mhutaff's profile

Teacher

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9 Messages

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 8:27 PM

Extending Wifi Range to back of property

Hi,

 

I have my Residential Gateway set up at the absolute front of my house. It's connected to my television/receiver in my living room, and the existing (DirecTV) cabling running through my house connects the television/receiver in the back of the house. I have no problem with the connection with either television, and the wifi in the front of the house is strong enough to support my laptop and desktop with great access.

 

In the back of the house, however, wifi is spotty, especially for mobile devices. I was wondering if there was a solution I could install off my television receiver in the back of the house that would boost the wifi signal enough to give good reception there and also in our garage, which is about 10 feet away. Would like to put a wireless UVerse box out there if possible. 🙂

 

Am perfectly willing to purchase a router or other similar hardware if I can install it with relative ease at the back of the house. Any help or suggestions on this hardware would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

In case anyone's following this thread, here's the end solution:

 

I purchased a Netgear N600 wireless router and slaved it to the STB at the back of the property. Turned it on without connecting it to anything and connected to its WAP from a laptop. From there, turned off DHCP and renamed the WiFi to match my UVerse SSID (and renamed the 5G connection to something similar).

 

Then I plugged it into the CAT5 outlet on the STB. Everything's gravy now.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

You could always use something like this.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

How large of a structure is this? Can you post a floor plan showing location of the RG, and any Ethernet connection points that you have? It is not so much covering the other parts of the home, it is also do you want just G, or G/N wifi, also what do you plan on doing with the network (browsing Internet, streaming Netflix or other movie Ondemand programming, etc.)?

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

We're talking about an 1100 sq ft single story home where the RG is at the front of the building and the bedroom is as the back. So 30-40 feet away.

 

Would like to extend the range another 20 feet or so to encompass, the garage if possible. It's a free-standing structure adjacent to the house. The purpose for that would be to add a wireless UVerse box to the garage to watch TV. No gaming or streaming Netflix that far out.

 

Thanks!

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Well, for the UVerse box, it uses its own AP that would need a Cat-5e/6 run back to the RG. As for adding a A/P to cover the rear or overlap from the front, you just need to figure out what you are wanting to spend, and also how many other A/P's are there in your area.

Run inSSIDer to see how many other Access Points are running on the 2.4ghz freq. around your house. I have the Netgear WN802Tv2 Wireless G/N AP and get decent range. There are some others out there, depending on what price you are willing to pay, and if you want external or internal antennas.

As for my RG range, we can go at least 75-90 feet from it, before it drops out, with it down in our basement at the rear of the house..

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

I'd spend an extra $100 if it would give the ability to have the wireless uVerse box in my garage (and give me the wifi I need at the back of the house).

 

The uVerse box in the back of the house is connected to the system with coax cable, but I run a CAT 5 cable out of it into the back of the AppleTV that connects to that television.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Again, the Wireless UVerse Set top box comes with its own Access Point, that needs to be hardwired LAN back to the RG. And as for slaving off of a STB connected via Coax, not the best practice.

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

I don't really have an option of rewiring the house, so I have to stick with the coax that runs through the house, but are you saying the STB in our bedroom is a repeater/extender itself? If not, can I hook into the CAT5 line with what was recommended up thread to experience a boost in signal strength?

 

Thanks for you help!

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Well, you do not have an option of using the coax to extend the network, if you wish to use the wireless STB. You are going to have to pull some Cat-5e/6 through the house, if you want this to work. That means getting into the attic or crawl space, if you do not have a unfinished basement, or basement at all.

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

So if I'm reading you right, I don't have any means of using third-party hardware to extend range unless I run CAT5 cable from the RG to the back of the property? (Which is not possible.)

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