As an Amazon Associate, we would earn commissions when you make a purchase through a link or banner.

So you want to extend your wifi range in your house without an extender. The following 2 solutions are recommended to extend your wifi at home.

1. Powerline adapters

Powerline adapters would be a good choice for extending wifi at home. These adapters use powerlines for establishing connectivity with the main router.

Wifi extenders use the wifi link for establishing connectivity with the main router. This would signifiantly decrease the performance and speed of the network as compared with a powerline extender setup.

How to setup powerline adapters

We assume that the wifi range has to be extended to top floor.

Powerlines adapters comes in pairs as shown below.

The following steps are to be followed.

1. Connect one of the powerline adapters to the power socket near the main router. Connect a network cable from the router to the ethernet port on the powerline adapter.

2. Connect the other powerline adapter to the power socket in the top floor. Your device can then connect to the ethernet port available on the powerline adapter and get connected to the internet.

What to do if you need wired and wireless access on the top floor

You have two options here. An access point can be connected to the ethernet port on the powerline adapter. For example, NETGEAR Powerline Adapter + Wireless Access Point is a powerline adapter which comes with inbuilt access point.

You can connect your wired and wireless devices on the top floor using this device.


By following the above steps you can extend wifi range in your house without the use of an extender.

2. Access points

Access points are another way of extending your wifi range in house. Access points can work in two modes which are repeater and access point mode.

In repeater mode, the access point connects to the main wifi router using the wifi channel. This setup is almost equivalent of using a wifi extender where the connectivity is achieved through wifi.

In access point mode, the access point is connected to the main wifi router using ethernet cable. This would require cabling to be made available before the setup.

How to setup access point

To setup the access point on the top floor, you need to have cabling setup. An ethernet cable should be made avaiable from the main router to the floor where the access point is installed.

FAQ

1. Should I use access point or powerline adapter ?

Power line extenders do not need cabling. They use the existing power sockets for connectivity. If cabling is an issue, power line adapter would definitely be a better choice.

2. Can I connect multiple devices with power line adapter ?

Yes. You can. But this would depend on the type of powerline adapter you purchase. For example, NETGEAR Powerline Adapter + Wireless Access Point is a powerline adapter which can be used for multiple wired and wireless devices.

Which is a faster solution

Power line adapters would be slower than the access point solution. This is because, powerline adapters use the power line which will be used for both ethernet and power. The ethernet link is used dedicated for data transfer only.

Recommended Read – How to use one keyboard and mouse for two computers