Located in the back of my home, the router signal isn’t strong enough to cover some areas toward the front, to include my front porch. What do I need to extend its range?
See here.
Our main router is aNETGEAR Wireless Router - AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit (R6300). Half way through the house I put in a Netgear Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender - Desktop Version with 4-Ports (WN2500RP). The Wi-Fi-Range-Extender works fine for our iMac. No noticeable degradation when cruising the net. Very easy to setup too.
If your current router is much more than a year old, just getting an up-to-date one will probably extend your range, too. They seem to increase in power pretty rapidly.
Considering my router is at least 6-7 years old, replacing it seems like a logical first step.
I have had zero problems with this device and it provides very good coverage. I recommend it. Note: We use Comcast.
I use a $50 NetGear WiFi extender and it works great.
Ornery Bob, can you point us to the model number?
If you have the same problem I did (which I believe you do) then I have an ultra cheap and proven way to extend your wireless.
I live in a two story plus basement home of just over 5,000 square feet. My wireless router is located at the worst possible location for the rest of my home outside my office, the top floor north side corner.
I had a need to have good internet for our movie theater and game room located at the south side basement and I was getting about 8% of my 16gbps connection (on a good day). While I fixed that problem previously with a cat 5 run to hardwire the theater, that did nothing for anyone using wireless in the room and the rest of the house, namely my wife 
Solution:
Get a good 8x11 sized piece of cardboard (I used the back of a notepad) and wrap it in aluminum foil while keeping the surface as smooth and wrinkle free as possible. Once complete, roll up the cardboard a few times until it gets a nice concave shape and place it behind the router angled to the direction you need the signal.
I had to cut a notch in the bottom to accommodate my cables, but once complete my signal in the farthest reaches and bowels of my home went from 1.4mbps to 12.8 on average!
The downside is you will lose the signal in the blocked direction, which for me was my driveway and side yard, no biggie. This works for routers with and WITHOUT an actual antenna (my has an internal).
Best of luck!