Wi-Fi router and Wi-Fi extender with the same SSID

Enigm4

Commendable
Sep 19, 2016
1
0
1,510
Hi.
I live in a two story apartment and the Wi-Fi router given by the ISP just doesn't make it. I would like to turn off the Wi-Fi on the ISP's router (since it is only 2.4GHz and you can't disconnect it) and connect a new Wi-Fi router that has 5GHz AC support. I want to put the router close to the stairs to the second floor, so that the Wi-Fi extender won't have any trouble connecting to the router.

My question is: what Wi-Fi router and Wi-Fi extender would you suggest that wouldn't be too hard to set up, will work together with each other well, have the same SSID and password so that the end user won't have to connect twice and preferably will have the same SSID for 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

Oh, and it shouldn't cost more that €150, maybe lower.
 
Solution
Any wireless router will do as an access point, just turn off the DHCP on the router used as an access point, connect it to the main router with an LAN to LAN cable connection, give the AP router a static address that is in the network range but outside the DHCP assignment range of the main router.

I would label the SSID with the speed so that users can choose to select to one or the other to help manage your wireless load balance. If everyone gets on one or the other it will slow things down.

And you may want to leave the main router wireless radio on for more bandwidth -- just give it a different non-overlapping channel from the AP router 2.4GHz radio (so choose 2 of the channels: 1, 6, and 11) and a different SSID for connections...

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Any wireless router will do as an access point, just turn off the DHCP on the router used as an access point, connect it to the main router with an LAN to LAN cable connection, give the AP router a static address that is in the network range but outside the DHCP assignment range of the main router.

I would label the SSID with the speed so that users can choose to select to one or the other to help manage your wireless load balance. If everyone gets on one or the other it will slow things down.

And you may want to leave the main router wireless radio on for more bandwidth -- just give it a different non-overlapping channel from the AP router 2.4GHz radio (so choose 2 of the channels: 1, 6, and 11) and a different SSID for connections near it and legacy devices.
 
Solution