Extend WiFi at Home - Neat Extender

WiFi at home is pretty common.

And WiFi dead zones at home are probably also common.  It seems those signals are just not as strong as we wish they were.

I finally took advantage of a combination of 2 technologies that is pretty cool.

Many people know that there are devices known as WiFi extenders.  This is a device that you locate between where your WiFi access point or base station is and where you want to use your computer.  The idea that it picks up the signal before it drops off too much and then boosts it or acts as a repeater so there is enough strength to reach to your work location.  Sometimes these work well but sometimes they aren't so great.

There is another technology called Powerline Ethernet.  With this you put a module near your router (which does not even need to have WiFi), connect it via ethernet cable to your router and plug it into a wall power outlet.  The device puts the ethernet 'signal' or data on your house A/C wiring.  You put another module at some remote point in the house and plug it into a wall power outlet.  This device has an ethernet jack so you could run an ethernet cable from it to a computer.  Voila. You have Internet.

The more modern and cooler device now puts WiFi in this remote module so you don't need the cable at your work area if you have a WiFi device.  This is very cool.

There are many of these devices available.  I used one from TP-Link which is available on Amazon for example for about $50.  http://amzn.to/1Kq7y3W 

The PowerLine Ethernet may have some limitations depending on the wiring in your house.  For example, I found that the remote module received the PowerLine signal from the base unit in one outlet in our MBR but not in another outlet on the other side of the room.  I'm not sure if this is because it is from the other phase of our house wiring???  Oh well, at least it worked in the room.