Wi-Fi Range Extender in Action

Wi-Fi Range Extender in Action

Wi-Fi internet router is commonly used in many households for sharing a common high speed internet connection. But often it so happens that the signal from Wi-Fi internet router is not received well in all rooms. Same is the situation in my home as well, especially because the router was kept in a ground floor room at one end as it was near the electricity supply pole from which the connection was being given by the service provider. In this region, the internet cables run below the electricity supply wires, being leased for the purpose.

The solution was to use a Wi-Fi range extender as you can see here. The antennas of the range extender have been kept in horizontal position to receive the horizontally polarized radio waves from the internet router which has its antenna kept in horizontal position at a height. This was needed to get Wi-Fi access to a smart TV in another room. Even with same polarization, you can see that the second LED has been lit up in red colour on the Wi-Fi range extender. This is because the signal received by it from the internet router is not that strong. If a strong signal was received it would have been blue in colour.

When the Wi-Fi range extender is switched on, initially all the LEDs will light up in blue colour. After that the second one which indicates the received signal will become red if the signal is not that strong. The first blue coloured LED is the power on indicator. Third one shows that the range extender is transmitting 2.4 GHz for its clients. The next LED is not lit in this case because that is meant for 5 GHz, which has not been configured in this case. The configuration is done is using a mobile phone in which an app is installed for the purpose.

This Wi-Fi range extender can also be programmed as a Wi-Fi hotspot if you can connect the internet router directly to it in the RJ45 socket using a local area network (LAN) cable from the router. That will give a better connectivity from the router to the Wi-Fi range extender cum hotspot. When it is in the hotspot mode, the second LED will not light up. In the current configuration as Wi-Fi range extender,  it receives signals as radiowaves and retransmits as radio waves.

About 20 MBPS internet speed was obtained in a room upstairs, at the other end of the house, with two intevening walls each between the router and the range extender and the final desktop. When it was used as Wi-Fi hotspot, even up to 40 MBPS was obtained when the range extender cum hotspot was kept upstairs and connected using a CAT 5 LAN cable. If the LAN cable from the router is connected directly to a computer, it will give up to 120 MBPS as it is an up to 200 MBPS fibre optic internet connection. The rating is not visible on the short yellow cable supplied along the with the internet router. It is most likely a CAT 6 cable as CAT 5 cable  can go up to only 100 MBPS.