Best Wifi System for a frat house

[mikeshappy13]

Hello all,

I currently live in a fraternity house on my campus, which does not receive that campus internet so we have been trying to find a solution. The house is 24 rooms split between two floors that are right on top of each other. It is very old and each room has a large loft. Currently, we have the eero pro system with the main router downstairs and two extenders upstairs. With over 28 people in the house this system was basically useless and no one could ever really use the internet. I also don't think it is the ISP because the router and nodes are in the hallways, which is where the internet is around 300Mbps, but if I move 15 feet down the hall and into a room it drops to 20Mbps. Anyone have any recommendations for systems or how to fix? Anything is appreciated!

[SupaKomputa]

Set QOS (Quality of Service) for each users like 10mbps.

300mbps is not a lot for 28 rooms, or i'm guessing 50 people.

I don't think 2 extenders are enough.

One router can only serve like 10-30 connections max (depending on the quality).

So i think you need to have 1 router for each floor.

Or you can build a server to act as a router using pfSense:

 

[PorkishPig]

9 minutes ago, mikeshappy13 said:

if I move 15 feet down the hall and into a room it drops to 20Mbps. Anyone have any recommendations for systems or how to fix? Anything is appreciated!

Are secondary nodes wired or wireless? What is the connection strength of your nodes? If you're using a router/modem provided by your ISP, is it configured in bridge mode to avoid a double NAT?

[mikeshappy13]

2 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

Are secondary nodes wired or wireless? What is the connection strength of your nodes? If you're using a router/modem provided by your ISP, is it configured in bridge mode to avoid a double NAT?

Both nodes are wireless currently using this system: https://eero.com/shop/home-wifi-system

I am unsure of the speeds of the nodes, but we are not using the default moden it is an Arris SB8200

[PorkishPig]

4 minutes ago, mikeshappy13 said:

Both nodes are wireless currently using this system: https://eero.com/shop/home-wifi-system

I am unsure of the speeds of the nodes, but we are not using the default moden it is an Arris SB8200

You can view the connection strength in the Eero app. See https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/215072846-How-can-I-find-the-connection-strength-and-status-of-my-eeros- for instructions. All nodes should be positioned so that they're in a good status or above.

[mikeshappy13]

22 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

You can view the connection strength in the Eero app. See https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/215072846-How-can-I-find-the-connection-strength-and-status-of-my-eeros- for instructions. All nodes should be positioned so that they're in a good status or above.

The nodes are both in good status or above and on the eero app it says the internet speeds are 910 down and 34 up, but the speed test from my room shows speeds of like 40 down and 3 up.

[Falcon1986]

14 minutes ago, mikeshappy13 said:

The nodes are both in good status or above and on the eero app it says the internet speeds are 910 down and 34 up, but the speed test from my room shows speeds of like 40 down and 3 up.

So you’re paying for gigabit internet speeds?

 

28 people doesn’t mean 28 devices. Most people usually have around 2-3 devices simultaneously connected to WiFi and, this wouldn’t be far-fetched in a fraternity house. The speeds you’re actually getting are likely due to the current WiFi system that you have; it’s meant more for a home environment where client density is not so high. It’s further handicapped in speed because it’s a mesh system.

 

Your situation would benefit from wiring in multiple wireless access points on each floor or a couple of wireless access points designed for high density environments.

 

Just to get some more information:

1. Can you post a sketch of the house layout and where your existing network equipment is located?
2. What is your budget for this project?
3. To achieve the highest speed and reliability, you’ll need to run ethernet. Is there any reason you can’t absolutely do this?