I have the above hardware & I want to install wireless with an extender.
My residence is not of conventional design being longer than squarer (banana shaped) & internally is about 40 meters long.
Unfortunately my router is located at one extremity & I want the wireless signal to extend to my garage at the other end of the house near which my desktop Win 10 computer is located.
My research seems to indicate that many cheap vanilla extenders only work to 15 metres & tend to fail over time.
Would you be able to recommend some quality extender examples of hardware that might suit my purpose?
Thanks
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My experience with extenders is that they are not worth the money, and you’d be better off getting a mesh kit to handle your wifi. Extenders mean multiple networks in your house, and you either have to choose which you think will be best, or have your devices constantly switching networks. A good mesh system is effectively transparent to your devices, with all the decisions about best route being done in hardware/firmware.
I’m currently using a TP-Link Deco S4 AC1200 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, which has been working fine, but I am about to replace it with a couple of Ubiquiti Unifi Mesh access points, which are a tad pricy, but will work better with the rest of my network and Home Assistant server. A major advantage of the Ubiquiti devices is that they aren’t factory locked to each other, so I can add or replace nodes, which often isn’t possible with the bundled packs.
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Welcome Brenton,
Politas is on the money with using a mesh-style network configuration. this will make your Pi 400’s wireless connection much more flexible.
If you’re looking for low-budget, if your Windows PC has a wireless networking card you’ll be able to share your network connection from there - but it only works if your PC is on!
Liam
Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.
My main purpose in upgrading is to get better range for basic internet services, not for other types of post modern home technology connections.
My needs being fairly simple then, is there a case for me using TpLink M4 or E4 incarnations without sacrificing my range requirement of 40 metres given any price advantages that may apply.
Given the above how many units would you recommend as optimal for my stated needs. Please advise if you feel the S4 approach is my best approach if there are downsides to M4 or E4.
I note elsewhere that a different router manufacturer had mid-stream changed its router firmware ugrades to mobile phone apps. That would be a non starter for me as I do not use or intend to use a smartphone. Does TpLink use only conventional firmware upgrades for its mesh units?
Thanks again.
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Thanks for that advice.
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If you have no plans to stream video, an M4 or E4 should work just fine. I believe you should be able to get that range if you can place the units to minimize the number of intervening walls. I have one of my S4s on the other side of a metal-based concrete slab, and it connects, so I think the TPLink hardware has pretty good signal strength. Without seeing your house in person, I couldn’t guarantee anything, though.
The main advantage in going with the S4 is giving you headroom for future bandwidth needs, so that’s entirely up to you.
I notice some of the more expensive TPLink mesh systems such as the TP-Link Deco X68 AX3600 Mesh Wi-Fi 6 Unit can now be bought singly, so with those you could just buy them one at a time and see how they go, adding more until you get sufficiently reliable signal. Probably not your preferred solution, since you are considering the cheaper options.
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It is with some disappointment that I now note system requirements for all TP Link Deco wifi mesh systems are for Android & IOS only, So I guess that lets me out with my Win 10 system.
After a time consuming attempt to do due diligence with my proposed router upgrade I am gobsmacked that according to many consumer reviews almost every router on the market, excepting perhaps high priced ones, has serious issues that requires return or dispatch to the wpb or countless hours with often unhelpful technical support. I haven’t enjoyed that knowledge one bit.
So, do I have any options?
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The Android or iOS requirement is only to get them set up. All wifi devices can connect to the network once created.
This is exactly why I am spending more to get enterprise grade networking gear from Ubiquiti.
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I have a 3 unit Netgear Orbi RBR20 from 2018 that has worked well and was easy to set up. You can use a browser to configure it or a mobile app. Now days there are a lot of different Orbi models available with various capacities depending on how much traffic and/or the number of devices on your wifi network.
I just checked the latest manual and the new versions still have a browser set up option, so that might suit your requirements but ymmv.
Cheers.
