Wifi repeater

Hi all

Can you recommend a wifi repeater (not extender) that you have had success with?

Bonus points if it can be PoE.

Reason I don't want an extender is that I want to keep the same wifi name, and not have wifiname_ext as a separate network.

I was looking at the ubiquity kit but not sure if it works the way I want it to?

Thanks for your help/advice.

If you're after something that supports PoE you're presumably after a wireless access point?

To get the best out of the UniFi (or any managed) AP you'll want to disable the existing unmanaged wireless. This could mean that you'd end up needed two new APs rather than one.

PoE was just to reduce amount of wiring, as it is neater to run cat5/6 neatly than have a horrid power brick with it, but it isn't the end of the world.

The most important feature is repeating the signal. My Asus router (rt66) covers most of the house nicely but towards the back corner, and garden you lose it, so just want to be able to extend it (though keeping the SSID the same so it is seamless).

If it is not possible to do that without having to replace current AP then I will consider replacing wireless hardware.

So are you after a solution that's entirely wireless, or something that'll connect back the router with a network cable?

Don't see why a UniFi won't do exactly what you need. They work well, you can re-use the same SSID and devices should roam between it and your router and they're PoE with the injector supplied if you need it.

I've never managed to do this effectively as I have with the Uniquiti / UniFi kit I bought.

(Made a wee thread at the time if you fancy some more reading: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18726548)

While I've not had the need to have an extender until I moved home last year, in the past I've seen so many others try every solution under the sun to make this work and it always has its compromises.

The biggest problem you have that any consumer grade WiFi repeater operating on the same SSID is limited by the functionality of the WiFi controller on the device you're using (i.e. your phone or laptop)

The reason that most people choose to name their repeater with a separate SSID (and I stand by this decision myself with consumer grade stuff) is that your device is "sticky" and want to stay connected to something that "works". The biggest problem you've got that your devices are sticky as hell and when you name the SSID's the same you then can't choose which one to connect to.

So while you're looking for something that lets you give them the same SSID you end up with a crappy WiFi solution.

The UniFi kit resolves this by having built in controllers that allow the two access points to talk to one another and, in the background, move the sessions between the access points.

Other kit does this but keep in mind that 1) it's unlikely to exist on consumer products and 2) it's almost alway proprietary so you can't mix and match WiFi access points.

The same applies to the UniFi kit, it's proprietary stuff in the lower grade versions of their products (the sub £100 per access point range) but it is business class and works amazingly well.

Happy to recommend it to anyone that's facing the same problem and for my friend that's looking to move I'm suggesting he invests before even trying anything else.

bremen1874 said:

So are you after a solution that's entirely wireless, or something that'll connect back the router with a network cable?

Click to expand...

I have some wired items and happy to use wired where I can. Happy for either solution as long as it improves my coverage.


Thank you for the UniFi kit suggestions I'll look into it a little more closely

RoyMi6 said:

The reason that most people choose to name their repeater with a separate SSID (and I stand by this decision myself with consumer grade stuff) is that your device is "sticky" and want to stay connected to something that "works". The biggest problem you've got that your devices are sticky as hell and when you name the SSID's the same you then can't choose which one to connect to.

So while you're looking for something that lets you give them the same SSID you end up with a crappy WiFi solution.

The UniFi kit resolves this by having built in controllers that allow the two access points to talk to one another and, in the background, move the sessions between the access points.

Other kit does this but keep in mind that 1) it's unlikely to exist on consumer products and 2) it's almost alway proprietary so you can't mix and match WiFi access points.

Click to expand...

I assume you're referring to the Zero Handoff Roaming on the UniFi kit?

This isn't even enabled on the majority of their kit. Upon investigating this, it became apparent that such functionality was only required for older Wifi clients which weren't very good at hopping between access points on their own (i.e. the sticky behaviour you reference). As virtually all modern clients were more than capable of jumping between APs without any trouble, it was unnecessary.

I have two UniFi APs in the office and all clients happily roam between them to get the strongest signal, even if they could technically still hang onto the weaker signal from the other one. This is without any special functionality in the APs, the client alone makes the decision and I see no reason why this shouldn't be the case with any two generic APs on the same SSID.

Manual hopping is fine for most devices but the Zero Handoff is critical for things like DECT phones etc isn't it? Not that this will be an issue for most home users.