[geeks] wireless range extender

[Andrew Jones]

On 06/13/2013 08:39 AM, Shannon wrote:
> Looking for recommendations on wireless network extenders. This is for family
> so it needs to be "easy".
>
> The basic issue is too many walls, and one user in a barn 40 feet from the
> house. Signal is poor at N speeds, barn user works OK but could use a better
> signal as well.
>
> So... requirements beyond easy would be to support dual band and WPA2
> security.
>
> I have looked at a lot of them, and their pricing varies wildly, from $30 for
> an Edimax to some in Best Buy that are $150.
>
> Is the Edimax too good to be true?
>
> I'm pretty lost here, don't know anything at all about them.
>
> Thanks.

Wireless extension comes in two flavors.

1. Dual-radio, Dual-SSID

radio #1 acts as a client to the original network, and advertises a new 
SSID.  this is not a great user experience since you have to have more 
than one SSID configured and you can't roam etc

2. WDS

WDS is a non-standard standard to do all kinds of wireless bridging.  It 
works reliably *only* if *all* of your gear is the same chipset vendor. 
  e.g. 100% broadcom, 100% cisco etc.  You will also want all the gear 
to be the same age.  Don't expect a 2010 broadcom to work reliably with 
2013 etc.

It is consistently a pain in the ass, and each WDS hop halves bandwidth, 
but the user experience is nice -- it allows roaming, it's transparent 
to the client etc.

To be honest wireless range extension is just a big bag of hurt.  I 
would run fiber to the barn and just set up a new AP out there, or run 
copper to the attic and do it with a big omni antenna.