Network extender not working properly with new router

[joddle]

In order to get better wi fi in my rambling house I bought anew router an Asus DS N55u which is dual band and offers other things over myaged (over 10 years old) Linksys.

At first everything seemed fine - the network range is aboutthe same but in our house the advantage of wireless N was obvious with muchhigher speeds than we have ever had before. A few of our devices are also ableto take advantage of the dual band so that is a plus too.

 

However, due to the layout of our house there are some darkspots where the wi-fi does not reach and so we have always had an extender topush the signal into those areas. The extender is a Netgear WNR200orptv2 . Inthe past we have always had reasonable speed from the extender and as it issupposed to be Wireless N capable, had expected to have a faster speed whenconnected to the new router.

I factory reset the extender then installed it onto our newnetwork and all seemed well – and confirmed we had chosen the correct settingsfor a wireless N system – BUT when I started to use the extended network the speedhad been drastically reduced to in fact more like a slow dial up speed. I triedreinstalling a few times but always the same result.

 

As I have another spare extender I connected that up but not with wireless N and its performing just like it did before at a reasonable speed - but not nearly as fast as the wireless N network!

 

Has anyone any suggestions as to what is going on here? – or doI need to buy another extender? I see Asus make one for dual band so would thatwork any better?

[joddle]

Having now realised I have two slightly differing extenders, I have now sort of sorted out a system which works. I have used one extender, an older model, to do a wireless G extension and the other, a late model to do the wireless N - so far it seems to work OK except the range is still pretty limited.

 

We live an old and rambling property with very think solid walls. Our telephone line and main office area where we have the router (which has three short antennae) and four Ethernet connected pcs is towards the front of the building but the lounge and areas where the kids use their laptops and tablets is on the back. The signal therefore has to pass through two walls or find away around them. The actual distance from the router to the extender is about 10-12 metres. The distance then from the extender to where the laptops and tablets are used is about 7 metres but again there is a wall in the way albeit with a large window in it.

 

So my question is, without moving the router or the extender, is there any way of improving the signal between the router and the extender as we seem to lose quite a lot of the signal in that first hop? Someone mentioned using a booster aerial but I know nothing of those - but it made me wonder if it is possible to use short extension leads to the aerials to position them in a better position and if so can anyone recommend alternative antennae and leads?