WiFi Extender

[EchoBlue]

Hi everyone
I have a question about networking and I hope someone can help me out.

My modem or as the ISP calls it a Gateway is what they called it? Basically it is a Modem + Router in one unit. 

The range isn't very good and I have decided to find solutions to this so the range would be great all over the house.

What are my options?

I heard that WiFi Range Extender might work well and there were some others...

Please help me out.

Thank you

[Slottr]

Go for an AP. Ubiquiti's have great coverage and an awesome controller

[Founders]

You'd be better off either getting a better access point or getting a mesh system with multiple access points. Range extenders aren't the best as they rely on communicating with an access point before communicating with your computer meaning they're slower. Do you have ethernet ran anywhere else in your home, or just where your ISP's modem is? 

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

Hi everyone
I have a question about networking and I hope someone can help me out.

My modem or as the ISP calls it a Gateway is what they called it? Basically it is a Modem + Router in one unit. 

The range isn't very good and I have decided to find solutions to this so the range would be great all over the house.

What are my options?

I heard that WiFi Range Extender might work well and there were some others...

Please help me out.

Thank you

Former CommTech for Comcast here, I installed and did troubleshooting for Internet and TV. I'd recommend first making sure your Gateway is properly placed, you may not even need to buy anything. Typically, it should be about six feet above the floor, not in a cabinet or behind anything, and not within six feet of a smart TV, microwave or anything that operates on the 2.4GHz freq. And it should be as centrally located as possible. After all that is said and done and you're still not getting good coverage, what you need is some sort of mesh system to cover your house better.

 

These can be installed fairly easily, but must be placed in areas that have good coverage already; you can't throw them in a dead zone and hope to magically create signal. But as you place them around your house, you'll gain pretty decent coverage. Depending on your ISP, you might be able to get them for free. Couple things though.

 

Who is your ISP?

Describe your home layout and where your Gateway is

What budget you looking at?

Would you consider getting a better Gateway as opposed to multiple APs?

[EchoBlue]

5 minutes ago, Stylized_Violence said:

Former CommTech for Comcast here, I installed and did troubleshooting for Internet and TV. I'd recommend first making sure your Gateway is properly placed, you may not even need to buy anything. Typically, it should be about six feet above the floor, not in a cabinet or behind anything, and not within six feet of a smart TV, microwave or anything that operates on the 2.4GHz freq. And it should be as centrally located as possible. After all that is said and done and you're still not getting good coverage, what you need is some sort of mesh system to cover your house better.

 

These can be installed fairly easily, but must be placed in areas that have good coverage already; you can't throw them in a dead zone and hope to magically create signal. But as you place them around your house, you'll gain pretty decent coverage. Depending on your ISP, you might be able to get them for free. Couple things though.

 

Who is your ISP?

Describe your home layout and where your Gateway is

What budget you looking at?

Would you consider getting a better Gateway as opposed to multiple APs?

I had no idea what some of you guys were saying as I am totally new with networking. 

Took some time to search them for answers.

To answer your question

 

Who is your ISP?
Rogers (Canada)

 

Describe your home layout and where your Gateway is

There is a 2nd floor and basement? Not sure if that's what you were asking. 

 

What budget you looking at?

Not too much. I'd like to see options first and I'll see if it's worth the money spent... Looking for long term solutions.

 

Would you consider getting a better Gateway as opposed to multiple APs?

I am stuck with what my ISP gave me. They do not allow you to use 3rd party otherwise I won't get service. 

Another thing is that I am on a 1GB speed if that makes any difference. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, EchoBlue said:

I had no idea what some of you guys were saying as I am totally new with networking. 

Took some time to search them for answers.

To answer your question

 

Who is your ISP?
Rogers (Canada)

 

Describe your home layout and where your Gateway is

There is a 2nd floor and basement? Not sure if that's what you were asking. 

 

What budget you looking at?

Not too much. I'd like to see options first and I'll see if it's worth the money spent... Looking for long term solutions.

 

Would you consider getting a better Gateway as opposed to multiple APs?

I am stuck with what my ISP gave me. They do not allow you to use 3rd party otherwise I won't get service. 

Another thing is that I am on a 1GB speed if that makes any difference. 

My apologies for using some jargon.

 

So, is the Gateway on the first floor and centrally located? If so, the signal will have some difficulty penetrating the building materials into the basement and second floor. You can try moving it to an area that is the most used in your home, like the living room/family room. The signal acts like a dome, emanating from the Gateway. Things like furniture, walls, doors and even people block the signal.

 

What kinds of problems are you experiencing with your devices? Like slowdowns or unable to connect entirely?

 

And what kind of devices are you attempting to use your WiFi with? Smartphones? Laptops? Tablets?

 

 

[cole0622]

You can buy some cheap wifi routers and configure them as APs or buy dedicated APs ideally wire them to your gateway. As far as this route is budget wise its very cheap and effective, preferably do the wiring yourself its pretty easy. You can ask friends for any tools that you need.

[EchoBlue]

3 minutes ago, Stylized_Violence said:

My apologies for using some jargon.

 

So, is the Gateway on the first floor and centrally located? If so, the signal will have some difficulty penetrating the building materials into the basement and second floor. You can try moving it to an area that is the most used in your home, like the living room/family room. The signal acts like a dome, emanating from the Gateway. Things like furniture, walls, doors and even people block the signal.

 

What kinds of problems are you experiencing with your devices? Like slowdowns or unable to connect entirely?

 

And what kind of devices are you attempting to use your WiFi with? Smartphones? Laptops? Tablets?

 

 

is the Gateway on the first floor and centrally located?

Yes it is located right in the middle of the house on the first floor. 

 

What kinds of problems are you experiencing with your devices? Like slowdowns or unable to connect entirely?

Both slowdowns and unstable connections. Sometimes I have connections but for some reason randomly it disconnects and tries to reconnects but yea. Unstable.

 

And what kind of devices are you attempting to use your WiFi with? Smartphones? Laptops? Tablets?

All of those yes. 

 

5 minutes ago, cole0622 said:

You can buy some cheap wifi routers and configure them as APs or buy dedicated APs ideally wire them to your gateway. As far as this route is budget wise its very cheap and effective, preferably do the wiring yourself its pretty easy. You can ask friends for any tools that you need.

I'm starting to understand what an AP is now. I do have an old wireless router somewhere. I'll have to check how you can do this.. But I would rather not have any wires going all over the house.

[cole0622]

Access Point, its easy to run wire, most of the cable will be hidden in the wall so your not going to see most of the cable.

[EchoBlue]

17 hours ago, cole0622 said:

Access Point, its easy to run wire, most of the cable will be hidden in the wall so your not going to see most of the cable.

I thought AP is connected wireless? Is that what a WiFi Extender does? AP is connected wired?
Also hoping @Stylized_Violence comes back to help me out.

[cole0622]

2 hours ago, EchoBlue said:

I thought AP is connected wireless? Is that what a WiFi Extender does? AP is connected wired?
Also hoping @Stylized_Violence comes back to help me out.

Yes that is what an extender its like a bridge. An AP does not have to be wired, but in good/effective home and busies installation

they are.

[EchoBlue]

4 minutes ago, cole0622 said:

Yes that is what an extender its like a bridge. An AP does not have to be wired, but in good/effective home and busies installation

they are.

Now I searched for MESH networking and this is wireless connected. 

What do you have?

[cole0622]

10 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

Now I searched for MESH networking and this is wireless connected. 

What do you have?

A mesh network allows a wireless device to seamlessly transfer from one station to another. APs can be set up this way(my configuration) and extenders are usualy set up this way

 

[Guest]

On 12/4/2019 at 3:02 PM, EchoBlue said:

I thought AP is connected wireless? Is that what a WiFi Extender does? AP is connected wired?
Also hoping @Stylized_Violence comes back to help me out.

Sorry dude, I work for the military and was taken away for some time. You still looking for getting an extender of some kind?

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 12/4/2019 at 2:26 AM, cole0622 said:

You can buy some cheap wifi routers and configure them as APs or buy dedicated APs ideally wire them to your gateway. As far as this route is budget wise its very cheap and effective, preferably do the wiring yourself its pretty easy. You can ask friends for any tools that you need.

I've been doing this for years but recently relented and bought a Unifi nanoHD, best decision ever.  Finally a consistent 65MB/s copying files from my laptop to the NAS, OpenWRT was struggling to do half that.

I can get faster in the bathroom than I was getting in the same room as my previous router/AP, and by all reports the nanoHD has the least range of their product line.  Just goes to show how wide the gap is between the low-end business gear and consumer hardware.

[cole0622]

On 12/13/2019 at 10:31 PM, Stylized_Violence said:

I work for the military

Thank you for your service.

 

On 12/14/2019 at 9:13 AM, Alex Atkin UK said:

I've been doing this for years but recently relented and bought a Unifi nanoHD, best decision ever.  Finally a consistent 65MB/s copying files from my laptop to the NAS, OpenWRT was struggling to do half that.

I can get faster in the bathroom than I was getting in the same room as my previous router/AP, and by all reports the nanoHD has the least range of their product line.  Just goes to show how wide the gap is between the low-end business gear and consumer hardware.

Business gear is usually designed to be a little over spec. which is what makes it good.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Correction, once I switched to using the Unifi Controller vs Standalone it let me switch to 160Mhz channel width so now I can hit 81MB/s.

[EchoBlue]

On 12/13/2019 at 11:31 PM, Stylized_Violence said:

Sorry dude, I work for the military and was taken away for some time. You still looking for getting an extender of some kind?

Thank you for your service. 

 

I've decided to just run long wires as a temporary fix. 

 

I would still like to find a solid solution for devices such as tablets, smartphones, etc. that can't be connected by a wire connection. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, EchoBlue said:

Thank you for your service. 

 

I've decided to just run long wires as a temporary fix. 

 

I would still like to find a solid solution for devices such as tablets, smartphones, etc. that can't be connected by a wire connection. 

Okay good deal. Well check back when you're serious and I'm sure myself and the community can give you specific items that'll work with your budget and needs. And thank you for the support, even though it's not your home country's military

 

On 12/15/2019 at 3:38 PM, cole0622 said:

Thank you for your service.

 Thanks for the support dude/dudette!

[EchoBlue]

59 minutes ago, Stylized_Violence said:

Okay good deal. Well check back when you're serious and I'm sure myself and the community can give you specific items that'll work with your budget and needs. And thank you for the support, even though it's not your home country's military

Whatever USA does when it comes to military Canada follows anyways... 

And I would still like to figure something out.