What's the better wifi solution

[Murilo_A]

So, I was looking for better wifi, running an ethernet cable is not a possibility, powerline is hard to find in my country and I don't have any ideal place to put a repeater, so I'm stuck in upgrading my router. I'm currently using the ISP router, is not so bad, the web UI is ridiculous, the speed is quite good, and the signal is not bad, but it's not enough. So I was searching and found two products that are in my budget, and look to be very good, both cost about the same, these are the UniFi AC Lite and Tp-link AC1750 Archer C7. So I was wondering which one is better. I know that the Ubiquiti one is only an AP, but I can still use the ISP modem as a router. Also, I know that the Ubiquiti one is slower, but it still enough for what I use, I'm more concerned about range. 

[Kurius]

i just finished my installation of my Ubiquiti UniFi AC Lite And im 100% Happy i can't tell you anything about he range beacuse I just finished the installation but the UI and the installation was insane Ubiquiti is my new Beast !

 

U should probably go with the AC LR if you want bigger range !

[Murilo_A]

1 hour ago, Kurius said:

i just finished my installation of my Ubiquiti UniFi AC Lite And im 100% Happy i can't tell you anything about he range beacuse I just finished the installation but the UI and the installation was insane Ubiquiti is my new Beast !

 

U should probably go with the AC LR if you want bigger range !

The LR costs way too much

[Kurius]

1 hour ago, Murilo_A said:

The LR costs way too much

Look at different stores ! I got a Lite for 110$ CAD and the LR is priced at 140$ CAD at NCIX

 

http://www.ncix.com/search/?qcatid=0&q=unifi+AC

 

You could probably find a LR 30$ more 

 

Depending on your currency and taxes !

[Murilo_A]

On 26/03/2017 at 6:23 PM, Kurius said:

Look at different stores ! I got a Lite for 110$ CAD and the LR is priced at 140$ CAD at NCIX

 

http://www.ncix.com/search/?qcatid=0&q=unifi+AC

 

You could probably find a LR 30$ more 

 

Depending on your currency and taxes !

I can only find older models that only support 2.4GHz and it still costs a lot more than the Lite

[Donut417]

I dont think there is a black and White answer for range on those products. The issue is, too many environmental factors limit range. First of all interference from other devices, such as APs, Microwaves, baby monitors, and cordless phones to name a few. Secondly 5Ghz has less range and penetration power, due to the larger wavelength. Other environmental factors include the environment the AP is located in, mainly the structure. What is your house built out of? It matters, Houses built out of Wood, drywall and plaster tend to be more WiFi friendly. House built out of Concrete, Brick or Cinder block tend to be less WiFi friendly. It really comes down to the interior walls. 

 

Now I have used the Archer C7 to a limited degree, range was fairly good (house built out of Wood) , but the firmware was a little so so. My advice is buy the one  from a place with a good return policy, that allows you to eval the product first. Many stores in the US are 30 to 90 days for returns. Not sure how that works in your country. Generally you should know if its good enough after you hooked it up. Another piece of advice, to extend range, move the router or AP you buy higher up. You tend to get better range when its higher up. 

[Murilo_A]

34 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

I dont think there is a black and White answer for range on those products. The issue is, too many environmental factors limit range. First of all interference from other devices, such as APs, Microwaves, baby monitors, and cordless phones to name a few. Secondly 5Ghz has less range and penetration power, due to the larger wavelength. Other environmental factors include the environment the AP is located in, mainly the structure. What is your house built out of? It matters, Houses built out of Wood, drywall and plaster tend to be more WiFi friendly. House built out of Concrete, Brick or Cinder block tend to be less WiFi friendly. It really comes down to the interior walls. 

 

Now I have used the Archer C7 to a limited degree, range was fairly good (house built out of Wood) , but the firmware was a little so so. My advice is buy the one  from a place with a good return policy, that allows you to eval the product first. Many stores in the US are 30 to 90 days for returns. Not sure how that works in your country. Generally you should know if its good enough after you hooked it up. Another piece of advice, to extend range, move the router or AP you buy higher up. You tend to get better range when its higher up. 

There's not much interference, the microwave is not so commonly used, and there's only one AP nearby, so with a different channel it's not a problem, other than that I don't think there's any other 2.4GHz device that can cause interference. I know 5GHz has worse signal, but I need it because when I use my Bluetooth headphone, the 2.4G network begans very slow. The house is made of concrete and bricks. For return policy, it's usually a pain to return a product after you got it (in January, I bought a DP to HDMI adapter, and it came Mini-DP to HDMI, I'm still waiting for my refund) so I want to be sure which one should I choose before buying it. (the return policy is usually better at physical stores, but I have never found any UniFi product anywhere, and the Archer C7 costs 20% more)

[Donut417]

26 minutes ago, Murilo_A said:

There's not much interference, the microwave is not so commonly used, and there's only one AP nearby, so with a different channel it's not a problem, other than that I don't think there's any other 2.4GHz device that can cause interference. I know 5GHz has worse signal, but I need it because when I use my Bluetooth headphone, the 2.4G network begans very slow. The house is made of concrete and bricks. For return policy, it's usually a pain to return a product after you got it (in January, I bought a DP to HDMI adapter, and it came Mini-DP to HDMI, I'm still waiting for my refund) so I want to be sure which one should I choose before buying it. (the return policy is usually better at physical stores, but I have never found any UniFi product anywhere, and the Archer C7 costs 20% more)

Well your house is not WiFi friendly. So you might want to look in to using MOCA or Power Line Adapters, either hook your computer up to them, or connect them to another AP to extend your wireless. 

[paddy-stone]

Well, since you have mentioned APs. If you have the place to run a wire for the AP, why not wire it all? But anyway, you could do the same thing, but just use a cheaper product that does AP function or even an old router can be an AP if you can get power and ethernet to it.

[Murilo_A]

4 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Well your house is not WiFi friendly. So you might want to look in to using MOCA or Power Line Adapters, either hook your computer up to them, or connect them to another AP to extend your wireless. 

Whats is a MOCA (didn't find on google) and powerline is not really an option, I can't think of an outlet that can be used for it (most of them are in places where the signal would be worse than the router I already have due to positioning)

[Murilo_A]

4 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Well, since you have mentioned APs. If you have the place to run a wire for the AP, why not wire it all? But anyway, you could do the same thing, but just use a cheaper product that does AP function or even an old router can be an AP if you can get power and ethernet to it.

My plan was to put it in the same room as my router, so there would be only a small wire, running a wire through the ceiling to get to the other room is not a possibility 

[paddy-stone]

35 minutes ago, Murilo_A said:

My plan was to put it in the same room as my router, so there would be only a small wire, running a wire through the ceiling to get to the other room is not a possibility 

Ahh I see. In that case the only reason to change would be if the AP has much better wifi range and/or speed.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Murilo_A said:

Whats is a MOCA (didn't find on google) and powerline is not really an option, I can't think of an outlet that can be used for it (most of them are in places where the signal would be worse than the router I already have due to positioning)

Multimedia Over Coax Adapter. Literally using Coax as Ethernet. Not sure about your house. But many house in the US have coax ran to most rooms. Moca is not as fast as Ethernet, but it good enough for most people. 

[Murilo_A]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Multimedia Over Coax Adapter. Literally using Coax as Ethernet. Not sure about your house. But many house in the US have coax ran to most rooms. Moca is not as fast as Ethernet, but it good enough for most people. 

Oh, now I know what you are taking about, yes, it's wired, but it's in use by the TV box, so it's not a good option

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Murilo_A said:

Oh, now I know what you are taking about, yes, it's wired, but it's in use by the TV box, so it's not a good option

Look at bonded adapters. They have two coax ports. One for connect to the wall, one for a TV and an Ethernet port for your networking. 

[Murilo_A]

3 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Ahh I see. In that case the only reason to change would be if the AP has much better wifi range and/or speed.

I wanted to know which one has the best range (Archer C7 and UniFi AP Lite), the UniFi is a bit slower, but I don't really use that much speed, so I'm more concerned about range

[Murilo_A]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Look at bonded adapters. They have two coax ports. One for connect to the wall, one for a TV and an Ethernet port for your networking. 

In that case, wouldn't I need to wire another cable? Between wiring a coax cable and an Ethernet cable there's not much difference =P

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, Murilo_A said:

In that case, wouldn't I need to wire another cable? Between wiring a coax cable and an Ethernet cable there's not much difference =P

Coax from wall to adapter, Coax from adapter to TV, Ethernet from adapter to device. https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200S02/dp/B013J7OBUU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1490758053&sr=8-2&keywords=bonded+moca+2.0+network+adapter

 

Only issue is they are expensive. US price for one is over $80 USD. 

+ The Cost of a Moca filter that is put on to the main cable line of your house, Thats only needed if you get your internet and or TV from a cable company. Secondly You might need Moca compatible splitters. These items only costs maybe $10. Thats assuming you dont have them. Which you might have if your using a Cable Modem to get internet. I think all newer splitters are Moca compatible. 

 

One last thing, this is very important and I should have said it earlier. Standard Moca 2.0 adapters will NOT work with Satellite TV service. This is because Satellite TV service uses the same frequencies on the Coax that Moca uses. While your cable company uses the lower frequencies out side of what MOCA uses

[paddy-stone]

7 hours ago, Murilo_A said:

I wanted to know which one has the best range (Archer C7 and UniFi AP Lite), the UniFi is a bit slower, but I don't really use that much speed, so I'm more concerned about range

Yes, I understand.. I'm sorry for the confusion. Is the room you want to get a better signal to either above or below where you want the ubiquity AP to be situated? as you mentioned a short ethernet run to that location. If it's neither, then it may be better signal or not as the factors that limit range would most likely not be mitigated by where you are placing it. I'm not trying to put you off from buying either of those, just saying that it may not improve and you might be better off using powerline adaptors. Powerline adaptors can be good for some situations, they can just be a bit flaky sometimes and need resetting. However, if it's a choice of bad wifi signal that drops in and out, or powerline, I would go powerline as at least most of the time it would be better than wifi.

I wish you luck with finding a solution to your problem. Hopefully someone that has experience of the router you have now and the devoces you plan to replace it with can give you more insight to whether the range will be better.

[Murilo_A]

12 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Coax from wall to adapter, Coax from adapter to TV, Ethernet from adapter to device. https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200S02/dp/B013J7OBUU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1490758053&sr=8-2&keywords=bonded+moca+2.0+network+adapter

 

Only issue is they are expensive. US price for one is over $80 USD. 

+ The Cost of a Moca filter that is put on to the main cable line of your house, Thats only needed if you get your internet and or TV from a cable company. Secondly You might need Moca compatible splitters. These items only costs maybe $10. Thats assuming you dont have them. Which you might have if your using a Cable Modem to get internet. I think all newer splitters are Moca compatible. 

 

One last thing, this is very important and I should have said it earlier. Standard Moca 2.0 adapters will NOT work with Satellite TV service. This is because Satellite TV service uses the same frequencies on the Coax that Moca uses. While your cable company uses the lower frequencies out side of what MOCA uses

The TV is fiber, but it goes from the router to the TV Box with a coax cable, so I don't know there would be any interference. But the biggest problem is that I have never seen this in my country, and I have no idea where I can find one.

[Murilo_A]

8 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Yes, I understand.. I'm sorry for the confusion. Is the room you want to get a better signal to either above or below where you want the ubiquity AP to be situated? as you mentioned a short ethernet run to that location. If it's neither, then it may be better signal or not as the factors that limit range would most likely not be mitigated by where you are placing it. I'm not trying to put you off from buying either of those, just saying that it may not improve and you might be better off using powerline adaptors. Powerline adaptors can be good for some situations, they can just be a bit flaky sometimes and need resetting. However, if it's a choice of bad wifi signal that drops in and out, or powerline, I would go powerline as at least most of the time it would be better than wifi.

I wish you luck with finding a solution to your problem. Hopefully someone that has experience of the router you have now and the devoces you plan to replace it with can give you more insight to whether the range will be better.

It's in the same level. I forgot to mention, but with the ISP router I have covers the entire house, but there are places where the speed is so bad that it can take a couple seconds to send a message (the router is not so good in range, it's just a bit better than those really cheap routers) I think the signal is good (for a bad router) because it has a free way to get to go to the other rooms. That's why I think a better router will cover, without problems, the entire house.