able to interact with that thing from there, although I am going to suggest she set up a wireless router in her house omnidirectionally and work off of that if I can get that to repeat too. So am I correct that this directional antenna and dd-wrt bridge mode should do it?
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Aug 11, 2017 04:29
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 15:18 |
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We switched ISPs and I was compelled to get an external router. I had gotten a Netgear R7000 (AC1900) and set it up with dd-wrt. I did all this without even thinking to check on this thread. I have a second wireless router set up as a bridge in the back yard. I believe both of them have their channels set to automatic right now. Things are okay but I feel like the signal strength is weak at the midpoint between the two routers. My inclination was to try to switch out an antenna on the R7000 with a stronger one but the OP doesn't really push antennas. I wonder if that's generally not recommended. This on a 1.5-acre property in a single-story ~2000 square foot house so I don't think the single R7000 is going to cover the property well, but I wanted to check in before doing anything else misguided. Should I perish the thought of trying to improve range with different antennas? astral posted:Friends don't let friends buy new routers to use dd-wrt or tomato in 2020. Yeah I just kind of bought a new one this year without even thinking that the whole culture on this changed. So I just revert my router to stock and expect better performance?
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Jan 2, 2020 17:09
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skipdogg posted:Modifying the antennas could help in certain situations. The transmit power generally isn't the issue, WiFi routers blast out a very strong signal, it's receiving the client signal that's usually the hard part of the equation. The R7000 seems to be a solid router from everything I've read. I'd play with the channel settings, and maybe split your SSID's for 2.4 and 5 Ghz stuff out and see how things go from there. Set 1 2.4 network to channel 1, the other to 11, and then choose non overlapping 5Ghz channels as well I currently only have the first interface enabled. If I set up the second one, should I use a completely different name or something? Different channel? Edit: Hahaha I didn't read it closely enough that the second interface was for 5GHz. I guess I should turn that on! I don't know if it's being bridged and I'll probably have to drag the other router inside to play with it. The inSSIDer tool is only reporting three other networks but I think we're in a fight with channel 1 for one of them and I think that network is winning. My network is coming in at -64 dBm and theirs is at -49dBm. I'll switch to another channel and then see how things go over the day. Rocko Bonaparte fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jan 2, 2020 |
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Jan 2, 2020 21:55
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What's a good bet for a wired/wireless combination these days across a large area? I have to cover 2,000 square feet of single-story house and have it get about 80 feet away outside to a repeater. That repeater has a boosted, directional antenna so I think it's generally covered regardless what the access point is doing. This netgear R7000 that I've only had for six months has decided to pick up a new career in constant pants making GBS threads. I'll even screw up the wired connections and not respond at 192.168.1.1. Only hard resets seem to make it happy again for a few hours. The lights look completely normal when it's flaking out too. I've tried various firmware versions without any luck. So I figured I'd get something else. I'm curious about online options but also what my options are if I have to just give up and drive to Fry's.
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May 26, 2020 05:32
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I have an older router that was repeating outside. I brought it in and reconfigured it to be my access point for now.Charles posted:Have you been to Fry's lately? I went around last August or so when they were redoing the store for the upcoming season. Or rather, that's what I thought until you wrote that. H110Hawk posted:RMA your netgear pants shitter and get some unifi in your life. It won't be all in one. I saw the OP and clicked into it last night. I'm surprised they don't have integrated devices, and I understood the individual components, but my brain melted when it came to the CloudKey. What the hell is that? Also, a first glance was showing some stuff I thought were important were out-of-stock but I might have been looking at the wrong stuff. My issue here is I need to cover 2,000 square feet of single-story house and then extend into the back yard. We like to have our phones work out there and also a Roku for movies and audio. I guess I have time to look this up now that the old repeater has been brought back in.
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May 26, 2020 17:38
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KKKLIP ART posted:Honestly a Unifi Dream machine (which is a Unifi Controller, a router, and WiFi access point in one plus one extra access point (like an AC lite, AC Pro or Nano HD) might be the way to start thinking as long as you can make plans to get an Ethernet wire to wherever the second access point is going to go. Running Ethernet to the second point is a no-go. The killer for running wire in my house is that there's a central section that bisects the house and makes running stuff between halves really difficult. The point to run stuff to the outside is on the other side from my good broadband entry point. The whole house got rewired when we moved in so perhaps it's suitable for a powerline ethernet thing, but getting ethernet across to where I have outdoor conduit is going to be too much of a project. I don't have any other home automation stuff going on right now but we've pondered cameras before. If I'm suitably buying time with my backup router then I suppose I can look into this in more detail and tackle it in, like, November when it's going to cool down again and not kill me to play in the crawl space.
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May 26, 2020 21:20
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I am getting a lot of vibes of IoT here with all the Unifi stuff. Did you all move over to Unifi while getting into that or something? Is there something culturally that kind of has them go hand-in-hand?
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May 27, 2020 06:52
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 15:18 |
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Internet Explorer posted:The truth of the matter is that IT things suck, IT vendors suck, from home use to small businesses to enterprise. Even paying for more than your average home setup, it's not much more and even if you did... IT things suck. Yeah no kidding. Netgear refuses to honor an RMA on the dying router. If I start it up cold, it'll connect, but I'll be out within one to three hours and have to do a factory reset to keep using it. In retrospect, it sounds to me like it's overheating. They say this is a software issue so I have to purchase a support agreement to even talk to somebody about it. Even if I call in at the point that it's stopped working, it's not covered because it was working. What the gently caress.
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May 27, 2020 19:11
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