Want to extend my wifi range - without sacrifice

[mrschmitt]

My in laws and our family live on the same farm, in two houses, only separated by a driveway. We have internet coming into our house and we use an Apple Airport Extreme router. Inside there house, they pick up our wifi, but only on the edge of the house that is closest to ours. I would like to share our internet with them. I have considered buying an Airport Express, plugging it in on the wall of there house closest to ours and then setting it to be a wifi extender but I have read some things that concern me. I have read that it will essentially cut our bandwidth in half? Is this true. We already don't get the best bandwidth through our internet as we live in the country. All my in laws need internet for is maybe going onto facebook a couple times per week. I really don't want to give them half of our bandwidth. They don't need it and we would lose so much more. Running an ethernet cable across is probably my last option as we would have to trench it across the driveway and if our ISP ever came out they would see the cable. I had also considered putting a wifi extending dish on the outside of our house and pointing at there place. Obviously the Airport express seems like the easiest option, but I don't want to sacrifice any of our speed just to give them enough for email and facebook.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[lclev]

The speed of the wifi in your house will not be affected if you add the extender. Where the speed will drop will be from the extender to the other house. An extender is picking up and relaying and existing signal. If that extender is picking up a wireless signal and extending that wireless signal you will have significant speed drop when connected to that extender. If you run an ethernet cable to the extender there will be less speed drop. The longer the signal has to travel and what it has to pass through will result in a proportional drop in speed.

Now as to the legality of sharing your connection - I can not speak to that but I am sure your provider would not be appreciative.

Lisa

 

[RadDave]

My in laws and our family live on the same farm, in two houses, only separated by a driveway. We have internet coming into our house and we use an Apple Airport Extreme router. Inside there house, they pick up our wifi, but only on the edge of the house that is closest to ours. I would like to share our internet with them. I have considered buying an Airport Express, plugging it in on the wall of there house closest to ours and then setting it to be a wifi extender but I have read some things that concern me....... Running an ethernet cable across is probably my last option as we would have to trench it across the driveway and if our ISP ever came out they would see the cable. I had also considered putting a wifi extending dish on the outside of our house and pointing at there place. Obviously the Airport express seems like the easiest option, but I don't want to sacrifice any of our speed just to give them enough for email and facebook.

Hello - first, I agree w/ Lisa that if you are 'sharing' your broadband connection w/ your in-laws, you will not drop half of your bandwidth, plus from your description, they are not often online that much? However, we really need a LOT more information to offer suggestions: 1) What ISP are your using, i.e. cable, DSL, or satellite; 2) What download speeds are you getting in YOUR house (use Speedtest); 3) What is the distance from your house to their place (be exact); 4) How are they receiving a Wi-Fi signal (assume via your router); 5) What is the download speed they get using the same test site; and 6) What router are you using (brand/model - again be specific)? Answers to these questions will really help giving you advice. Dave