Extending 802.11ac range

[Kalmah]

I'm trying to find the easiest way to extend the range of a wireless ac router tomorrow for somebody. I have very little information about the site other than that she has the router in her house and runs a business from an office building behind it with about 5 computers connecting via wifi.

Equipment that I have available to me would be wireless N range extenders, powerline adapters, and wireless N access points. I'm throwing around two ideas; replace her ac router with an N router so that I can use a range extender or see if it's practical to run cat5 or use the powerline adapter to the office and set up an access point from there. (depending on what I encounter once I see the place)

I'm kind of a newbie that is currently taking Cisco classes. My understanding is that I need to set the same ssid on both the router and access point(if that's what I use), but do I need to clone the router's MAC address into the AP as well?

Anyways, looking for suggestions. Thanks guys.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

First, wireless-AC is compatible with wireless-n. In fact, most AC routers are better at doing N than actual N routers are.

Sure, by all means, run a cable if that works. You could also try a directional antenna. A yagi-style antenna would probably double the signal strength.

Setting up extenders involves configuring it for the same SSID, though you should read the manuals. I'm sure you won't need to mess with MAC addresses and junk, that has nothing to do with wireless connectivity.

 

[Kalmah]

First, wireless-AC is compatible with wireless-n. In fact, most AC routers are better at doing N than actual N routers are.

Sure, by all means, run a cable if that works. You could also try a directional antenna. A yagi-style antenna would probably double the signal strength.

Setting up extenders involves configuring it for the same SSID, though you should read the manuals. I'm sure you won't need to mess with MAC addresses and junk, that has nothing to do with wireless connectivity.

Oh, great. I was under the impression that N was 2.4 and ac was 5. I guess I'll have a look at the boxes when I get to it. Thanks.

 

[kevnich2]

AC is both 2.4 and 5ghz. The true AC runs over 5ghz and backwards N stuff would run over either 2.4 or 5. If this person is running a business out of that....location, they really need to go wired. Call me old fashioned but I'm more of a wired for critical purposes person. I don't like relying on wireless unless I have no other choice. As far as extenders, the only thing that would work to give true AC in a larger area would be the unifi AC AP's they just came out with.