Question about Wireless Range Extenders and Access Points

[FatalSaviour]

Evening all,

A friend of mine has a pretty pants router and a couple of outbuildings which she'd like to get wireless signal in. With the current router that she has, it's bad enough trying to get signal in the main house let alone these buildings so I've been looking into other options.

1. Replace the router
To be honest, I'm tempted to do this anyway. She's using the standard equipment that TalkTalk provided in the first place, and it's not great by any stretch of the imagination.

2. Buy a Range Extender
I should come clean here, I've actually already bought one of these TP-Link models, and I have to say that so far I'm fairly impressed. However, the range of said router is so pants that it's hard to actually repeat on the original signal - it's so weak.

3. Buy a pair of HomePlugs and use the Range Extender in AP mode
This is the option that I'm most after advice about if I'm honest. The plan would be to run Cat5 from the router to the 1st HomePlug. The outbuildings are all on the same ring main, so plugging in the 2nd, and connecting the Wireless AP to it shouldn't be an issue. My main question is what happens with regards the wireless network? If I give the TP-Link AP the same Wireless SSID as the TalkTalk Router, would she be able to move between the network seamlessly (assuming no spots of dead coverage inbetween)? This is where my experience of wireless network infrastructure begins to get a bit patchy (oh the irony!). I'd appreciate any advice on any/all of the above please guys!

Thanks a million!

[Kumagoro]

http://www.edimax.co.uk/en/produce_d..._id=1&pl2_id=1

http://www.gimmethatnow.com/wifi-dir...86e866a36e9e60

or if you can plug in antennas

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/dlink...oogle+shopping

[jim]

I would suggest a combination of 1 and 3 ideally, or else just 3.

If you set the same SSID and encryption then it should be fairly seamless, although IIRC it's a good idea to put them on different channels so they don't interfere with one another.

[FatalSaviour]

Thanks guys.

Snootyjim, that's my preference if I'm honest (and what I've already recommended so far - I just wanted to be sure). Now this is more for my interest than envisaging a problem, but if I were to be downloading a file on my laptop say and I moved between Wireless AP1 and AP2, would the connection be reset?

P.S. Thanks for the links Kumagoro - unfortunately all of the clients will be laptops, so a Hi-Gain USB 2.0 Adapter is less preferable. Directional Antennae I'd also considered. Unfortunately the current router doesn't have RP-SMA connectors, so there'd have to be a new unit anyway, which will probably suffice for now.

[jim]

Thanks guys.

Snootyjim, that's my preference if I'm honest (and what I've already recommended so far - I just wanted to be sure). Now this is more for my interest than envisaging a problem, but if I were to be downloading a file on my laptop say and I moved between Wireless AP1 and AP2, would the connection be reset?

P.S. Thanks for the links Kumagoro - unfortunately all of the clients will be laptops, so a Hi-Gain USB 2.0 Adapter is less preferable. Directional Antennae I'd also considered. Unfortunately the current router doesn't have RP-SMA connectors, so there'd have to be a new unit anyway, which will probably suffice for now.

I'm desperately trying to remember - it's a long time since I was using a system of that nature.

IIRC, it should technically be seamless. However, if the wireless card takes too long to make the switchover, the PC might interpret the connection as being down and abort the download. Naturally if you were using a download manager with resume that wouldn't be a problem.

Also, there can be problems with actually making the switch - if you connect to AP1, and then walk towards AP2, it may remain attached to AP1 until it completely loses signal rather than saying "AP2 has the better signal strength, I'll switch over".

I don't know whether Windows 7 deals with that more efficiently, or any of the vendor provided wireless utilities - it's a definite possibility.

[FatalSaviour]

Is anyone else able to shed more light on this please chaps?
If I were to be downloading a file on my laptop say and I moved between Wireless AP1 and AP2 (same SSID), would the connection be reset?
Thanks all!