Using Wifi Extender With POE Camera?

I just bought a Reolink POE RLC-410S security camera. My router is in an inconvenient place where I am not able to plug the camera directly into it. I did not want to buy a wireless security camera because I have not found them to be reliable in the past.. So I bought this POE camera instead. I purchased a 12V power adapter so that i can plug the camera in at a convenient wall outlet so that it can power the camera, but is there a way to use a wifi extender from my router so that I can connect the camera to my router? I want to use the camera in another room where my router is not located and cannot be relocated. If this camera absolutely has to be plugged directly into a router, I will not be able to use the camera and will have to return it. I am hoping there is a workaround on this. I really like the quality of the camera and want to keep it if possible. Thank you for your assistance.

Bob

Hi, in this case, you need to use a long Ethernet cable to connect the camera to the router which may be placed in another room.

No wifi entender can be applied in such a case if don't want it to go wireless.. You may contact us for charged replacement for a WiFi camera. Another workaround is powerline adapters, which can cost you more. But it would probably be a right choice for your home in the long run. Please give it a thought.

Thank you for your support for Reolink.

Thanks very much for your response. My plan was to use the wifi/router extender by plugging the camera directly into the extender with an ethernet cable. Why wouldn't it work to do that? My understanding of router extenders is that they can be used with any device that requires a connection to a router. So, I am not understanding why such an extender (with the camera plugged directly into the extender) would not work. Thanks for further information on this.

Bob

Thanks for your follow-up. You can actually do that. But as you said in the first post, you found wireless not reliable. So I thought you will discard the method of going wireless. If you don't mind, you can connect the camera to the WiFi extender with Ethernet cable. The camera will work. But if the WiFi extender itself only receives weak signal, your camera may suffer.

Thank you for the further information on this. I will think about which option may work best for me, wifi extender or the powerline adapter. Both have pros and cons in their use. The powerline adapters must share the same circuit (both outlets most be on the same power circuit), and if they are not, they cannot communicate. So, it might not work for that reason. But as you say, the wifi extender is also sometimes not a good option because of weak signal, dropped signal, etc. I certainly have had problems and issues with unreliable wifi extender, and on a security camera, that can be a problem. For now, I probably will try to powerline adapter, as I do think it has more potential to work better for me, especially if I want to use the camera in many different areas of the home, depending on my future needs. Thank you again, I will let you know how it works!

Bob

My pleasure to help ~~

StephenK

For what it's worth I recently installed an RLC-423 using homeplug. It was very remote from the router and the nominal speed of the connection is as a result a quite slow 55Mbit/s (the homeplug unit is nominally 500Mbit/s). However the camera works fine with a good picture and controlability.

thanks so much for the further info....glad to hear your camera is working fine with homeplug, even with a slower speed.That's good to know. I realize differing home layouts and wiring can affect speed, but hopefully I'll have good luck also if I use an adapter like homeplug or similar. I'm looking at a TP links brand powerline adapter at the moment. I'll update when I get it set up! thanks again!

FongJeng Kum

Anyone know of a good Powerline Adapter with POE IEEE 802.3at feature as well?

StephenK

I don't know about "good" because I've never owned one but Solwise seem to be the only people making such a thing for sale in the UK. There are two models, one a 500MB homeplug model which complies with 802.3af (ie 15W power transfer) and a 1200MB model which complies with 802.3at (ie 25W). The latter is more expensive but the former would struggle with the 22W power requirement of the RLC-423. It depends on the camera you are installing and its power needs.

StephenK

Oh, and devolo also make one (1200MB) with a pass-through power plug but like all devolo products it's more expensive. Also it's only 802.3af so there could be a power issue again.

npcarling26

You could use a WiFi Access Point in Client mode. TP-Link makes a lot of inexpensive products that can do this.

Bob

Thank npcarling26 for sharing. What you said is true. But the actual performance of doing so depends much upon the AP (Client mode, repeater mode, etc) device you use.