Can I use my router as a 'repeater' for next-door's WiFi?

[radish2008]

If he was a decent neighbour he would be happy to drill a hole through to your house and pass a network cable through.

[d000hg]

If he was a decent neighbour he would be happy to drill a hole through to your house and pass a network cable through.

He did offer to dangle a cable out of the window but neither of us has one long enough

[northernladuk]

If he was a decent neighbour he would be happy to drill a hole through to your house and pass a network cable through.

[monkfish]

wireless repeater

if you have a router capable of running dd-wrt then perhaps use that... the wireless bridge works extremely well indeed. I have some little TP-Link wrt703n routers paid a fiver for them, they do the job very well indeed.

Repeater Bridge - DD-WRT Wiki

I would assume the diagram on that page is kind of what you're after? Linksys WRT on ebay about a fiver at the moment.

Alternatively a cheap and cheerful wireless repeater eg.
300Mbps Wireless N 802.11 AP Wifi Range Router Repeater Extender Booster UK Plug | eBay

I have just put one of those in for somebody who wanted a very simple extension and bought that asked me to get it working. Only drawback I found is right at the moment I cannot find where you encrypt the outgoing SSID - must be in there somewhere!

Have to say, dependent upon bandwith requirements and data allowance then tethering to mobile probably easiest in short term.

Only my 0.02

[gingerjedi]

I recently tried 2 different repeaters to get a good signal at the back of the house but gave up because of poor performance, are you sure it will be powerful enough? My devices would only get one bar through a single brick dividing wall so even though devices connected to the repeater would show full signal the actual link between the walls would be weak.

It won't help you but I've gone for powerline adaptors with a second wifi router (DHCP turned off) on the other end which creates two wifi zones, works a treat.

[BolshieBastard]

We've just moved and expect to be without internet for a week or more. Next door is a friend who has allowed us to use his WiFi but it's a bit weak other than on rooms nearest his router, and I don't have a wireless setup on my main PC.

Is it possible to use my router as a repeater in some fashion so that all my devices connect to my router as normal, wired/wirelessly, and my router connects to his WiFi rather than to my own broadband connection?
I've no idea if this kind of thing is normal functionality on a home router or if there are special terms I should be looking up.

Provided your router can also act like a wireless repeater (and most can AFAIA) then, yes, its possible and not difficult to set up.

If your neighbour's router has provision for a Guest Network (such as the Netgear WNDR4500), he'd be advised giving you access to this and you set your router to be a repeater of the Guest Network.

That way, he wont have to reset his encryption key or change his access list to prevent you piggybacking as and when you like in the future!

[Scruff]

Technically its possible, but without access to the main router, there are potential problems. Involves authenticating your router to his router as a client, and using your router as the DHCP server for "your" wireless devices.

It is also dependent on the model router that you have - some are configurable as a Gateway, whilst other aren't?

Easier to purchase a MiFi (£50) and a SIM card (free plus PAYG 3G topup) and use your MiFi as the router temporarily - I use 3 UK for my SIM (£10.99 for 5GB), but have unlocked the MiFi (£10 on the internet which took about 4 hours).

Short term solution would be to tether using your Mobile phone as a hotspot, if its only a few days?

[d000hg]

We've just moved and expect to be without internet for a week or more. Next door is a friend who has allowed us to use his WiFi but it's a bit weak other than on rooms nearest his router, and I don't have a wireless setup on my main PC.

Is it possible to use my router as a repeater in some fashion so that all my devices connect to my router as normal, wired/wirelessly, and my router connects to his WiFi rather than to my own broadband connection?
I've no idea if this kind of thing is normal functionality on a home router or if there are special terms I should be looking up.