WLAN repeater in lidl

clint_silver

coming up next week. 300mbps. 29.99e

I was waiting for 1 to come up under the 50-60e mark with wifi. 29.99 will do just nicely and as its lidl, if it doesnt work, just throw the kit back in the box, pop back to shop and get the cash back!!

http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_27050.htm


edit: just searched amazon and noted theres a good few wifi repeaters around the 30e mark making this not sooo much of a bargain but still, its lidl and my cashback comment still stands.

fifib

we have wireless broadband in our house,modem located in hall by front door but some of the rooms down the hall have very poor signal. Am i right in thinking if I plug this into one of the rooms it will boost the signal?

Do-more

fifib wrote: »

we have wireless broadband in our house,modem located in hall by front door but some of the rooms down the hall have very poor signal. Am i right in thinking if I plug this into one of the rooms it will boost the signal?

That's the idea OK.

DublinAlert

Hi I do not know the layout of your home. Wireless routers usually transmit in the figure of 8. So you could have very good coverage on the ground floor when the router is sitting flat on the table. If the coverage issue is on the upper floors put the router up on the wall and try or if the coverage is on the ground floor take it off the wall. May be a bargain help and save €30 euro.

fifib

DublinAlert wrote: »

Hi I do not know the layout of your home. Wireless routers usually transmit in the figure of 8. So you could have very good coverage on the ground floor when the router is sitting flat on the table. If the coverage issue is on the upper floors put the router up on the wall and try or if the coverage is on the ground floor take it off the wall. May be a bargain help and save €30 euro.

its a bungalow with long corridor and rooms off it. modem is flat on a table but the internal walls are block so this is probably why signal is poor in rooms down end of hall. I might get it anyways to see if it improves. thanks!

paddyp

If you live anywhere within range of other people I wouldn't be using wps its very insecure. All wifi is insecure depending on how determined your neighbours are but wps on most routers can be brute forced in jig time.

jenno86

Do you need two of these for it to work?

clint_silver

jenno86 wrote: »

Do you need two of these for it to work?

I dont think so, Im fairly sure these send on the signal to further parts rather than the other powerline products which do need 2.

I'm going to get one on the day and play with it that night if you want to wait.

read the instructions in the first review of a similar product here for what my understanding of the setup would be.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Repeater-amplifier-including-connection-standards/dp/B006CKWZT6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355153072&sr=8-1

Boxfresh

Was going to invest in a set of wall plugs but this looks like it would do the job just as good. Decent price too and always handy to have.

Donie75

Would this device be any good for getting a reasonable reception in my garage at the bottom of the garden?
I have UPC broadband and it's very quick. It's connected to a Netgear wireless router and I get good coverage all over the house.
I want to watch Netflix in my garage while I'm on the turbotrainer. I can get wifi reception outside the back door. If I plug this in to a plug closer to the back door this might help.

Blade

I could be wrong but I've read a few reviews on repeaters suggesting they're nowhere near as good as powerline adapters. My understanding is that repeaters work just like wireless bridging two routers so the signal is sent by wireless from one to the other then boosted, which can result in signal loss. Whereas with powerline adapters the data is going through cable just like a proper Ethernet so has a much more stable connection.

As another user just posted today, there's a great deal on wired powerline adapaters from TP-link at the moment: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056828550

You can add the wireless adapter on to those for £40 and have a spare wired adapter for somewhere else in your house.

Blinked_Missed It

Do not buy a wireless repeater unless you desperately need it. A repeater needs to make at minimum 2 hops to transfer data. In other words your wifi speed to the device connected to it will be halved every time you add a repeater, at best. With repeaters all communication is handled in series, not parallel. Only 1 device can talk at once, unlike normal cable or wireless connections. Powerline is (usually) parallel & simply superior.

If there is additional wireless interference (which may be the reason you have poor wifi signal in the 1st place so removes cordless phones, change video sender channels, baby monitors etc 1st) this will cause more hops to be needed to deliver the data intact. If you didn't know the above you don't know what your doing so google before purchase or simply don't purchase at all. Wifi issue checklist is always

1: Interference (cordless phones, video senders, baby monitors, microwaves, fridges, modern double glazing with inert gases, old houses with lead construction, mottled glass, it goes on)
2: Channel change on router (especially if not all devices are having problems, they are not all the same, some have more power than others)
3: Better router (or if its a router with external antenna point the antenna in the direction of the devices using it i.e if the router is in the attic point the antenna down)
4: Stop downloading huge numbers of torrents over wifi tying down the routers cpu/don't have 20 devices all downloading at the same time.

Repeater Problem is basically:
No. of Repeaters/Speed
0: 100%
1: 50%
2: 25%
3: 12.5%
etc

If your electrics can handle powerline adapters then use them. They are cheap & effective. A 100mb powerline linking to a wireless access point in the effected area over electrical cable which wasn't put in by an idiot or before the dawn of the state will be superior, ALWAYS, to a wifi repeater.

PS: Dont go phoning some poor underpaid overworked undervalued sod in an ISP's technical support group if it all goes to hell after buying a repeater, its not their problem or fault, return the repeater or live with the inherent problems of the technology which you will never be able to overcome.

PPS: No offence to the OP but don't post these things if you are not completely familiar with how they work. Like video senders they can be an absolute complete disaster for those not familiar with the technology and the poor min wage tech support employee mentioned above. Also a 300mbps wireless repeater is a sick marketing joke. At best you'll get 10-15mbps in reality, seriously. Go Powerline.

Arciphel

Yikes. That escalated quickly.

Blinked_Missed It

Arciphel wrote: »

Yikes. That escalated quickly.

Its christmas, people will buy this without knowing what they're doing, the kids will install it, moan & bitch = ruin christmas. its gotta be said sorry.

dodzy

Arciphel wrote: »

Yikes. That escalated quickly.

Ya blinked...and ya missed it

delta36

Thanks for posting OP, I've been looking for something like this cheap for a while. It's not the coverage in my house that's the problem, fact is I have a Nintendo DS (can only handle WEP security on a router) and a tablet (can handle anything other than WEP security (I know :rolleyes:)), so I reckon this'll suit me down to the ground.

Blinked_Missed It

delta36 wrote: »

Thanks for posting OP, I've been looking for something like this cheap for a while. It's not the coverage in my house that's the problem, fact is I have a Nintendo DS (can only handle WEP security on a router) and a tablet (can handle anything other than WEP security (I know :rolleyes:)), so I reckon this'll suit me down to the ground.

A repeater will only 'repeat' the signal with the same level and type of encryption from the primary router. This won't solve your problem. What you need is a dual band access point that will broadbast 2 SSID's with different types of encryption on each. 1 SSID for the DS, 1 SSID for the Tablet. I'm using a Netgear WNDR 3700 doing this but there are many many more available as cheap as a repeater on amazon.

delta36

Blinked_Missed It wrote: »

A repeater will only 'repeat' the signal with the same level and type of encryption from the primary router. This won't solve your problem. What you need is a dual band access point that will broadbast 2 SSID's with different types of encryption on each. 1 SSID for the DS, 1 SSID for the Tablet. I'm using a Netgear WNDR 3700 doing this but there are many many more available as cheap as a repeater on amazon.

Feck it, you're right too, was thinking of an extender!

Blinked_Missed It

delta36 wrote: »

Feck it, you're right too, was thinking of an extender!

Find a cheap TP-Link dual band AP on adverts.ie or amazon for €20-€30 and your sorted. Trick is they are actually Netgears on the inside for a fraction of the price

clint_silver

Blinked_Missed It wrote: »

Do not buy a wireless repeater unless you desperately need it. A repeater needs to make at minimum 2 hops to transfer data. In other words your wifi speed to the device connected to it will be halved every time you add a repeater, at best. With repeaters all communication is handled in series, not parallel. Only 1 device can talk at once, unlike normal cable or wireless connections. Powerline is (usually) parallel & simply superior.

If there is additional wireless interference (which may be the reason you have poor wifi signal in the 1st place so removes cordless phones, change video sender channels, baby monitors etc 1st) this will cause more hops to be needed to deliver the data intact. If you didn't know the above you don't know what your doing so google before purchase or simply don't purchase at all. Wifi issue checklist is always

1: Interference (cordless phones, video senders, baby monitors, microwaves, fridges, modern double glazing with inert gases, old houses with lead construction, mottled glass, it goes on)
2: Channel change on router (especially if not all devices are having problems, they are not all the same, some have more power than others)
3: Better router (or if its a router with external antenna point the antenna in the direction of the devices using it i.e if the router is in the attic point the antenna down)
4: Stop downloading huge numbers of torrents over wifi tying down the routers cpu/don't have 20 devices all downloading at the same time.

Repeater Problem is basically:
No. of Repeaters/Speed
0: 100%
1: 50%
2: 25%
3: 12.5%
etc

If your electrics can handle powerline adapters then use them. They are cheap & effective. A 100mb powerline linking to a wireless access point in the effected area over electrical cable which wasn't put in by an idiot or before the dawn of the state will be superior, ALWAYS, to a wifi repeater.

PS: Dont go phoning some poor underpaid overworked undervalued sod in an ISP's technical support group if it all goes to hell after buying a repeater, its not their problem or fault, return the repeater or live with the inherent problems of the technology which you will never be able to overcome.

PPS: No offence to the OP but don't post these things if you are not completely familiar with how they work. Like video senders they can be an absolute complete disaster for those not familiar with the technology and the poor min wage tech support employee mentioned above. Also a 300mbps wireless repeater is a sick marketing joke. At best you'll get 10-15mbps in reality, seriously. Go Powerline.

My house has 2 extensions with 2 circuit boards. I have trouble getting wifi in one of the extensions. The router is on 1 circuit, the extension with wifi problems is on the other. I cant get powerline as they have to be on the same circuit board. If you knew what you were talking about then youd have known that. Please dont give advice where you obviously dont know what youre talking about.

And secondly, actually a light bit of offence taken here, because youre telling me I cant tell the difference between a decent speed on my wifi and then deciding after I put in a new bit of equipment, the speed is slow on THAT piece of equipment and Im going to call a tech guy in my isp and tell him that I put in a wifi repeater and speed is fine on the main router but not on the repeater and it might be the ISPs fault? please. save your PPS's.

clint_silver

Blade wrote: »

I could be wrong but I've read a few reviews on repeaters suggesting they're nowhere near as good as powerline adapters. My understanding is that repeaters work just like wireless bridging two routers so the signal is sent by wireless from one to the other then boosted, which can result in signal loss. Whereas with powerline adapters the data is going through cable just like a proper Ethernet so has a much more stable connection.

As another user just posted today, there's a great deal on wired powerline adapaters from TP-link at the moment: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056828550

You can add the wireless adapter on to those for £40 and have a spare wired adapter for somewhere else in your house.

This is correct, the repeaters are not as good as the powerline adaptors but as per my previous post, the powerline adaptors have to be on the same circuit as the router, which in my case, is not possible. The rooms that I have the wifi problem in are in different extensions, Ive had it confirmed by telecoms engineer that its the block construction thats the issue.
In my case, I have an opportunity to put a repeater nearly line of sight to my main router which will service the extension. It would cost me 100e plus to get powerline adaptors to do same by daisychaining them.

Blinked_Missed It

clint_silver wrote: »

My house has 2 extensions with 2 circuit boards. I have trouble getting wifi in one of the extensions. The router is on 1 circuit, the extension with wifi problems is on the other. I cant get powerline as they have to be on the same circuit board. If you knew what you were talking about then youd have known that. Please dont give advice where you obviously dont know what youre talking about.

And secondly, actually a light bit of offence taken here, because youre telling me I cant tell the difference between a decent speed on my wifi and then deciding after I put in a new bit of equipment, the speed is slow on THAT piece of equipment and Im going to call a tech guy in my isp and tell him that I put in a wifi repeater and speed is fine on the main router but not on the repeater and it might be the ISPs fault? please. save your PPS's.

Couple of points.
1: At no stage did I say my post was advice for you.
2: At no stage did you say you had 2 circuits in your house (so as for me not knowing what I'm talking about its a bit difficult when you don't give pertinent information).
3: The information I gave is part of a general troubleshooting guide everyone should always follow before spending money to resolve a wireless issue.
4: 1 of my jobs is to be that networking guy setting up this for people so don't tell me my job. Every day people who buy things like this based on marketing and the recommendations of another without that person outlining the limitations call, scream, shout, throw abuse, cancel contracts and if a business may lose serious money because the person who recommended it and the box told them its the solution. Most don't know what a wpa key is never mind the rest and you can't expect them to.

As to your taking offence see point 1. When you put something like this up outline the inherent limitations & don't expect everyone to be as experienced as you at networking. Many people don't have the knowledge, time or cop on to know what an rj-11 cable is never mind the intricacies of networking and since its christmas most of the problems will not come to light until someone on the 25th knocks out their network trying to set up something they have no idea about. I've been called countless times to unravel the mess. They just read 300mbps/P'nP & believe it it'll solve the whole problem.

You may not blame the ISP & you may know the difference/reason one device is operating differently to another but most people will blame the ISP, not their friend the so-called expert or the shiny marketing box (the blurb on Lidl's site outlines my point perfectly, its BS). Its reality sadly. You won't be the one in the hole if it goes wrong & attacked, the purchaser will & I will. Cheers for the bargain alert but honestly as you know its more than plug & play with this stuff and the masses are not as clued as you & I.

clint_silver

Blinked_Missed It wrote: »

Couple of points.
1: At no stage did I say my post was advice for you.
2: At no stage did you say you had 2 circuits in your house (so as for me not knowing what I'm talking about its a bit difficult when you don't give pertinent information).
3: The information I gave is part of a general troubleshooting guide everyone should always follow before spending money to resolve a wireless issue.
4: 1 of my jobs is to be that networking guy setting up this for people so don't tell me my job. Every day people who buy things like this based on marketing and the recommendations of another without that person outlining the limitations call, scream, shout, throw abuse, cancel contracts and if a business may lose serious money because the person who recommended it and the box told them its the solution. Most don't know what a wpa key is never mind the rest and you can't expect them to.

As to your taking offence see point 1. When you put something like this up outline the inherent limitations & don't expect everyone to be as experienced as you at networking. Many people don't have the knowledge, time or cop on to know what an rj-11 cable is never mind the intricacies of networking and since its christmas most of the problems will not come to light until someone on the 25th knocks out their network trying to set up something they have no idea about. I've been called countless times to unravel the mess. They just read 300mbps/P'nP & believe it it'll solve the whole problem.

You may not blame the ISP & you may know the difference/reason one device is operating differently to another but most people will blame the ISP, not their friend the so-called expert or the shiny marketing box (the blurb on Lidl's site outlines my point perfectly, its BS). Its reality sadly. You won't be the one in the hole if it goes wrong & attacked, the purchaser will & I will. Cheers for the bargain alert but honestly as you know its more than plug & play with this stuff and the masses are not as clued as you & I.

What if I went and bought power line without knowing the circuitry limitation? It's a bit sick really there's guys coming on here giving advice
1. Without giving caveats on the usage of that equipment
2. Assuming the user won't call a poor tech guy and blame him. If you think about it, the poor tech guy has as much chance of getting called for a non-faulty Powerline adaptor than for a non-faulty repeater.
3. Generalizing that most users who buy a wlan repeater don't know the difference between speed issues with the newly installed equipment and the ISP line to house, if someone has the savvy to set that up in the first place, a modicum of tech knowledge is assumed to trouble shoot.

And anyway, you're taking the piss if you're not able to field a call from a user that goes along the lines of
"Hi my wifi is slow"
"Ok, is this intermittent or all the time"
"Well, it's fine around the house but when I connect to the WLAN repeater SSID that I just configured there's a noticeable drop in the transfer rate of about 50%, have you any idea what it could be?"

If you're still on the phone 3 seconds later, you're in the wrong job.

But hey, if anyone does buy the non-faulty repeater and it doesn't do what you were hoping it to do regarding wifi speeds, I refer you to my original comment about lidls returns policy.

I'm just looking forward to not seeing 3G in my bedroom. I bid you goodnight.

Blinked_Missed It

clint_silver wrote: »

What if I went and bought power line without knowing the circuitry limitation? It's a bit sick really there's guys coming on here giving advice
1. Without giving caveats on the usage of that equipment
2. Assuming the user won't call a poor tech guy and blame him. If you think about it, the poor tech guy has as much chance of getting called for a non-faulty Powerline adaptor than for a non-faulty repeater.
3. Generalizing that most users who buy a wlan repeater don't know the difference between speed issues with the newly installed equipment and the ISP line to house, if someone has the savvy to set that up in the first place, a modicum of tech knowledge is assumed to trouble shoot.

And anyway, you're taking the piss if you're not able to field a call from a user that goes along the lines of
"Hi my wifi is slow"
"Ok, is this intermittent or all the time"
"Well, it's fine around the house but when I connect to the WLAN repeater SSID that I just configured there's a noticeable drop in the transfer rate of about 50%, have you any idea what it could be?"

If you're still on the phone 3 seconds later, you're in the wrong job.

But hey, if anyone does buy the non-faulty repeater and it doesn't do what you were hoping it to do regarding wifi speeds, I refer you to my original comment about lidls returns policy.

I'm just looking forward to not seeing 3G in my bedroom. I bid you goodnight.

My last comment on this as quite bluntly its pointless talking to you clearly can't fathom anyone else's reality in dealing with networking on a professional level. Everything I said previously stands and if you had taken the time to read my 1st comment you would have seen I have placed caveats on the purchase/use of powerlne as well, you didn't. As for me doing the wrong job if I'm on the call 3 seconds later, you have no idea what your talking about, not 1 jot (your deliberately insulting me implying I can't do my job. Simply I'm known by those that actually count, which is not you, for knowing my stuff, go to hell).

Your assuming logic/knowledge on the part of the caller. Anyone and everyone who has worked in support for 1 day knows that is a fatal error. As for powerline v. repeater troubleshooting, they are vastly different and wifi is vastly more complex and evasive in terms of issue resolution, particularly long term. A cable can be seen & tested as can switches etc, an invisible wave cannot, particularly when dealing with intermittent issues in urban areas with multiple clients and upto 100 wireless sources around you. As for returning it for a refund, great but you don't get the cost of calling support on your mobile back, the hair you pulled out or the time you spent finding out its useless. Fact is repeaters are trouble if you don't know your stuff and the technicalities on which to base your expectations. You could get lucky but people in the business who do this for businesses don't do luck. Good night & good luck.

Mods can this be locked please, its going nowhere fast. Thanks.