Overview

You may feel upset if your laptop or Android mobile devices when you are in the backyard in the pool side could not get a wifi signal from the wireless router in the living room. Meanwhile, if you are standing at the back door of the house you can still get a wifi signal even though only about 20 meters away from where you usually relax. Probably it is due to a tree obstruction that causes the signal cannot reach the area where you would like to have it. This is what we call the dead spots. Generally your wireless router broadcasts and receives the wireless signal in all direction using Omni-directional antenna. The range coverage is limited in definite distance due to environmental factors. The solution is by extending the range coverage by adding any models of wireless range extenders or Wifi range extenders.

Technical Issues

With the shortcomings of your wireless router in home regarding the wireless coverage you can overcome the problem by implementing any models of wireless or wifi range extenders. Place the extender in halfway between your wireless router range and the dead spots area you would like to cover. This way you can roam with your mobile devices with the same SSID name and security setting as in your wireless router. Noteworthy is the placement of the device must be between the router (and make sure still get the signal from the router) and dead spots that you want to reach.

The figure 1 shows the general networking diagram of the extender which extends the network coverage of the existing D-link DIR-615 wireless router. The device is placed without the need to have a physical connection with the wireless router. Physical connection only happened when configuring the device; after completion then place it in the specified location. There are even some models of wireless or wifi range extenders that do not require physical connection during the setup, simply by detecting or scanning the signal from the router from where you will place it.

Various Models

There are various models of wireless or wifi range extenders available in the market from various vendors including Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, Hawking etc, some of them are shown in the following paragraphs.

WN3000RP Netgear Universal WiFi Range Extender

The WN300RP Wifi range extender is designed differently. The device is designed with wall plug for convenient placement where power outlet is available. This wall plug design reminds me to a frog that stretched on all fours, I’m sorry it turned out there were only two legs, just kidding.

The good thing with this device is equipped with dynamic LED indicator that can help you determine the best placement location so as to provide maximum coverage. The other obvious benefit is no CD for installation nor connected to the router using network cable for configuration. It is PnP (plug and play) and you just need to push the WPS button for router connection or computers connections, very easy and quick.

Prior the WN3000Rp, Netgear also introduces WN2000Rpt. What are the differences Wn2000Rpt Vs Wn3000Rp?

Wn3000rp has more features that are not available on Wn2000Rpt including:

• Dynamic LED  indicators to easily fid best location for optimal wireless coverage
• CD-less, it’s a plug and play connecting to the router with WPS – no need Ethernet cable in setting up the repeater

But Wn2000rpt includes four fast Ethernet ports, while Wn3000rp includes only one Ethernet port.

Click here for WN3000RP manufacturer’s description and spec details.

Belkin N300 Dual-Band Wifi Range Extender (F9K1111)

If you like the above Netgear, then you will be happier to see the design of the Belkin wifi range extenders. It’s very nice, smooth body curves and sharp edges invisible, white soft slightly gray especially wall plug design look sweet. When you put it on the power outlet in your home then it looks like a decoration to beautify your room. If you just consider the beautiful model with no other features, then I guess you would choose this device; I love the color, the shape and the logo that will blend beautifully on the wall within your room.

main features:

• dual band N300 simultaneous – 150Mbps each band
• wall-plug design
• maximum 32 wireless clients

Unlike Netgear, this extender is dual band – up to 150Mbps each band. It is not fully delivering full bandwidth of your N600 or N900 router, because this device is intended for extending the coverage of devices that does not take high intensive bandwidth. It is suitable for mobile devices including Android, iPad and other smart-phones.

Amped SR300 High Power Wireless-300N Smart Repeater

The Amped SR300 is high power smart repeater delivering the speeds up to 300Mbps. It’s a universal wireless repeater that works with any types of wireless routers or access points. SR300 is high power repeater with low noise amplifier that delivers 3x the range of your existing router range. The repeater includes 2x detachable 3dBi antennas you can replace with high gain antennas such as WA12 high power 12dBi Omni-directional Wi-Fi antenna.

Unlike the D-Link Wifi booster with 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, this SR300 includes five fast Ethernet ports to add more wired connections for the computers. Setting up and configuration are easy to do in three simple steps: scan, select and connect.

For more power, you may consider the Amped SR600EX which includes high power 600mW amplifier plus high gain bi-directional antennas to provide maximum range of up to 1.5miles away. It’s designed either for indoor or outdoor with weatherproof design.

Click here for Amped SR300 high power repeater spec details.

By Ki Grinsing