Old router into wifi booster?

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Patrick_Mc

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Apr 9, 2017
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Hello. So I've gone through a series of routers/modems thinking the connection problem I was having was because they were too weak. Well I realized that and Ethernet cable would be the best but I can't run a 100 foot cable through my house. It would look ugly and I think the dogs would chew it. I have a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900. I'm pretty sure it's a good router and I was talking to someone at Best Buy and he said that there was a way set it up where I could have my main router downstairs where the internet cable is and have the Nighthawk upstairs creating a boost or a extension to the internet. If anyone knows how to turn my Nighthawk router into a wifi booster/extender then please tell me how in a response.

If anyone knows to get a Ethernet cable in my room via running a cable through the house and showing me how to hide it, please met me know. If anyone knows how to get an Ethernet cord upstairs in a room with no Ethernet Port, please let me know.
 
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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May 29, 2013
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If you don't know how to get an ethernet cable run to the places you want, then hire an expert. There are companies that specialize in low voltage and data cabling that can get an ethernet cable almost anywhere. It just requires specialized tools and knowledge.
 
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vmfantom

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Nov 28, 2017
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3 methods come to mind for reusing your Nighthawk AC1900 (guessing it's an R7000) to improve the transmit gain or general coverage area, and actually use the Nighthawk as the primary router. One is to swap the stock antennas for 9 dBi antennas, so that your signal strength ought to improve by 8 dBm on the whole since the stock antennas are apparently terrible. Another is to increase the transmit gain with an amplifier between the router radio chain and antenna, you can search for "Sunhans eSunRC 2000 mW 2.4 GHz & 5.8 GHz dual band booster" on eBay for one that should increase signal strength by 16-18 dBm on both bands (not just 2.4 GHz). Another is to distribute the wifi signal over cable outlets, so that versus an RSSI around -67 dBm with 100 feet of typical attenuation over the air you'd see maybe -1 dBm over 100 feet of coax on 5 GHz.

You could also use bonded MoCA 2.0 adapters between cable outlets to create an Ethernet PTP bridge using coax, but that wouldn't help with wifi. There are some bonded MoCA 2.0 adapters that use WPS cloning so you could plug-and-play those as wifi extenders, although it wouldn't give you seamless handoffs between the devices broadcasting the same SSIDs.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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I would strongly recommend against any form of amplifier/booster. The main issue is most these devices are illegal to use if they actually do what they say they do and put out more than 1watt of signal. Every unit you will find has no FCC number...obviously they can't...this means you have to trust a company from china to not be telling lies about the performance. Since these companies already know they are selling product that can not legally be used what more would it involve to fudge the numbers.

Quality microwave amplifiers are expensive to make at high output power. This is why you commonly see 200mw amp with about 6 db of antenna to get close to the 30db max allowed power. They make actual fcc approved amplifiers that can put out more power but the companies that sell them require that you have a license to even buy them and you are not getting them for $25.
 
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