Best way to extend airport extreme range?
 

I currently have an airport extreme connected to my modem in my basement on one end of my house. I want to extend the wireless range to the other side of the house. The other end of the house that has a weak signal has ethernet ports in some of the rooms. I have heard the best way to extend the signal is to use another airport extreme. Do I have to connect it wirelessly to the existing airport extreme or can I connect it in one of the rooms with an ethernet cable to extend the range? Thanks for your help in advance.

I would always wire in when you can (or use Powerline adapters)
WDS is unreliable IMHO unless everything perfect.

You can add on another Airport Extreme in bridge mode and use same network name/security. You can then roam and it should jump onto strongest signal network. I use a different non overlapping channel for 2nd network.
Google WIFI channels.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I am a bit of a newbie with this. I went out and bought the linksys wifi extender (R2000) that plugs into the wall. I plugged it into different outlets, and it did not boost the signal strong enough where I need it, and it is going right back to the store. What do you mean by powerline adapter?

Airport Extreme > Ethernet > NEW WIFI ACCESS POINT ( ie. Airport extreme or another product )

Powerline adapters allow you to create an ethernet network over you power lines in house rather than running cat 5 around.

The Linksys range extender did not do the trick. If I get another airport extreme plug into a wired ethernet port (The room on the end of my house with weak wifi), it can extend wifi on the same network? Or could I connect it wirelessly and still get a much stronger signal than that cheap Linksys extender?

Airport Express will do what you want. Either wired or wireless (plug in the power, put it on a shelf).

The key with wireless extension is proper placement - it has to go where it gets a decent signal from the base station and can project a decent signal to the desired area. An example would be extending wifi to the basement - the extender device would go in the stairwell, not in the basement.

Lets start at the beginning. Full Details. Which Extreme (Year bought). House construction, wall, material, house or room sizes, number of floors, etc.

Next. Is your basement the "network closet" because that is where you wanted the strongest signal or the ISP put the equipment down there?

Wifi travels strongest side to side not well up and down, hence the issue with the basement. Note too that one direction the signal travels at the moment is useless down from the basement towards the dirt.

How big a factor is cost? Of course with everyone to an extent.

The best thing you can start with is try to move the Wireless router, the extreme to the center of home where most want the signal, usually the first or second floor.

When you create a network you can not just throw hardware at it, you have to look at what you want to achieve and then get your options.

If you give us more details we can be very helpful.

The newest routers including the newest extreme have several times the range of past ones. That said your likely going to want to mix, wire, multiple routers, and possibly poweline adapters if you want to avoid wire in certain locations.

Assuming that's a result of antenna configuration, seems like it could be solved by setting the unit on it's side....

Although best signals may be on a single plane (horizontal, compared to vertical), another possibility is that floors tend to have more (signal-interfering) materials than walls have, resulting in more difficulties broadcasting through floors.
And, I also have seen help with weak signals, by placing the unit with antennas on its side.

Agreed
 

Also the note the shape of the wifi signal is like a football more or less. Changing the orientation will not change the actual shape but it is going to change the orientation from landscape to portrait. You may get more signal up that way but now you have a much narrower football shaped signal that does not travel very far from side to side. You can not really get both.

As I said we need more information from the OP. Ideally placing the device toward the center of the home or at least in the middle or top floor (assuming 3 levels [basement, 1st and 2nd floor]) is the best place to start.

Most multi floor, 2 bedroom + homes, require multiple routers and or wiring.

OK, Here are the details. My airport extreme is about 4 years old. It is shaped like a square and is not shaped like the new one. My house is a ranch (2 levels), and shaped like a horse shoe. The walls are sheet rock and internet comes in through the basement to the modem. The house was wired with ethernet ports in virtually every room in the house and in the basement near the modem is a switch with numbered ports that correspond with the rooms. I have the modem connected to the port number that corresponds to my office which is on the main level of the house and is on the east end. The airport extreme is in my office because I have a pc that I want wired internet so I plug into the airport with my pc. The opposite end of the house is where the wifi signal gets lost. We are talking about just the main level of the house and not the basement. Hope this helps.

I was also trying to see the differences between the airport express and extreme. I guess the extreme has better range. Also, I was reading some forums about ac technology and do not understand too much about it, but I guess that is going to be the new standard. Not sure what all this means, and if the new extreme has it.

Great
 

The Extreme's are more powerful and have always had more ports, etc. and both have gone through many generational changes. Simultaneous Dual band 2.4/5ghz was one major change (the former has greater penetrating capability but is more susceptible to interference, the latter can be much better because it is not as susceptible to interference). Unless you have a particular use case I would avoid the airport express (I have one and their great for certain purposes only. I also have 3 year old extreme [Simultaneous Dual band model])

The last two years have seen much more powerful transmit/receive and the current new tower shape has AC which is faster still assuming your equipment supports it (of course it is backwards compatible with regular spiffy dual band N). Only brand new 2013 computers have AC.

** That your house is wired means you have it "made in the shade:)". While you probably want a new Airport Extreme in general you need to do things in the best way possible.

There is not harm in having multiple switches in multiple locations and you already have 2 (the modem and extreme).

You can leave the modem in the basement and using wired to get from the basement to what one area of your split levels and that is where the Airport Extreme can go, preferably toward the center of your home. fyi: You can almost always daisy chain switches and can you use the house ethernet wiring they need not be directly connected.

With the extreme in the center you may have sufficient range. If not you can daisy chain wired or wirelessly (wired, preferred) a new airport extreme and place it where it is needed (ideal placement depends on whether your going to do it wired or wirelessly).

Lastly you did not mention but is the cable modem a wireless router too? You may want to turn it off and or remove the antennas.

Thanks. Just to clarify: The cable modem in the basement is not wifi. The modem is plugged into only one port (My office) The airport extreme is plugged into the ethernet port in my office. I have a network printer and my pc plugged into the extreme. (I can print wirelessly using my macbook pro). There are no ethernet ports in the middle of the house, because the middle of the house is an open floor plan that has the kitchen, family room, dining room etc. It is the bedrooms that have the ethernet ports. Interestingly enough, when I have my macbook pro at the far end of the house in my master bedroom, I get lightning fast wifi with the extreme in my office. Does this mean if I daisy chain another airport extreme in my master bedroom, I will be able to connect it with the same strong signal? Going down the hall to my kids rooms where the signal drops. Remember, my house is shaped like a U. Outside, I have a pool shed that has a controller to my swimming pool. The shed is on the side of my yard on my master bedroom side. The antenna needs a good internet connection for me to control my pool via the internet and my iPhone. I moved the airport extreme to my master bedroom (Ethernet plugin) and it's fine.

Sounds like if I get the new airport extreme and daisy chain it wirelessly, it will do the trick. How do I do this, and if I go this route, should I put the new extreme in my office plugged in or should I place this in another part of the house?

A picture is always worth a 1000 words. Even crude hand drawn diagram with squares and handwritten labels. That said if I understand correctly yes to your questions.

Wherever possible you Extend wired. Monoprice and other places sell Ethernet switches (8 port gig) for $40.

Where you have to you use Wireless Extension. Apple makes it Easy. The first, strongest/newest Extreme would sit in the most central location possible for the wireless part of your network. Then the next extreme would act as a Satellite/Moon to a planet. You want the Satellite extreme to be close enough to get strong signal, but not so close that there is interference.

Depending on walls/room shape, etc perhaps within 10 to 50 feet.

The Extension part Apple makes simple. First Extreme is the network and then from Airport Extreme software you will be prompted if you want to extend or make a network.

All this said if it is only the center of the house that has no Ethernet port it would still be best to use the wire everywhere else you can. Switches are cheap and nothing is generally faster or more reliable.

Move the Extreme base station to the basement, where it will serve both as router and basement wifi. Get a 50cm cord to connect it to the modem and use the existing cord to connect to your office.

Buy an Express to provide wifi to the first floor, put it in your office where the extreme used to be, preferably higher up on a shelf.

Putting the extreme in the basement will not do the trick, because the modem is in the east side of the basement which is directly above my office. Keeping the router in my office is better because it is on the main level. Extending wifi to the west end of the house when it makes the turn in the U is the challenge.

Your office is in the sub-basement?

Do the above (Extreme in the basement next to the modem), put an Express at the corner of the U and set it up as a wireless repeater (all it needs is power).

The key to putting the Extreme in the basement is it's the best place in the network for a router. If you need to connect several wired devices in your office just get an 8-port switch.

If I am not mistaken the cable modem is also a router/switch (not wireless).
He only has one older extreme at the moment. A second extreme would be more powerful, has more switch ports, etc. Most of his house is wired so he really should use that as much as possible. If I understand correctly only the center parts of the first floor are not wired. So that is the place to put one of the extremes.

The main question is how to get semi near to this center area with a wired connection if possible.

My office is not in the basement. It is on the main level directly above where the modem is in the basement. Interestingly enough, I moved the router to my bedroom, which is at the L of the U towards the far end. This seems to be a good central location and I seem to have good wifi in the house, main level and basement. I will get an 8 port switch for my office. If I find that the wireless signal is not not as fast as I would like in my office, then do you think the express will do the trick or should I go for the extreme? I don't quite understand daisy chaining routers wirelessly vs. wired. Since most of the house is wired, If I need to put in a second router, would it be better to plug the second one in to the ethernet port in my office, and daisy chain it to the one in my bedroom or just plugging one into an outlet and configuring it wirelessly will do the trick?

I want to express my gratitude and appreciation for all of your help. I have posted numerous questions over the last several years since I switched to apple products and it is nice to have a community of knowledgable people who are very helpful. It takes the guess work out of where to go for support and help. Thanks again!!

We need to know if the Airport Extreme Base station (AEBS) is doing DHCP/NAT/Firewall if so the suggestions so far are not ideal.
Is the modem just a modem or is it doing other functions ? maybe tell us what the box is ;-)

Here is a diagram of what i would do if i was in your situation. However i don't use Apple networking hardware but the principle is same ;-)
You could get away with not having the ethernet switch as currently you only need 2 live network sockets in house and the AEBS has 3 LAN ports.
My moto is wire in when you can hence why i have added a AEBS to office to provide wired and main wifi for bulk of house. The far end of house just needs an AE (airport express). One of the more ridiculous bits of this puzzle will be if your old AEBS is compatible with newer Airport Utility !

The picture is becoming a bit clearer now. I know I can wirelessly daisy chain the express to the extreme which may work. I will pick one up today and see if it does the trick. If not, Can I wirelessly daisy chain another extreme with the one I have now? If none of these 2 scenarios work, then I will have to back feed cables from my bedroom back to the basement and then up to the bedroom to achieve this.

Are the wall sockets in rooms singles or doubles ? if doubles i would wire them.

The wall sockets are double (one on top of the other)

What does the number of wall sockets have to do with wiring?

They should correspond to Patchbay unit in basement

ie. wall socket 1/2 run back through building to patchbay sockets 1/2 etc

This sounds like a BFD and quite an undertaking. I hope the express does the trick. I guess there is no way to daisy chain another extreme wirelessly to the one I have now, right?

This is pretty basic networking don't be scared off ;) My diagrams hopefully are enough to go on. Best thing to do is get it all working with devices side by side linked with a cable then do the positioning and network route.

Seriously WDS ( wireless distribution systems) are a PITA and much less reliable and slower for most operations. I have had my fair share of this back in the day...we now just hard wire everything as much as possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireles...ibution_system

Also really all you need to do is buy the Airport express. Plug in an ethernet cable from AEBS to AE then configure AE. Check all working.
Then move the AE to bedrooms and wire in to wall socket and "patch it" so it is connected to AEBS like in my diagram.

Correction. The ethernet outlets are single

Do you have 2 in office ?

No, there is one ethernet port in my office.

To answer an early question, YES you can daisy chain extremes. Express on the other hand can potentially be fussy at least in the past about being daisy chained wired. They both do extension by WDS (wifi). Newer express are much better. That said unless have a very specific use case for the express I prefer the greater range and greater capabilities of the extremes. The only things an Express does uniquely 1) Cheaper 2) Can act as a ethernet bridge for a non wifi device but the Extreme can serve up most printers, etc. 3) Music streaming.

Adding an Ethernet switch as I mentioned earlier is going to be helpful.

dpriest can you try to give us a list of all your hardware and diagram of all the relevant rooms and whether they have ethernet wiring.

Switches are cheap Agentx may have an explanation but anywhere you short a port a switch can be added for little money. I like Agentx diagram in post 22 though I am not sure we clear enough on your complete set up to state that is exactly how it should be done.

So you know a patch panels purpose is to allow for durable and alterable connectivity. That is, say in an office setting with 100s of wall plates/potential network connections per floor you patch in the connections you need. All wiring in pro set ups are also done to back of a patch panel and then you patch from the panel to your switch, there is not really a choice since that is where the wiring terminates/goes to (there literally punched in the back of the panel, they are not connected with removable cables). Do you have a patch panel of any kind now? Where does all your wiring go to?

Looks like it is WDS for you then.

In most situations we tend have Main base station > relay station AE > remote base station AEBS or another AE. If you buy a new extreme you may want to make that the main base station. Remember Apple give you a 14 day no quibble money back gurartenee (well in uk anyway). I tend to buy more hardware than needed get it all working and take back what I don't need.

If you get new AEBS you may not need the relay. Overall it should be noted that things get tricky if all your WIFI hardware does not match. Also 2.4ghz signal penetrates walls well but 5ghz should be used for same room application. Just another layer of complication.

I have done quite a lot of WIFI systems in last 5 years. We tend to put fixed same room media devices on 5GHZ. Then the bulk of connection to network is on 2.4ghz as we found the Apple devices were getting slower speeds most of time as they jumped onto 5ghz by default. TBH apple devices do not have the best WIFI performance in many respects and this ended up causing lots of issues.

Went out and picked up an express that did the trick, and is working great:)

Happy days ;-)

Cool, glad it was powerful enough.