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I live in an apartment building that has a pool and deck above the car parking (so the pool is on 1st floor). I live on the 6th floor and my balcony is almost directly above said pool. I was wondering if buying a wifi extender (perhaps an outdoors one) would work so that I can work by the pool.

There would be no interferences between me and the wifi extender, but it's a 5 story difference (I'd guess around 15 meters / 50 feet? perhaps a little less).

Would this work? Or is that too big a distance? Do wifi extenders work better horizontally than vertically? Thanks in advance!

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    Depends on the type of antenna and its orientation. The common monopole antenna radiates in a torus (donut) pattern.
    – sawdust
    Aug 14, 2018 at 0:26

2 Answers 2

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What matters in directing wi-fi coverage is the orientation of the antenna(s). The signal is broadcast with greatest strength and range perpendicular to the antenna. So if your wi-fi point of origin (router, etc) has external antennas, you would want to point them horizontally in order to get vertical coverage. If it has internal antennas, you'll have to determine their orientation and mount the device in whatever position is needed.

With a wi-fi extender meant to extend a horizontal range vertically, you position the antenna on the origin router so that it covers the range needed around it (i.e. on the lower floor). Most likely this would be a vertical antenna used to create the horizontal zone of coverage. Then you position the wi-fi extender antenna so that it is both horizontal (creating a vertical range) and is perpendicular (side facing) to the origin router.

For multi-antenna routers and extenders, you can get potentially higher speeds in smaller areas by orienting all antennas the same direction. This better enables "MIMO" or "Beam-forming" technologies. Or you can sacrifice some of that potential speed and increase the coverage area by orienting some of the antennas at different angles. I.e. aiming them at different spots.

Good luck!

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It depends on the orientation of the routers antenna, and might take a little twiddling, but 15 m, particularly without walls and conduit in the way, should work even without an extender. You might have a partner in the apartment aim the antenna, while you check the signal below (you can chat by phone, if it's too far to shout).

If you do need to get a stronger signal, you might try moving the router closer to the balcony, or use a WiFi cantenna.

You might want to make a sunshade -- there's a lot of glare by the pool.

Let me know what the signal level is after you optimize things.

And keep the laptop dry. ;-)

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  • Thank you both for your replies! I can only pick one, but I got great info from both! :) Unfortunately my router doesn't have external antennas, but I have another router that I use as a bridge that does, so perhaps I can try putting that bridge on the balcony and see how that works. If that doesn't do it, I'll try with an extender. I'll fiddle with it and see how it goes! I'll report back with my findings :) Thanks DrMoishe and @HumanJHawkins
    – brott
    Aug 15, 2018 at 2:28

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