Somone please explain what Extenders, Repeaters, AP's & Bridges do and the Pro's Con's of each please

[Ban Cheaters]

Somone please explain what Extenders, Repeaters, AP's & Bridges do and the Pro's Con's of each please? Thanks in advance. This stuff has me all confused. One seems to half your bandwidth I think. I really would appreciate the help.

Also if you can recommend which type I should use for Xbox Live and possibly even a model/brand recommendation, I'll be forever grateful.

I use a Netgear Nighthawk Router with Tomato FW and currently have a NetGear N900 WNCE4004 Video and Gaming 4-Port x2 Hooked up but I get lag sometimes and it drives me batty.

Thanks for any and all help

 

[RealBeast]

Here is a very simplified attempt to answer.

Extenders are really just another name for repeaters. They sit at a distance from the wireless radio of say a router and receive the signal then retransmit it on another channel to increase the signal strength at more distant areas. They do halve your bandwidth, and I generally do not recommend their use.

APs are the most useful way to extend a wireless signal and you can use more than one (many in fact if properly laid out). They must be connected to the router LAN port to LAN port (but can have intervening switches and the like without a problem). Often if an Ethernet cable is impossible, I connect the AP unit (usually a router configured as an AP) with a pair of high quality MIMO capable powerline adapters.

There are several types of bridges, but the one most pertinent for extending the range of wireless goes by a few different names. ASUS calls their routers set in this mode "media bridges." Using a high end pair of AC routers with one as the router and one as the media bridge is a reasonable solution to reach a distant point with relatively good bandwidth and reasonable latency.

DD-WRT has a similar setup called a client bridge that looks like THIS to span a distance with wireless and connect wired devices to the hardware on the receiving end. There are other forms in DD-WRT like repeater bridges, which acts as a repeater and cuts your bandwidth so is suboptimal.

For minimum latency, a key for gaming, an AP is probably your best choice. You can have the AP close to the game unit and use either a wired or wireless connection to the AP. Wired to the AP will give you the lowest lag of any solution, and is about the same as simply connecting the gaming unit to your distant router with a great pair of powerline adapters.

THIS is the best source for real world information on powerline adapters in my opinion. I've tested many and always get very similar results.

 

[Alabalcho]

@RealBeast - I would stick this in the Network forum. Thank you for great explanation!

 

[Ban Cheaters]

Here is a very simplified attempt to answer.

Extenders are really just another name for repeaters. They sit at a distance from the wireless radio of say a router and receive the signal then retransmit it on another channel to increase the signal strength at more distant areas. They do halve your bandwidth, and I generally do not recommend their use.

APs are the most useful way to extend a wireless signal and you can use more than one (many in fact if properly laid out). They must be connected to the router LAN port to LAN port (but can have intervening switches and the like without a problem). Often if an Ethernet cable is impossible, I connect the AP unit (usually a router configured as an AP) with a pair of high quality MIMO capable powerline adapters.

There are several types of bridges, but the one most pertinent for extending the range of wireless goes by a few different names. ASUS calls their routers set in this mode "media bridges." Using a high end pair of AC routers with one as the router and one as the media bridge is a reasonable solution to reach a distant point with relatively good bandwidth and reasonable latency.

DD-WRT has a similar setup called a client bridge that looks like THIS to span a distance with wireless and connect wired devices to the hardware on the receiving end. There are other forms in DD-WRT like repeater bridges, which acts as a repeater and cuts your bandwidth so is suboptimal.

For minimum latency, a key for gaming, an AP is probably your best choice. You can have the AP close to the game unit and use either a wired or wireless connection to the AP. Wired to the AP will give you the lowest lag of any solution, and is about the same as simply connecting the gaming unit to your distant router with a great pair of powerline adapters.

THIS is the best source for real world information on powerline adapters in my opinion. I've tested many and always get very similar results.

Thank you so much for all the excellent explanations. Much clearer now on what is what. The only question I have now is, do I use Powerline adapters with their single Ethernet jacks to get the signal to the AP or that is not necessary?
And is a switch a possible way to go as well (which I assume you would need a Powerline Adapater to get the signal to as well? or no?) thanks again

Thanks again, this is great stuff and really should be pinned to the Network section for others to read in my opinion.

 

[Alabalcho]

AP needs a wired connection to the main router. Think of pair of PowerLine adapters as a very-long-Ethernet-cable running thru the walls.

 

[RealBeast]

AP needs a wired connection to the main router. Think of pair of PowerLine adapters as a very-long-Ethernet-cable running thru the walls.

Agreed.

@Ban, what you need is two adapters each with a single Ethernet port. Attach a cable from one to your router and the other to your AP and your electrical system is used to connect the two adapters, so it is much like one long cable, albeit somewhat slower than a gigabit Ethernet cable.

You don't really need a switch, as the 3 unused LAN ports on the AP will act as a switch.

 

[Tony De]

AP needs a wired connection to the main router. Think of pair of PowerLine adapters as a very-long-Ethernet-cable running thru the walls.

Agreed.

@Ban, what you need is two adapters each with a single Ethernet port. Attach a cable from one to your router and the other to your AP and your electrical system is used to connect the two adapters, so it is much like one long cable, albeit somewhat slower than a gigabit Ethernet cable.

You don't really need a switch, as the 3 unused LAN ports on the AP will act as a switch.

So using a Powerline adapter to a switch would work or wouldn't? Is inferior to a AP that is another router I assume? and what is the WNCE4004 considered in all of this? A Extender? It has Ethernet ports but also is wireless so does that use half the bandwidth for each unit used? Alos, How about something like the WD or Linksys AC Bridges... they seem similar. Do they use half the bandwidth as well? I thought them being bridges that would not but now I am not so sure. Thanks again, great read, awesome info.

 

[RealBeast]

Sure a powerline adapter would work to a switch if you only want a wired connection, or intend to connect an AP to the switch. The AP is to extend your wireless range. If your goal is just to expand a wired network to other areas then you don't really need an AP or router configured as an AP.

I am not very familiar with it but the WNCE4004 appears to be a media bridge with low capability, as it is N and not AC. If you had the budget and wanted to stream video and game, I would use something like a pair of ASUS RT-AC68U or higher with one as the router and the other in media bridge mode (or even better, actually best current wireless bridge setup would be an RT-AC87 along with an EA-AC87, or two RT-AC87 units with one in bridge mode). The WNCE4004 does not halve your connection though as the radio does not rebroadcast the signal, just as the ASUS units do not.

However, a media bridge made using AC can also provide a local 2.4GHz N radio for access at the distant location. I've done this on a couple of ASUS RT-AC68/AC68 media bridge mode installs. That signal is not decremented as the wireless bridge is on 5GHz AC and the AP radio is on 2.4GHz. I have not found any gear yet that would support a local AP radio also on 5GHz N though. Check whatever gear you are considering if you want this capability as not all will necessarily have this feature.

And finally, IMHO extenders are *rarely* useful.

 

[Tony De]

Thanks, I like my things wired so I think the NETGEAR GS605AV switch hooked to Netgear Powerline adapters should work for me well? from what you're saying. Can I do that in 2-3 spots in the house that way or does that hurt signal strengths overall/at all? Thanks again, most enlightening.

 

[RealBeast]

You can use more than two powerline adapters, best if all are the same model but not essential.

I highly recommend that you go with an AV2 MIMO capable unit, which are the fastest adapters available. HERE is the most accurate site for comparing various models of adapters. Multiple adapters in my experience do not slow down your connection to any significant degree.

The switch will work fine with pretty much any adapter that you can find, they are totally agnostic for brands, etc.