What is the Difference Between an Access Point and Repeater?

Jamie Read more February 23, 2019

Networking is a technical subject that takes some work to understand fully. That’s fine for us in the IT industry but if you’re a home user who just wants to set up their wireless network, it’s a tougher ask. One common question I am asked is ‘What is the difference between an access point and repeater?’ As it appears so often in our mailbox, I am going to explain it here.

What is the Difference Between an Access Point and Repeater?

Access points and repeaters can both form part of a WiFi network but do different jobs. Both come as separate hardware components that can connect to your existing network. Exactly what job each performs is explained below.

What is a wireless access point?

A wireless access point (WAP) is a hardware device that provides wireless access completely separately from your router. It will connect to your router via Ethernet and has its own radio and hardware to manage wireless connections. Most WAPs can also connect to switches to provide the same features.

For example, say you have a router without WiFi capability. A wireless access point is cheaper to buy than a new router and doesn’t require you rebuild your network to use it. You plug the WAP into your router via an Ethernet cable and configure it separately. As long as you tell your router to allow the WAP to assign IP addresses and let wireless traffic through your firewall, you’re golden.

The wireless access point can be configured with its own SSID (network name) or be joined to an existing WiFi network and share a common SSID. Most networks allow users to roam seamlessly between SSIDs so that is less of an issue. Where this feature is most useful is in the creation of an internal wireless network and a more restricted public or guest network for clients or visitors.

Where confusion tends to come in is when you can use a wireless access point to act as a repeater. While designed to provide its own wireless network, it can also be used as a signal booster. That’s exactly what a wireless repeater is for.

What is a wireless repeater?

A wireless repeater does a different job to an access point. Where a WAP provides a discrete wireless network, the repeater’s job is to extend an existing network. You would use a wireless repeater somewhere that has poor WiFi signal or thick walls that block wireless. Anywhere where the wireless signal is weak or offers insufficient performance.

A wireless repeater does not connect to your router using Ethernet but over WiFi. You would usually place a repeater on the edge of a wireless network where the signal begins to degrade. The repeater itself can utilize a strong signal back to the router and provide a boosted signal further into the building.

Wireless repeaters can be purely WiFi or be 4G. A 4G repeater also has a network antenna that can boost the frequencies used by our mobile networks. These are very useful in older buildings where you get a good mobile signal by the window or in a particular location but have ‘not spots’ internally.

Which is better to use, an access point or repeater?

While similar, both access points and repeaters are slightly different are have different strengths. If you already have an access point, you can most definitely boost an internal WiFi signal with one. However, that isn’t its main strength.

If you were planning to buy either an access point or repeater there would likely be a situation where one is better than the other.

Strengths of a wireless access point

An access point is better for adding multiple wireless networks. For segmenting existing networks such as visitor or guest networks while keeping your internal network secure. An access point can also connect to a switch which can be useful for buildings without routers.

If your existing wireless network is already busy, you might use a WAP instead of a repeater to spread the traffic. As an access point uses Ethernet to connect to your router, you can circumvent your internal network, connect it to your gateway router and have traffic exit directly. A repeater uses wireless so if you have a busy network, it may contribute to congestion.

Strengths of a wireless repeater

WiFi repeaters have a few things over wireless access points. They are often cheaper to buy as the hardware is much simpler. You don’t need to run Ethernet cable from the device to your router to provide connection and a repeater will need minimal configuration as it only extends the network not create it.

So that’s the difference between an access point and repeater. I hope I have explained it adequately!