Extended Fibre Range

Hi All,

I have BT Fibre broadband using their Smart Hub 2, The wifi reception on both the ground and first floor of the house is ok. It's a solid town house built around 1900.

The wifi reception on the Second floor keeps dropping, causing pages to not load etc.

I thought to get a new wifi extender like Netgear Nighthawk X6S Tri-Band Wi-Fi Range Extender.

I wanted to know if I could save money and use old equipment I have laying around from ADSL days.

I have the following in my box of old tech:

Netgear 54 Mbps Wireless ADSL Modem Router DG834G ver 3 - this is attached to a Hawkings wifi Extender Dish like this: https://www.newegg.com/hawking-hao14sdp-antenna/p/N8...

I also have 2 x Asus Wireless DSL-N55U ADSL Modem Routers N600 model
and some old Talktalk broadband routers

Is there any way I can use custom firmware and these pieces of hardware to act as repeater/extenders within the home?

Any advice from tech minded individuals would be much appreciated.

Seeing as you already have a BT Home Hub, have a look at their Whole Home Wifi mesh system, it might be a better bet than the range extender you've mentioned.

To reuse an old router as an AP you'll need to connect it via ethernet, either direct cable or cable and powerline adapter. Some powerline adaptors also broadcast wifi, such as Devolo dLAN 1200+ WiFi ac powerline adapter, so that might do the job without needing to connect a second router as an access point, but the problem with that approach is that the Wifi distribution might not be seamless and you may even need a separate SSID, unlike a mesh system.

Thanks, I will look into BT's offering.