[kwlug-disc] Extending WiFi Range

[B.S.]

Um ... sorry, did you just say 'kwlug workshop night'?

Such are wonderful as backup routers / switches and/or dmz / openvpn 
endpoints. Having a couple spare to hand can be handy.

[When your only home router dies, you won't be happy, and it won't be at 
a 'convenient' time!]

On 03/30/2017 10:08 AM, Charles McColm wrote:
> Thanks Bill, yes we have a bucket-load of wifi routers, many N
> routers (there may even be the odd AC router). Quite honestly we're
> so swamped with other things in Computer Recycling that
> testing/reseting/sorting/organizing/documenting the routers has
> fallen by the way-side. At one point I had a grand-plan to put
> AdvancedTomato/DD-WRT/OpenWRT on some of the routers and create some
> documentation to help people looking at routers for the first time. I
> haven't had the chance and we haven't really had the
> expert-set/interest in that "router project."
>
> If someone is interested in playing with the different routers around
> here and maybe helping by flashing a few with DD/Open-WRT I'd be
> happy to trade (the work) for a router or two. I think we have
> something like 30 or so routers. No massive "Night Hawk" routers, but
> some decent ones around.
>
>>
>> The WRT1900AC and ACS recommended by others are expensive (~ $250
>> at least).
>
> Right, but if you swap in another (non-wifi) router, perhaps even
> OpenWRT capable, you can then move your current one wherever you
> like.
>
> Seems to me Charles had some older non-wifi / OpenWRT capable routers
> at computer recycling for cheap.
>
> As long as the WAN connection is faster than what your provider is
> giving you, and I don't imagine it's even 100Mbps, you won't suffer
> for the less speedy / capable equipment - it's just converting
> ethernet into cable-speak.
>
> (Careful though, when I tried this with my LinkSys ATA/Router - it
> kept falling over. Couldn't handle the throughput. It was fine as an
> ATA, just not as a router.)
>
>
> On 03/30/2017 09:11 AM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
>> On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 12:05 AM, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc
>> <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org <mailto:kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I am actually involved in a similar project to extend wifi range.
>> The plan is to use a $30 Mikrotik router as an access point, and
>> disable the router features (exactly as Khalid was suggesting,
>> except with evil proprietary Mikrotik stuff instead of angelic
>> OpenWRT). But that is an indoor solution.
>>
>> If I can get WiFi inside the basement close to the walls, that
>> maybe just the ticket.
>>
>> Where do you buy the Mikrotik router from? Directly from the
>> manufacturer?
>>
>> The WRT1900AC and ACS recommended by others are expensive (~ $250
>> at least).