hard wired wifi range extender/booster/repeater?

FFHillbilly

in my house the router has to be in the middle so all rooms in the house get coverage, but in my back yard between the house and garage is a dead spot that worked 50% of the time from the router.
to get round this I bought a plug in range extender (Netgear WN3000RP) which for 3 years has done the trick, it was positioned as near to the garage side as I could get it. It used to need re-pairing every 2-3 months, but I could manage that it used to take 2 mins
6 Months ago I got a new router (ZYXEL) and this thing doesn't like it, takes ages to pair using the WPS button, it's almost impossible to know what to do with it or how long to press it even the instructions seem to imply the people who made it don't know either...
as a result I can't be bothered to faff about pairing it all the time so have been living with the 50% dead spot again.
I did run an ethernet cable from my house to garage recently with the idea of rigging up a hard wired solution, which I am now looking to do but have no idea what to buy
what's the difference between repeater, extender, booster?

flaneurs_lobster

Could you use your old router, in the garage at the end of the ethernet extension, as a wi-fi repeater? 

FFHillbilly

I had to send it back to the supplier, but on the subject of using another router with another network name and password, would that not complicate things in the long term?

glennevis

FFHillbilly said:

I had to send it back to the supplier, but on the subject of using another router with another network name and password, would that not complicate things in the long term?

You configure the WiFi to have the same SSID (network name) and password as your ISP's router so your devices seamlessly connect to either router.

Ayr_Rage

The ethernet solution is the best, you need a wireless access point connected to the cable, a spare router can easily be configured to do that if you or someone you know has a spare.

You can replicate the "home" SSID but that will mean you cannot be sure which router you are connected to, if walking from the house to the garage your device may try to hang on to the old signal.

With my access point I use a different SSID to my main router and you should also ensure it does not transmit on the same channel as the main router to avoid WiFi interference. 

Going down the two SSID route does not complicate things at all for me.

Newcad

If you have a powerpoint in the garage (you'll need one to power whatever you do use) that is wired from the house then you could use a powerline extender.

One unit connects to your hub/router (by cable or by wifi) and is plugged into a mains socket, that sends the internet signal down your existing electrical wiring to the second/remote, unit which then broadcasts it as wifi.
Tip- make sure that the remote unit does broadcast wifi, some only have an ethernet socket.

You can get them with 'passthrough' so you can still plug other equipment into the same socket.
You can also buy extra remote units if wanted for other areas.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-WiFi-Extender/s?k=Powerline+WiFi+Extender

facade

If you have an ethernet cable and mains power in the garage, you want a Wireless Access Point, most of the cheap range extenders can be configured for this (except the one you have, naturally..... )

B&M sell the TPLink TL-WA855RE for £20 if you can find one in your local store.

You plug it into the ethernet cable and configure it as a separate WiFi port, give it a different name to the one in the house so you know your device has connected to it.

(The one I have has SSIDs of "Fast" and "Slow" for the two bands (with the same password) , I can see at a glance which one my device has connected to)

EDIT: Argos sell the TPLink RE315 for £27.99  which they claim is an AC1200 (total lie, AC1200 is TPLinks name for the network )

This supports WAP (ethernet to network wireless out to devices) and goes at a theoretical 867 Mbs on the 5Ghz band, 300Mbs on the 2.5GHz - i.e. fast enough

I've no idea how good they are, but https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9189056

FFHillbilly

Newcad said:

If you have a powerpoint in the garage (you'll need one to power whatever you do use) that is wired from the house then you could use a powerline extender.

One unit connects to your hub/router (by cable or by wifi) and is plugged into a mains socket, that sends the internet signal down your existing electrical wiring to the second/remote, unit which then broadcasts it as wifi.
Tip- make sure that the remote unit does broadcast wifi, some only have an ethernet socket.

You can get them with 'passthrough' so you can still plug other equipment into the same socket.
You can also buy extra remote units if wanted for other areas.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-WiFi-Extender/s?k=Powerline+WiFi+Extender

I actually used a powerline adapter to fit an IP camera at the start of this year, it was useless, it slow and it also made my computer slow. at the time when I was trying to figure it out I was told they are crap and try and avoid them in future! I took it out and ended up running a cat 6 cable direct to the camera to solve this and I also ran another just incase, the spare cable is now going to get used for a proper solution

FFHillbilly

facade said:

If you have an ethernet cable and mains power in the garage, you want a Wireless Access Point, most of the cheap range extenders can be configured for this (except the one you have, naturally..... )

B&M sell the TPLink TL-WA855RE for £20 if you can find one in your local store.

You plug it into the ethernet cable and configure it as a separate WiFi port, give it a different name to the one in the house so you know your device has connected to it.

(The one I have has SSIDs of "Fast" and "Slow" for the two bands (with the same password) , I can see at a glance which one my device has connected to)

EDIT: Argos sell the TPLink RE315 for £27.99  which they claim is an AC1200 (total lie, AC1200 is TPLinks name for the network )

This supports WAP (ethernet to network wireless out to devices) and goes at a theoretical 867 Mbs on the 5Ghz band, 300Mbs on the 2.5GHz - i.e. fast enough

I've no idea how good they are, but https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9189056

this seems like a winner, I've found them for £15 on sale at Curry's
I'm going to try and find an old router I'm sure there will be one in the loft, if that doesn't work I'll get the TL-WA855RE

facade

FFHillbilly said:

this seems like a winner, I've found them for £15 on sale at Curry's
I'm going to try and find an old router I'm sure there will be one in the loft, if that doesn't work I'll get the TL-WA855RE

The WA855RE and an old router will only be 2,5GHz, which is slow but long range, which is probably all you want in the garden.

The RE315 adds 5GHz which is much faster if you are pretty much on top of it.

FFHillbilly

I've managed to dig out a Netgear WGR614 v7 which I remember using around 2007, I'm going to give it a go anyway but is this likely to be slow or a security risk?