Looking for greater range

[princemc]

So I'm looking to extend my Wi-Fi range in my apartment. The fact that I'm in an apartment limits some of my options right from the start. (I.E. running new lines, wall mounting anything) I have a DSL connection and there are only two phone jacks in the unit, one in the living room, which is on one side of the apartment, and one in my bedroom, which is at the opposite end of the unit. So placing my modem/AP in either room kinda limits my range in the opposite side of the building. I currently have my PC wired into my router in the living room, but the range doesn't reliably reach my bedroom.

 

Last I knew, range extenders are all pretty much garbage. I was wondering if anyone had a relatively inexpensive suggestion for me to extend my range so I can actually use my Wi-Fi in my bedroom. I'd say its probably about 25-30 feet away, but it goes through like 6 walls to reach my bedroom. I have a 25 foot shielded RJ11 cable so I can get my modem as far as possible across the living room to improve the range on my router already but lately I've been having issues with the stability.

[Oshino Shinobu]

A pair of powerline adapters and a dedicated AP would do it. I'd suggest a UniFi AC AP Lite and a pair of 1Gbps powerline adapters. Make sure to check the ports on the powerline adapters to make sure they're not 100Mbps

[princemc]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

A pair of powerline adapters and a dedicated AP would do it. I'd suggest a UniFi AC AP Lite and a pair of 1Gbps powerline adapters. Make sure to check the ports on the powerline adapters to make sure they're not 100Mbps

I'm not too familiar with powerline adapters, do they need to be on the same breaker for them to work? I'm kinda skeptical because my apartment is actually in a historic building from the 1800's, I'm not sure exactly how old the lines are, but with the age of the building I kind of question the integrity of the wiring in the building as a whole. I suppose running that would end up being better than not having signal at all however.

[princemc]

Just realized the AP AC Lite comes with an injector
 

[THraShArD]

CAT 5 or 6 supports 328 feet before it needs to repeat off a switch. Same with a WiFi signal booster or repeater and could be off a switch hidden in the corner or behind the couch..etc

 

It's not that hard running it through the carpet edge and if needed to run under a doorway, just protect the connection and use a wire hanger to route it under.   If worst case scenario and can poke a hole through the wall, it's like $10-15 to patch it up when you are ready to move out.

 

Apartments are a pain when it's exit time, they will slap you will all sorts of extra fees that you have to fight over.

 

If you have a Fry's Electronic store, they sell 50, 100, 150..etc length CAT 5/6 cable

[THraShArD]

Oh, I didnt see the 1800 historic thing is.  If you are in the U.K. it might be different laws, but US laws they don't care and you are in favor - Especially if you want Satellite TV and they have to poke holes, the Apartment will get sued by the Fed if the don't let you have it

[corrado33]

First, for long range use the 2.4 GHz band instead of the 5 GHz band. It penetrates walls better. 

 

Wireless repeaters aren't all awful.... it's just that most people put them too far from the router. They are slower, however. You could try a powerline adapter, but in such an old building I doubt it'd work well, and if anybody else in the apartment building was using one it'd interfere. 

 

Me personally? I'd use that Ethernet cable to move the router to a more central location and then you wouldn't have to worry about it. (Buy another ethernet cable to head back to your PC of course.)

[princemc]

10 hours ago, THraShArD said:

Oh, I didnt see the 1800 historic thing is.  If you are in the U.K. it might be different laws, but US laws they don't care and you are in favor - Especially if you want Satellite TV and they have to poke holes, the Apartment will get sued by the Fed if the don't let you have it

Unfortunately there are about 6 cable hookups in the apartment, but I have DSL included in my rent and can't justify paying for cable internet at the moment, so I only have 2 DSL hookups in poor locations. I am in the U.S. I would try to run and outdoor rated Cat6 outside along the runs for the cable hookups but I don't have a way to get up that high without management seeing and wondering why I'm making modifications to the building. I think I might try running cable under the carpet, I didn't even think about that. I just have to see how strongly tacked down they have it, I may not have an opening to get it under and really want to try to avoid fees for "ruining" the carpet when I move out eventually. I'll just try to get a PoE injector near my router, and run cable to another wireless AP in the other end of the building.

[princemc]

9 hours ago, corrado33 said:

First, for long range use the 2.4 GHz band instead of the 5 GHz band. It penetrates walls better. 

 

Wireless repeaters aren't all awful.... it's just that most people put them too far from the router. They are slower, however. You could try a powerline adapter, but in such an old building I doubt it'd work well, and if anybody else in the apartment building was using one it'd interfere. 

 

Me personally? I'd use that Ethernet cable to move the router to a more central location and then you wouldn't have to worry about it. (Buy another ethernet cable to head back to your PC of course.)

Only issue here is, my apartment is kinda like one long hallway with rooms branching off the side, so the most central location would be in the hallway and there are no electrical outlets in the hall. I would have to run Ethernet and power somehow along the ceiling/walls/floors into the hall for my Archer C7, and then double back the Ethernet to my PC. I may try to run my 50ft Cat 6 cable under the carpet with a PoE injector and pick up a UniFi AP AC Lite to mount somewhere in the middle of the unit. 

 

Wireless repeaters would be an issue because the only choices that would be close enough to repeat a stronger signal would be the outlet in my bathroom, which is not ideal, and the kitchen, next to the sink so that also is not ideal. I was tempted to try powerline because I do have my own breaker panel for my unit so the other units are not on the same circuitry as me, and the interference shouldn't exist. 

[princemc]

10 hours ago, THraShArD said:

CAT 5 or 6 supports 328 feet before it needs to repeat off a switch. Same with a WiFi signal booster or repeater and could be off a switch hidden in the corner or behind the couch..etc

 

It's not that hard running it through the carpet edge and if needed to run under a doorway, just protect the connection and use a wire hanger to route it under.   If worst case scenario and can poke a hole through the wall, it's like $10-15 to patch it up when you are ready to move out.

So, currently, I have my DSL modem fully bridged, with my Archer C7 handling everything instead. To cut back on interference should I just disable the radios on my Archer and place a UniFi AP in a central location, while still using my Archer as a network switch? I do have a powered 5 port switch, but I don't know how that configuration would work with a switch, then an AP. I don't know if UniFi can setup PPPoE to continue my bridge and just cut out the C7 completely.

[Joonikko]

My suggestion:

• Keep the DSL modem in bridged mode
• Archer C7 acting as a router, you can keep the WiFi enabled, but make sure it's on a different channel than the Unifi AP.
• Unifi AP (or ZyXEL has some good ones) in the middle of the apartment or at the other end if you decide to keep WiFi enabled on the C7. Just connect an ethernet cable from the router to the PoE injector and then another cable from the injector to the AP.

A network switch is an OSI layer 2 device, so it doesn't do any IP routing so you need the router to do that.

[princemc]

10 hours ago, Joonikko said:

My suggestion:

• Keep the DSL modem in bridged mode
• Archer C7 acting as a router, you can keep the WiFi enabled, but make sure it's on a different channel than the Unifi AP.
• Unifi AP (or ZyXEL has some good ones) in the middle of the apartment or at the other end if you decide to keep WiFi enabled on the C7. Just connect an ethernet cable from the router to the PoE injector and then another cable from the injector to the AP.

A network switch is an OSI layer 2 device, so it doesn't do any IP routing so you need the router to do that.

That is a great suggestion, thank you for the help!