Homemade WiFi Extender

[Kale_Freemon]

This is what happens when you're a computer enthusiast, have spare parts laying around, and are bored: you make a homemade WiFi extender powered by Ubuntu. lol

Pretty simple. Used Ubuntu Linux on my old Gateway laptop to bridge the WiFi connection from a USB WiFi adapter to the Ethernet port on the laptop. Plugged into the laptop Ethernet is an old wireless router that was laying around, being useless.

DD-WRT does not support my old Belkin router, and the default firmware doesn't support WiFi repeating, otherwise I'd have gone that route.

So, now, there's two WiFi networks in the house. But, so long as I have a good connection upstairs now, I do not care. lol

http://s23.postimg.org/431kpfwfb/Screenshot_from_2015_11_25_00_42_17.png (http://postimg.org/image/431kpfwfb/) http://s23.postimg.org/485bz43qf/WP_20151125_00_21_14_Pro.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/485bz43qf/) http://s23.postimg.org/6a5tdd1pj/WP_20151125_00_21_21_Pro.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/6a5tdd1pj/)


http://s23.postimg.org/g66wd07hj/WP_20151125_00_21_34_Pro.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/g66wd07hj/) http://s23.postimg.org/fvzdtnsvb/WP_20151125_00_21_45_Pro.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/fvzdtnsvb/) http://s23.postimg.org/wz6r2wyxz/wp_ss_20151125_0001.png (http://postimg.org/image/wz6r2wyxz/)

[d-cosner]

Very cool! :D

[tgalati4]

That is impressive. Now you need to find a used, compatible router and stick dd-wrt, open-wrt, or tomato and free your laptop for more productive purposes.

I would be curious if a RaspberryPi could perform the same function with similar throughput. I know the USB port and ethernet port tend to be the bottleneck. Do you have a RaspberryPi to compare?

[Kale_Freemon]

I haven't got a RaspberryPi, no. Wish I did, that'd be nice. And yes, there is certainly a bottleneck. But, it works quite well as a temporary solution. Before, WiFi in my room sucked. It's slower now, but the connection is consistent. I'm not dropping my WiFi connection every thirty minutes.

[J_Me]

Nice :)