How can I extend my wifi coverage?

On my home network, I have a wireless router in the basement.

On the second floor, I can barely get a signal, and would like to "extend" my wifi to the second floor. I do have Ethernet running from my router to upstairs.

Can I extend my wifi signal by buying a cheap wifi router and connecting that to router #1 and using that as an access point?

Or do I have to buy a specific device for this?

Thanks!

I posted this before but can't seem to find it.

I would advise that if you can't get a device that supports bridging or repeating, the easiest thing you can do is to get a second wifi router and disable DHCP on it, then plug it in via ethernet to the primary router (make sure it is plugged in through a normal socket and not the router interface if it has one).

This should work fine and all DHCP requests will be handled by the basement router.

Also, if you want, you can keep the SSID and passkey the same, just change the channel to one that does not interfere:

Whenever the signal drops, Windows will reconnect to whichever one is strongest.

Look for a wifi extender. You can get them from newegg and other vendors. Apple's Airports have this ability as well.