How to Turn an Old Router into a Wi-Fi Extender
How to turn an old router into a Wi-Fi extender
If your Wi-Fi signal isn't what it should be, learning how to turn an onetime router into a Wi-Fi extender is a quick and easy project to both solve your problem and upcycle some sometime tech at the aforementioned fourth dimension.
Unless you're in a pocket-sized house or apartment, chances are there's a spot in your habitation that your regular router doesn't quite reach, fifty-fifty if you have one of the best Wi-Fi routers. Whether this causes spotty Wi-Fi or just an overall slow connection, you can do something virtually it besides mutter about your disrupted Netflix sessions.
Past turning an old router into a Wi-Fi extender, you can let the signal reach other parts of the business firm, which should solve whatever coverage bug.
It'due south piece of cake to reconfigure an old router into an extender and then that the device grabs a strong Wi-Fi signal and sends out a fresh stream of data to previously unconnected areas. While information technology costs next to nothing to practise this, don't wait Wi-Fi miracles. Still, it's a good manner to inexpensively fill your dwelling house with wireless information.
Nosotros transformed a dusty Netgear R7000 802.11ac router into a repeater as an case of how to practice this trick. Using Netgear Genie, a free network-management app for Netgear routers, we easily converted the old router into a Wi-Fi extender to add Wi-Fi to a invitee room in my basement.
The general process for other routers is like simply not exactly the aforementioned. If you don't have one or something similar (like an R6700 or R6900), you can get a used one for about $20 online.
1. Detect a Uniform Router
If yous take an old router sitting around, cheque with the manual to make sure the device tin can be converted into an extender or a repeater, and get specific instructions. If the router doesn't back up running equally a repeater or an extender using the manufacturer'due south firmware, there's some other mode. Meet if the router can utilize open-source firmware (similar DD-WRT). If so, chances are that you tin can indeed use your sometime router as an extender.
Be careful with routers from the 802.11b and g eras; they won't piece of work well, because they have a lower maximum bandwidth, which creates bottlenecks in your network. Practise the math: If you lot have a 100-Mbps connectedness and the extender is limited to a tiptop of 11 or 54 Mbps, you lot'll probable be wasting most of your bandwidth with an older router. Only an 802.11n or air conditioning router volition do.
Finally, Asus AiMesh routers tin link together to create a mesh network on their own. There are 17 Asus routers that support the AiMesh tool and can automatically create a mesh network topology to make full a domicile with wireless data. You will need to load new firmware to brand information technology work, though.
More than: How to Fix Your Wi-Fi Extender for the All-time Betoken
two. Update Firmware and Reset Preferences
Subsequently getting and installing the R7000'southward latest firmware and connecting the router to our network with a Cat5 jumper cablevision, we opened a browser window and typed, "www.rouoterlogin.net" to open the login screen. Other router makes volition have different addresses or will have actual IP addresses, like 192.168.one.1. Come across the nautical chart below to find out the details for your brand of router.
| Brand | IP Accost | URL |
| Asus | 192.168.1.1 | http://router.asus.com |
| Belkin | 192.168.2.1 | http://router |
| D-Link | 192.168.0.1 | http://mydlinkrouter.local |
| Linksys | 192.168.1.one | http://myrouter.local |
| Netgear | 192.168.0.1 | http://world wide web.routerlogin.net |
| TP-Link | 192.168.1.1 | http://tplinklogin.cyberspace or http://tplinkwifi.net |
The default for many Netgear routers is admin/password, simply others use different combinations, the most common passwords being admin, default, 1234 and password. If these default passwords don't work, you can generally find the correct ones through the manufacturer'due south product-support pages or on sites like RouterPasswords.com and Router-Reset.com.
Needless to say, you should change your password every bit soon as y'all tin can to something more secure (and nosotros have a handy guide that walks you through the process). If you've set a new password for the router and since forgotten information technology, go right ahead and perform a hard restart that volition wipe all existing data from the system. You lot typically do this by holding the reset button down for 20 or thirty seconds then the router will restart.
We used Netgear'southward Genie software, which is built into the R7000 router, to change the configuration. Once logged in, go to the Wireless section of the master configuration page. And then, open Advanced Setup and Wireless Repeating at the bottom. Start with the two.4GHz section on peak and make sure that the network name and countersign friction match the residuum of the network to ensure reliable roaming from router to extender. Next, click or tap on Enable Wireless Repeating Function and and so on Wireless Repeater.
three. Set a Static Address
It's a little tricky, simply adjacent, you need to type in a static IP address for the repeater. I similar to use 192.168.1.2 (one higher than the base router's address) to denote that it'southward role of the LAN's infrastructure and not a client or printer. I proceed a handwritten list of static addresses taped to the router to prevent later confusion over IP addresses.
Well-nigh washed. Make sure that the subnet mask matches the router's – the subnet mask is what the router uses to decide if the network segment and customer are local or remote. This information can generally be found in the router'southward management software, on the same screen as the IP address you just fix. The about common default subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, and there'south no reason to change information technology.
Earlier you're done, check off the box for Disable Wireless Client Association and enter the router'south MAC address; it'due south generally on a sticker on the dorsum or underside of the router, or included with the device documentation.
4. Echo for 5GHz
The R7000 is a dual-band router, so go downwards to the 5GHz section and echo the previous set of instructions. When y'all're washed, click on Apply. The router should reboot and, in a couple of minutes, behave like a wireless extender.
5. Bank check Your Work
It'due south time to set up your extender. Pick a place with an Air conditioning outlet that is almost halfway between the network'southward router and the area y'all want to fill up with Wi-Fi. There are enough of specifics to worry about when finding the best spot for your router, simply you're basically looking for the sugariness spot where you get the best readings.
Showtime up the extender, and with a notebook, phone or tablet, effort to get online. Follow this up with a Speedtest.net check on your bachelor bandwidth. It'll take some trial, a lot of error and mayhap an extension string if an AC outlet isn't in the exact right place.
For me, it took well-nigh 15 minutes and 4 tries to get a practiced location: about 60 feet from the basement'due south router, which immune the R7000 extender to breast-stroke the invitee room in Wi-Fi. The results speak for themselves. Using Speedtest.net every bit a benchmark, here are our results:
| fifteen-feet from router | Guest room |
| Ping: 11ms | Ping: 14ms |
| Download: 105.2 Mbps | Download: 84.5 Mbps |
| Upload: 35.three Mbps | Upload: 27.9 Mbps |
I might be far from a superhot connection, and the latency in the extended Wi-Fi is higher than the rest of my home network, just the data speed is adept enough for full general web browsing, watching movies and even a little gaming. I'grand hoping it also says, "Welcome home" to my guests.
Now you know how to plow an old router into a Wi-Fi extender, you might want to bank check out some of our other guides, including how to admission your router'southward settings and What Is a Mesh Wi-Fi Router, and Exercise You Need 1?
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/how-to-turn-old-router-into-wifi-extender,review-5166.html
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