I'm running CC on a WDR3600. Everything's fine but I'm getting poor signal in the kitchen and I'm looking for a solution.

Running a cable to the kitchen is not an option unfortunately so I've considered Wi-Fi extenders and powerline devices.

I've been told powerline is the easiest solution so I bought a cheap powerline+AP kit (TP-Link AV500) but I'm returning it because web config *and* windows tool are not working. Moreover I need an extra switch just for it (no spare eth ports on the router) and I'd rather avoid that.

Now I'm reconsidering the wireless repeater option. In my case the ideal solution seem to be Atheros WDS, as described in the wiki. If I got it right I should buy an atheros device - preferably with two antennas - to be placed somewhere between the router and the kitchen. I've seen there are cheap products made just for that (TP-Link WA-850 and the like). How good are these? I'd like to flash it with openwrt so... should I be better served with a regular router? If so which is a good candidate?

Thanks!

I am currently using a unused WDR4300 as a wifi extender, using the relayd daemon; it works perfectly, so I guess you could use almost any supported router.

I'd go for it (or another wdr3600) but they're not sold anymore. I did some research and I found some cheap tplink routers with atheros SoC that should be supported: WR841N, MR3420.

The WR841 is a good choice, it is practically the same hardware as the RE850 in a conventional router form factor-- as long as you get a v12 or lower.  The new WR841v13 has MediaTek chips.

A dual band router would let you make the link on 5 GHz, saving bandwidth on 2.4.  That won't be a big issue if your ISP speed is only DSL or slow cable though.

(Last edited by mk24 on 25 Aug 2017, 14:29)

I ended buying a TL-WR841ND (v10 for the matter). There were almost no alternatives as I wanted a cheap device, known to work with openwrt and with atheros Wi-Fi.
I just followed the Atheros WDS recipe and all worked as expected (speed is halved when devices connect to the extender).
So far I'm happy with the setup.