Crap WiFi Range

[Agent Crimson]

I have a 1500-2000 sq ft house of full concrete and metal reinforcements in 90% of my walls. Currently my WiFi solution is one access point router combo in every room and i still struggle to get optimal WiFi coverage in all rooms with me having to switch WiFi manually to different SSIDs every time i go from one room to another.... My house is wired with all Cat 6a wiring with a 16 port gigabit switch i get about 2-5 ms local ping with 40 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up when i have full coverage. Else the WiFi signal just drops out. 

 

I was planning to upgrade to a totally over the top overkill WiFi solution to circumvent the issue of 10-12 access points in house and just replace them with 3 Unifi Nano HDs(One for each floor) with a 8 port POE switch from ubiquity and cloud key gen 1(Gen 2 is basically the same but with built in battery to prevent it from getting corrupted from power-loss). I want to upgrade to Ubiquiti for range and not really the amount of clients it can handle and that i wont have to manually switch between access points. Will this solution suffice of i will have to get a more overkill setup by cisco or something??

 

My Current Router/AP in all my Rooms.

https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-c7/

[vanished]

Linus did a video on filling a concrete house with wifi a while back:

 

[Agent Crimson]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Linus did a video on filling a concrete house with wifi a while back:

 

I have seen pimp my WiFi series but this video is very old and the new one is not in a concrete house. And the steel reinforcements wont be comparable. Hence the second opinion

[vanished]

Just now, Divyansh Jain said:

I have seen pimp my WiFi series but this video is very old and the new one is not in a concrete house. And the steel reinforcements wont be comparable. Hence the second opinion

I suspect that at the end of the day you'll get the best results with a separate AP in every room, or at least in a few different places.  Getting one uber powerful unit to just blast through all the walls is probably not practical or possible.  You should be able to seamlessly (or at least automatically) transition between APs if they all have the same name and password.  It's strange that this option isn't working well for you already.  Are they all wired in or is there some sort of mesh or wireless bridge?

[Agent Crimson]

4 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I suspect that at the end of the day you'll get the best results with a separate AP in every room, or at least in a few different places.  Getting one uber powerful unit to just blast through all the walls is probably not practical or possible.  You should be able to seamlessly (or at least automatically) transition between APs if they all have the same name and password.  It's strange that this option isn't working well for you already.  Are they all wired in or is there some sort of mesh or wireless bridge?

They are all wired in and trying to keep them on the same SSID and password conflicts with the router, and my modem just goes down. I have watched many YouTube tutorials on how to have them to seamlessly transition and all of them end up either not working or me having an unreliable net. I suspected that the ISP provided modem router switch combo might be the issue and paid to get a better D-Link one but that too did't resolve my problem.

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, Divyansh Jain said:

They are all wired in and trying to keep them on the same SSID and password conflicts with the router, and my modem just goes down. I have watched many YouTube tutorials on how to have them to seamlessly transition and all of them end up either not working or me having an unreliable net. I suspected that the ISP provided modem router switch combo might be the issue and paid to get a better D-Link one but that too did't resolve my problem.

Interesting, yeah based on that it does sound like maybe the APs are fine but upgrading the central unit is the ticket.  Personally I'd never use "D-link" and "better" in the same sentence, unless it was to say that something else is better than them perhaps that was why the plan didn't work.  I would be curious to see if there's different results with another unit.  I suppose it also wouldn't hurt to just try a super powered single (or 3) APs provided the store has a good return policy and you can take them back if it doesn't help.

[Electronics Wizardy]

11 minutes ago, Divyansh Jain said:

They are all wired in and trying to keep them on the same SSID and password conflicts with the router, and my modem just goes down. I have watched many YouTube tutorials on how to have them to seamlessly transition and all of them end up either not working or me having an unreliable net. I suspected that the ISP provided modem router switch combo might be the issue and paid to get a better D-Link one but that too did't resolve my problem.

I have a few of the unifi aps at home, and a few of the places I work for, and they will all have the same ssid and roam without issues. Id go for a wired router, and aps like unifi

[ddennis002]

14 minutes ago, Divyansh Jain said:

They are all wired in and trying to keep them on the same SSID and password conflicts with the router, and my modem just goes down. I have watched many YouTube tutorials on how to have them to seamlessly transition and all of them end up either not working or me having an unreliable net. I suspected that the ISP provided modem router switch combo might be the issue and paid to get a better D-Link one but that too did't resolve my problem.

I would do a wired Mesh Wifi Solution, such as this Ubiquiti Unifi Mesh System, All the AP's would stay on the same SSID, Channel and password and the system would automatically hand off devices to the strongest signal. This method is almost seamless and act similar to how cell phone towers transfer devices between towers as your moving.

These AP's can be used with a hardwired backhaul to prevent any further latency. These work with PoE so no need to be close to an outlet either. So you can place them more centralized and higher for better coverage.

 

https://store.ui.com/products/unifi-ac-mesh-ap

[Agent Crimson]

48 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Interesting, yeah based on that it does sound like maybe the APs are fine but upgrading the central unit is the ticket.  Personally I'd never use "D-link" and "better" in the same sentence, unless it was to say that something else is better than them perhaps that was why the plan didn't work.  I would be curious to see if there's different results with another unit.  I suppose it also wouldn't hurt to just try a super powered single (or 3) APs provided the store has a good return policy and you can take them back if it doesn't help.

True DLinks are pretty bad but i can't really do anything if that is them only modem better than the previous one i can use. I even offered to pay for a special fibre line so i get more speed as well as a better modem but no amount of money got them to help me

[Agent Crimson]

46 minutes ago, ddennis002 said:

I would do a wired Mesh Wifi Solution, such as this Ubiquiti Unifi Mesh System, All the AP's would stay on the same SSID, Channel and password and the system would automatically hand off devices to the strongest signal. This method is almost seamless and act similar to how cell phone towers transfer devices between towers as your moving.

These AP's can be used with a hardwired backhaul to prevent any further latency. These work with PoE so no need to be close to an outlet either. So you can place them more centralized and higher for better coverage.

 

https://store.ui.com/products/unifi-ac-mesh-ap

Would Nano HDs suffice or a more powerful AP is required. Because range wont be a prob with Nano HDs but the power is what i am doubtful about  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vanished]

10 minutes ago, Divyansh Jain said:

True DLinks are pretty bad but i can't really do anything if that is them only modem better than the previous one i can use. I even offered to pay for a special fibre line so i get more speed as well as a better modem but no amount of money got them to help me

Ah I misunderstood, I thought you had purchased a separate unit to use as the "central hub" of your LAN, and just connected that to the ISP modem, but you are saying that the Dlink unit was an alternate ISP modem, correct?  In that case I am even less surprised that it was still problematic.  I would recommend doing something more like what I thought you meant.  Any good quality router should be able to tie the APs together successfully without introducing additional issues, and when plugged into the ISP modem, it will only see one client more or less which it should be able to handle.

[Juular]

2 hours ago, Divyansh Jain said:

switch WiFi manually to different SSIDs every time i go from one room to another.

That's your problem, configure all APs to the same parameters, SSID, access key, frequency band and Wi-Fi standard. Then your wireless clients will just seamlessly choose the AP with better signal. The way you've configured them now they're fighting each other over bandwidth. And if you have multiple APs it might be actually better not to crank up signal strength to the sky but conversely, lower it so each AP will cover just the area it's supposed to, so there will be less interference.

[Agent Crimson]

32 minutes ago, Juular said:

That's your problem, configure all APs to the same parameters, SSID, access key, frequency band and Wi-Fi standard. Then your wireless clients will just seamlessly choose the AP with better signal. The way you've configured them now they're fighting each other over bandwidth. And if you have multiple APs it might be actually better not to crank up signal strength to the sky but conversely, lower it so each AP will cover just the area it's supposed to, so there will be less interference.

I have tried to do that before I have also watched many vids and even got a qualified networking guy to do it but the APs just conflict and my whole network just goes down 

[Agent Crimson]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Ah I misunderstood, I thought you had purchased a separate unit to use as the "central hub" of your LAN, and just connected that to the ISP modem, but you are saying that the Dlink unit was an alternate ISP modem, correct?  In that case I am even less surprised that it was still problematic.  I would recommend doing something more like what I thought you meant.  Any good quality router should be able to tie the APs together successfully without introducing additional issues, and when plugged into the ISP modem, it will only see one client more or less which it should be able to handle.

I can try that what are the chances of it actually working because I have been working like this for about 2-3 years and m super irritated it not working and finally made my mind to do something about it. Also what would be a good router to upgrade to? I am currently using 

https://www.tp-link.com/in/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-a7/

As my router didn't find a dedicated router for non enterprise hardware. 

[Juular]

21 minutes ago, Divyansh Jain said:

I have tried to do that before I have also watched many vids and even got a qualified networking guy to do it but the APs just conflict and my whole network just goes down 

If you did it right they shouldn't conflict. If they did that either because you've configured AP settings differently (different password or bands) or possibly that's because there's multiple DCHP servers in the network (but i guess your current config isn't different either so that might not be a problem in your case).

[ddennis002]

1 hour ago, Juular said:

That's your problem, configure all APs to the same parameters, SSID, access key, frequency band and Wi-Fi standard. Then your wireless clients will just seamlessly choose the AP with better signal. The way you've configured them now they're fighting each other over bandwidth. And if you have multiple APs it might be actually better not to crank up signal strength to the sky but conversely, lower it so each AP will cover just the area it's supposed to, so there will be less interference.

Parts of this statement is accurate, yes you want same parameters, same SSID, and key.  You don't want to use the same channel for each AP in a environment that doesn't have a centralized controller because without one its up to the device to roam among the different AP's. In a non Mesh or controller based network running the AP's with the same channel will cause a lot of interference expectantly when you cannot control the AP's broadcast power.  

So say you live in a 80x16ft trailer as example and you want to setup 3 AP's on 2.4Ghz. The far left side should be on channel 1, middle on channel 6 and right side on channel 11. This will prevent interference using the same SSID. Then you would set your power of the AP's to barely overlap so once you loose all signal on channel 1 the device will connect to channel 6 and so on.

The problem with this is not all devices roam the same way and some won't roam unless AP's are set to same channel. This is where a controller residing on the network comes it. It knows the signal strength between client and multiple AP's and will assign the best AP to that device based on signal. So even if you have multiple devices that roam differently the controller takes it out of the clients hands and seamlessly provides that service. 

 

[Agent Crimson]

46 minutes ago, ddennis002 said:

Parts of this statement is accurate, yes you want same parameters, same SSID, and key.  You don't want to use the same channel for each AP in a environment that doesn't have a centralized controller because without one its up to the device to roam among the different AP's. In a non Mesh or controller based network running the AP's with the same channel will cause a lot of interference expectantly when you cannot control the AP's broadcast power.  

So say you live in a 80x16ft trailer as example and you want to setup 3 AP's on 2.4Ghz. The far left side should be on channel 1, middle on channel 6 and right side on channel 11. This will prevent interference using the same SSID. Then you would set your power of the AP's to barely overlap so once you loose all signal on channel 1 the device will connect to channel 6 and so on.

The problem with this is not all devices roam the same way and some won't roam unless AP's are set to same channel. This is where a controller residing on the network comes it. It knows the signal strength between client and multiple AP's and will assign the best AP to that device based on signal. So even if you have multiple devices that roam differently the controller takes it out of the clients hands and seamlessly provides that service. 

 

Yes you have the point although my 10 access points currently in my house are not that far apart channel wise they work pretty nicely but are unable to penetrate my walls that too was a non issue if I had the seemless switching between APs which I don't with any solution I tried so I was planning to get ubiquiti which offers a controller and integrates the whole network allowing for the seemless transition. But the question is, if it is actually good or just a marketing thing because the switching i have seen it is as they say but the APs they sell like the Nano HDs are two of them powerful enough to suffice or I would need a bigger AP like the XG basestation or going all out with a Cisco radio style APs and huge control equipment 

[Agent Crimson]

1 hour ago, Juular said:

If you did it right they shouldn't conflict. If they did that either because you've configured AP settings differently (different password or bands) or possibly that's because there's multiple DCHP servers in the network (but i guess your current config isn't different either so that might not be a problem in your case).

Just to verify the same theory I had a qualified person look into it and he too wasn't able to improve my situation 

[Juular]

2 hours ago, ddennis002 said:

You don't want to use the same channel for each AP

 

That's correct, my bad, they have to be on different bands.

Anyway, setting all APs to the same SSID & password would improve OP's situation definitely.

Next step is to lower the signal strength on all APs so they will just barely cover their area, but that's a lot of work. Just try to set all APs to the same SSID and see if it will improve the situation. Also, depending on how much bandwidth you need it may be beneficial to restrict to 802.11g and\or 20MHz channel width.

[Agent Crimson]

1 hour ago, Juular said:

That's correct, my bad, they have to be on different bands.

Anyway, setting all APs to the same SSID & password would improve OP's situation definitely.

Next step is to lower the signal strength on all APs so they will just barely cover their area, but that's a lot of work. Just try to set all APs to the same SSID and see if it will improve the situation. Also, depending on how much bandwidth you need it may be beneficial to restrict to 802.11g and\or 20MHz channel width.

I have tried to keep the SSIDs and passwords same but they conflict that was the problem I even got a qualified guy to look into it for me and it only resulted in unreliable net. The net just dropped multiple times in a day. Also most of my APs are on different channels some do overlap but they are too far apart you cannot see the ones on the same band on network analyzer. Also having the lowered signal strength and channel width won't help me much because these APs aren't able to punch through my single brick wall anyway and if they do then not without significant signal degradation. Also I am situated near a large field so all the network spectrum is free for my own routers because my neighbors are around 300-400m apart.