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Home > Wireless Internet > Wifi Signal Booster

Signal Boosters For WiFi Networks

Although using WiFi for creating a wireless local area network (or LAN) is a great idea, it does suffer from one limitation -- signal strength. With a wired network, it's easy to just buy longer cables to connect computers that are far away. With a Wi-Fi wireless network, you'll need to look into using a WiFi signal booster instead.

WiFi technology allows users to transfer data using RF carrier waves (Radio Frequency). What a WiFi signal booster does is to amplify those carrier waves in terms of both signal strength and distance. The cost for one of these devices will start at around $50 to $100 for the basic WiFi boosters from Linksys, D-Link, and others.

Why You Might Need A WiFi Signal Booster

To understand the range of your WiFi network, just imagine a bubble of connectivity expanding in all directions from the router and ending at the limit of the router's power. Any Wireless Internet device that enters the bubble will detect the wireless network and be able to access it with varying degrees of success. Near the center of the bubble the connectivity is fast and strong, and as a user nears the limits of the router's range, the connection will deteriorate and speeds will reduce until no connection is possible.

Walls, floors, and other objects can block or reduce the distance a user may be from the router and still receive stable connectivity. The larger the house or office to be covered, the bigger an issue this can be -- especially if computers are accessing the network from all areas. This means it is harder to find optimum router placement. Poor reception and signal strength can easily occur under these circumstances and many users overcome this by using a Wifi Signal Booster.

WiFi signal boosters increases the range of your wireless network by amplifying its signal as well as capturing stronger signals from outside the network. A quality signal booster can more than triple the signal strength of a typical network. This is more than enough to get coverage in a large home or small office through walls, floors and other objects that might be interfering with connectivity. Two commonly used types of range expanders are Bi-Directional Amplifiers and Wifi Signal Repeaters.

Bi-Directional Amplifiers

Bi-directional wifi signal amplifiers are attached to a client, wireless router, or wireless access point where the actual antenna used by the network is. These devices amplify both the transmit and receive signals across the network. This is the most common type of device that is used when referring to an actual WiFi signal booster. This could be a separate extension or an even more powerful antennae.

Peak output of a standard wireless device is 70mW. A quality signal booster can produce over 500mW of power extending the range by 600%.

These wifi boosters are plug and play for the most part and easily installed. Distance isn't the only aspect of the network that is increased. Signal strength throughout the network will be higher and speeds will also be faster.

Wi-Fi Signal Repeaters

A Wi-Fi Signal Repeater is a separate unit that is positioned anywhere within range of the wireless network. These devices act as a “signal relay point” as opposed to actually making the signal stronger. This effectively extends the range of the network by decentralizing the router in a sense.

This is a good solution for houses that have certain “dead zones” but otherwise have great coverage. These pockets of poor connectivity can have a repeater placed in them which almost always takes care of the issue.

The Solution Has A Problem

Once a WiFi signal booster or network repeater is used, the stronger and wider reaching network is ready to go. The only problem is now the network probably reaches beyond the confines of your house or office. With such an extension in range comes a need for greater levels of security for your wireless LAN. In the case of the bi-directional signal booster, your Wireless Home Network might be extending into several of your neighbor's homes or into the office spaces next to yours.

To begin with, it is a good idea to first test the network strength and decrease it to the minimum range that your house or office needs. Regardless, security measures must be taken to make sure no one else is logging into and using your network. For more on this topic, please read our article on Wireless Network Security. In any case, upgrading your wireless network with a WiFi signal booster is a low cost way to greatly improve both the range and signal strength of your WiFi router.

Our guide to broadband allows you to compare Wireless Internet access with other types of Internet access, such as cable, DSL and satellite.