WiFi signal

[mwwwilson]

Forgive me if this is a STICKY somewhere but I thought that these questions were unique to my situation.

I have a router centrally located in my mother's home. Now, her home is basically a single wide trailer that the back was cut out and a fixed structured add-on was done. So... looking at the house from the road, you basically see a single wide trailer that is under a full roof. This roof ties into the back add on. So the front of the house and half of the front sides of the house are trailer metal, tin, aluminum... whatever they are made of. I know that this is not good for WiFi. So hear is my problem and my question.

There is one bedroom that is in the far right front of the house/trailer that Wifi is extremely faded (to the point of 1 bar at best on the computer). And also my cell phone wifi signal drops to literally nothing in this room. The room's door opens directly to a long hallway, which is where I have the router/access point setup. The antenna is pointing directly at the bedroom door (top of antenna points toward door). This is the best I could do to barely get the signal that I have acheived so far. So that is the problem. Now for the question.

I came across another Netgear router/access point. If I was to just plug this unit into the wall and place it near the bedroom door.. will it repeat the wifi signal to boost it in the bedroom? I don't have this on hand right now or I would just try it and find out. But, theoretically would this serve as another access point... thus making the wifi signal in that room better?

Now, if not. What can I do to help this signal. Ofcourse, she had to make this room her den with her main computer. BTW, the signal everywhere else in the place is great and it even extends out to the back yard and front porch well. I don't know about the front yard but it isn't necessary out front. Just maybe the porch, in which it is 4 outta 5 bars.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Now I know that I can buy one of those plug in repeaters for like $60 @ radio shack but I'm looking for something cheap. I was thinking that the other access point would work for it. It is a wireless cable modem gateway but could I use it to boost or repeat signal?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Yep, you can just setup another wireless router to extend your current wireless network.

 

[mwwwilson]

Ok, so the router/access point that is hooked into her Comcast service is a Netgear Wireless N router (WNR1000v2). We shall call that Netgear #1.
The cable modem gateway that I know that I have is a Netgear Wireless Cable Modem Gateway (CG814GCMR). Let's call this one Netgear #2.
I want to attempt to extend the original WiFi from Netgear #1 to Netgear #2, using Netgear #2 as a repeater or whatever will extend the signal. The firmware that the Netgear #1 uses doesn't show anything about being able to repeat the signal. Not only that but Netgear #2 would not be connected to any hard wire on the network, it would just be plugged into the wall for power and hopefully I can figure out how to configure it to extend the Netgear #1.

Can anybody help with this? Netgear #2, not being hard-connected into this wireless network, states that the firmware resides on 192.168.0.1 but that page is not coming up.

Can I even do this? Thanks for your response SOULphiRe but I'm not real sure how to do that without running some sort of hard link to this Netgear #2. I want to try to keep this unit wireless from the Netgear#1 and the main Comcast modem due to the distance this room is from them. ???? I looked into that DD-WRT software but it does not support the Netgear hardware that I'm working with.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I can't find a manual for the CG814GCMR Netgear #2, so can't give you exact steps on where to go to setup the wifi to extend your current setup.

The easiest thing to do is probably connect a computer via an ethernet cable to the Netgear #2 first, so you can access the http://192.168.0.1 config page. Have a look around and see if you can spot the right options, or take screenshots of your available options and post back.

Sometimes you have to connect the router (in this case netgear #2) to another router with a physical ethernet cable in order to share/extend a wireless network (and probably put it in "bridge" mode), but it depends on the model AFAIK

 

[mwwwilson]

Ok, I am into Netgear #2's settings. BTW... I now have another network with full bars on this laptop in the room with Netgear #2, so that is one good sign (I think). I cannot connect to it though because it is password protected and I have no clue what the heck it would be. I looked around in the settings page and the only password that I can mess with is the password to get into the settings page, not the network password. I'm assuming that this password would be the one that was used when this gateway was in use.

So now I'm just looking at the settings, I don't see anything that specifically states words like repeater, bridge, extend, ... what should I be looking for?

Also, do I need to match up the IP address info on Netgear #2 to be identical to Netgear #1... as for the IP,SUBNET, and GATEWAY addresses. ?????

I can take some pictures of both Netgear #1 and Netgear #2's settings pages if that helps.
Thanks, this would make my month if I could get this working.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

If you can get into the settings page (with the admin password) then you can reset the wifi password, so no problem there.

This vid looks like it could help you, the dude is setting up a netgear to extend an Asus router's wifi network.
"Advanced Wireless Settings" is the menu you want apparently

Extending your wireless network using ASUS and NETGEAR routers - Part II - YouTube

Re IP addresses, yes you'll have to set the LAN IP of Netgear #2 to be in the same subnet and network as Netgear #1 (i.e if netgear #1 gives you an IP of 192.168.0.11 when you connect normally, you need to setup netgear #2 to be something like "192.168.0.200", subnet mask 255.255.255.0, default gateway set to the IP of your #1 netgear)

 

[DistraughtSysop]

My thoughts on this:

Generally speaking, if you can't find any repeater options anywhere in the router's setup page then that router won't support that function natively. However, you are not out of options - look for third party firmware, most notably DD-WRT and see if your model router is supported. If it is, then you can use that third party firmware that provides the repeater function for your router. This does require some time and effort to set up.

If you cannot find third party firmware that supports your router model and provides repeater functionality then you're out of luck. The other option is to spend the money to buy an actual wireless repeater.

Actually, there's one last option - there are a lot of DIY signal boosters posted on the internet that you can build, yourself. People make their own antennae and the such all the time. It's not pretty, but it works. I use a cantenna, myself. Highly directional, but it provides a noticeable signal boost. The WNR1000v2 does have an external antenna, so you could conceivably stick the antenna into a box lined with aluminum foil on the inside to boost the signal.

 

[mwwwilson]

Thanks for all the advice. I have given up on the 2nd Netgear. There are no options for WDS or Repeating/Bridge modes on either of these Netgear settings pages. I tried everything. I really cant do much on the signal boost side of things because the wifi router is in the general view of the hallway. So I am going to just risk buying a refurbished extender off of ebay for $30. It seems that Netgear is pretty hard to mess with. There is that option of the third party firmware but it doesn't look like they have anything for my models. I am going to research some DIY signal receivers. Maybe I can rig something up that will suck the signal into this room better. If not, I'm just going to buy a refurbished extender from ebay.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the effort.

 

[Popeyedcookie]

Quit already with these two routers on the same network!! You might have problems you might not, I've seen many problems with two routers simply b/c on anything behind the second router will double Nat. Just go buy a $40 wireless repeater to put halfway in between so it recieves good signal and throws it on down farther! The repeater just acts like the original router, or you can set it up to look like its own. Very simple to set up.

 

[Yevrag35]

Quit already with these two routers on the same network!! You might have problems you might not, I've seen many problems with two routers simply b/c on anything behind the second router will double Nat.

You can turn most wireless routers today into a bridged interface device. Yes, if you put two wireless routers, both acting like ROUTERS, you can have ROUTING problems. I'm not saying this will solve all of his problems though either, but it, certainly, shouldn't create any new ones if done right.