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WIFI Repeater Question

snowcraig2.0

snowcraig2.0

Well-Known Member
Nov 2, 2007
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Cedar Rapids, IA
Recently we switched to T Mobile home 5G for our home internet. I found the 'sweet spot' in the house for the 5G Gateway, which is unfortunately not centrally located in the house. I have a existing ASUS wifi router which is pretty decent. Signal from the gateway to the center of the house is good, but not so much from the gateway all the way to the other side of the house and garage. My question is, can I return the router to the central location and put it into repeater mode, but maintain a unique SSID for the router? Or do I have to use the SSID from the 5G gateway? Basically what I am wanting is for the router to catch the signal from the gateway, spread it through the house / garage, but let the router manage most of the traffic, not the gateway. TIA
 
Consider a mesh network. You should be able to get one with three units for $100-$200.

I have a deco system with 5 units that gives me great signals throughout the house and yard.

I also (at another property) have 3 Amazon Eero units that convert the fiber connection on the lower level into a mesh for the whole house.
 
CyCoug said:
Consider a mesh network. You should be able to get one with three units for $100-$200.

I have a deco system with 5 units that gives me great signals throughout the house and yard.

I also (at another property) have 3 Amazon Eero units that convert the fiber connection on the lower level into a mesh for the whole house.
Click to expand...
I looked at that, but would rather set something up with existing equipment, and the router has no trouble covering our whole property when it is in the center of the house.
 
To answer your question, based on what I can tell, you can set it up to be a different SSID (and this would be recommended)



While you can set up repeater access points with the same SSID as the base gateway, the handoff between access points as you move through the house can be iffy when its not designed for that purpose. Devices can be a bit 'sticky' and keep trying to reach an AP with weak signal even when another one is closer.

Your best bet however would be hardwiring if you have the option (and disabling the wifi on the tmobile gateway to reduce potential interference). When in repeater mode the access point is having to dedicate part of its throughput capacity to the backhaul to the base router.
 
Are you able to run a cable from the 5g gateway location to the location of the ASUS router? If so, you could probably just run an ethernet cable from the 5g gateway to the ASUS router
 
alarson said:
To answer your question, based on what I can tell, you can set it up to be a different SSID (and this would be recommended)



While you can set up repeater access points with the same SSID as the base gateway, the handoff between access points as you move through the house can be iffy when its not designed for that purpose. Devices can be a bit 'sticky' and keep trying to reach an AP with weak signal even when another one is closer.

Your best bet however would be hardwiring if you have the option (and disabling the wifi on the tmobile gateway to reduce potential interference). When in repeater mode the access point is having to dedicate part of its throughput capacity to the backhaul to the base router.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd like to cable it but my wife doesn't think much of my drywall skills, so I need to accomplish it wirelessly
 
Last edited:
snowcraig2.0 said:
Yeah, if like to cable it but my wife doesn't think much of my drywall skills, so I need to accomplish it wirelessly
Click to expand...
I have had some success with Ethernet over power line adaptors, which are quite cheap, but still an additional cost.

The main issue I’ve had is they seem to be very sensitive to power surges, so they’ve only lasted a couple years.

So I’m 100% mesh / wireless for about the past 5 years.
 
CyCoug said:
I have had some success with Ethernet over power line adaptors, which are quite cheap, but still an additional cost.

The main issue I’ve had is they seem to be very sensitive to power surges, so they’ve only lasted a couple years.

So I’m 100% mesh / wireless for about the past 5 years.
Click to expand...
If there are cable coax outlets nearby MoCa can be a decent option as well, and fewer issues than powerline
 
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