Last Updated on December 2, 2019 by Christopher G Mendla
There are times when your wifi range just isn’t adequate. You find that your getting a weak signal and can’t easily move the Wireless access point (WAP) or your computer. One solution is a wifi repeater that will capture the signal and then rebroadcast it. All you need is a power outlet. Suppose you want to use your laptop out by the pool. You could put a repeater midway between your WAP and where you want to sit and see if you get enough signal strength.
There are some disadvantages. One of the most important is that it will increase the traffic on your network as any signals have to be retrransmitted. For most people with a few users, this isn’t a problem. If you had a number of users or a lot of bandwidth intensive applications, it could slow down your network.
A lot of homeowners at vacation locations such as the shore seem to leave their wireless networks unprotected. The reasons could be ignorance, a desire to make it easy to access wifi for their renters or perhaps just a desire to share with the neighborhood. If you use a repeater to grab a neighbor’s signal keep in mind that could be a violation of state and federal law. You are also leaving yourself open a bit to being hacked.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of variables when working with wifi especially when trying to boost your range.
If you are interested in adding a repeater to your wifi network, check out the following units