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Forum Discussion
PL 1200 and then adding a WiFi boo
Hey Guys,
I have a PL1200 setup at home. One connected to my main ISP router, the other connected to another WiFi router at the other end of the house.
We live in a cottage with castle-like thick walls so the WiFi in the middle of our house upstairs is non-existent.
What Netgear product should / can I opt for to strengthen the WiFi connection? Will I have trouble due to having two routers?
Any advice greatly apreciated!
Thanks,
Alex
6 Replies
AlexSaxon wrote:
I have a PL1200 setup at home. One connected to my main ISP router, the other connected to another WiFi router at the other end of the house.That sounds like a wonky arrangement. It is almost designed to make life difficult.
The idea of Powerline Ethernet is to have one home plug connected to a router as the "host" connection. The "guest" plug serves other devices and goes nowhere near a router.
Putting two routers on one network, powerline or otherwise, is a great way of causing headaches.
With the two routers at the remote ends of the property you are also making it hard to get wifi coverage in the middle.
Try this.
I assume that you have one router connected to the internet through a modem. Connect one Powerline plug to that as the host.
Take the plug at one end of the house and put it in the middle as the "guest" plug.
Take one of the routers, the one that is not connected to the incoming internet service, and work out how to put it into access point mode. (Hard to know how you do that to an anonymous router.) Then plug that router into the guest plug. This "router" will not provide wifi to that bit of the property. You should also be able to use its LAN ports for wired devices.
Thanks for the reply - much appreciated!
So the 'other' router is a Netgear R88 which has 4 devices hard-wired into it with WiFi being used by laptops and tablets.
If I move this router to upstairs, then my hard-wired devices (TV, cable, Sonos, PS4) are left begging... Am I able to add a 3rd PL1200 and router upstairs in access point mode?Thanks,
Alex.
AlexSaxon wrote:
So the 'other' router is a Netgear R88 which has 4 devices hard-wired into it with WiFi being used by laptops and tablets.R88? That's not a Netgear model number I recognise.
AlexSaxon wrote:
Am I able to add a 3rd PL1200 and router upstairs in access point mode?
Yes. But unfortunately, you won't be able to buy just one plug. They come in pairs. But remember that you need only one connected to the main router.
I'm still having a hard time understanding the layout of your network.
How do these two routers work together? Is there a single internet source? With two routers, you can expect to see problems. Your response does not deal with that.
It may be that the other router is already in AP mode. Depending on how many LAN sockets you need, you could buy a Powerline bundle that includes a wifi access point as a part of the package.
