Can you hook up a cantenna to a WiFi range extender?

dekw04

New Member
Hi everyone.

I was wondering, can you hook up a cantenna to a WiFi range extender?

The benefit of doing this would be to get a significantly stronger WiFi signal by using a cantenna while at the same time not being required to have a computer (e.g. a laptop) connected to the cantenna via a cable to make it work.

The WiFi signal extender would extend the stronger WiFi signal from the cantenna to nearby computers without needing to physically connect any of those computers to the cantenna at all.

The end result would be that you would get the benefit of significantly stronger cantenna WiFi without having to have a cable physically connected to any of your computers.

You would also be able to use the stronger WiFi signal obtained by the the cantenna in more places than you would if your computer were physically tethered to a cantenna. This would be due to the WiFi range extender extending the signal from the cantenna.

In other words, it would be a much more convenient way to get stronger WiFi by using a cantenna than it would be to connect a cantenna to a computer via a cable.

I might have a way in which this could be done, but I wanted to ask everyone here as I haven’t yet found anything online about this particular idea.

I had the thought that you could theoretically connect a cantenna to a WiFi range extender using an Ethernet cable, however, the WiFi range extender would have to be one that came with a built-in Ethernet port.

Instead of connecting the cantenna to your computer via a cable, you would instead plug the end of the cantenna cable into the Ethernet port of the WiFi range extender.

You would just have to use the appropriate adapter to bridge the connections.

Then, at least in theory, the cantenna should send the WiFi signal to the WiFi range extender which would then extend that signal to the devices on the WiFi network.

With that being said, can you combine a cantenna with a WiFi range extender in the way I’ve described above?

If it can’t be done in this way, can it be done in another way? It seems as though it would be very beneficial to hook up these two devices.

Thank you.
 

UnholyVision

Active Member
Well yes you could in theory. Everything that has an a wireless signal has some kind of antenna. Though what you're asking for is not as easy as a screw on antenna replacement. You would have to literally solder on a new antenna and modify the device to some degree to accommodate the new antenna.

Then the hard part would be changing the software and/or possible other components to achieve better signals. Changing the antenna isn't going to instantly change the ability for the device to output more power.

Edit: I noticed you said Cantenna. Meh, don't bother, just buy a new product.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
An actually good router is going to do so much more than a literal can. You can try it but you're likely wasting your time, just go buy a better AP.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
This is basically how mesh networks work, but significantly more ghetto. I'd at least get a unit that has separate radios so your client traffic doesn't bleed over into your backhaul traffic.

Point to point antennas are a thing, don't feel like you have to rely on cans :confused:
 
Top