Best router for 2 story concrete wall house with loads of deadspots?

[whitedragon101]

 

I have a friend who has a 2 story house with concrete walls (concrete is very good at blocking wifi signals).  He has asked for a recommendation for a router.

 

My instinct is to go with a beast single router first and if that doesn't work then try mesh here are my candidates.  If you have a better strategy or recommendations for specific routers please post them

 

Single router candidate :

Netgear Nighthawk AC3200 R8000

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/R8000.aspx

 

Mesh candidate :

Netgear Orbi RBK50 AC3000

https://www.netgear.co.uk/orbi/rbk50.aspx

 

My concern with the mesh is that if normal wifi is blocked how will the mesh signal get from router to router?  It could require a powerline unit to take the signal through the walls with a powerline wifi access point on the second floor.  However, I don't think I have found one yet that seamlessly hands off between the access point and the master router.  Would be happy to discover one that does though.

 

[Rex_G]

8 minutes ago, whitedragon101 said:

 

-snip-

 

What do you mean by "My concern with the mesh is that if normal wifi is blocked how will the mesh signal get from router to router?" To create a mesh The router has to connect at least one router on the network. For example; if you have three routers in the mesh, first one will connect to second router and second one to the third one.

[whitedragon101]

32 minutes ago, Rex_G said:

What do you mean by "My concern with the mesh is that if normal wifi is blocked how will the mesh signal get from router to router?" To create a mesh The router has to connect at least one router on the network. For example; if you have three routers in the mesh, first one will connect to second router and second one to the third one.

 

A 2 base station mesh system seems to be about right for the size of property.  However, if you place a standard router downstairs and then go upstairs and get poor signal on a laptop or phone then it may be that the wireless signal from the mesh base router downstairs may also be lost by the time it gets to the 1st mesh repeater upstairs.

 

 

 

[vermicryx]

How about a small 4 port POE switch to some APs around the apartment? I'm not sure the freedom he would have to run Cat5e/6. Nor how much he's willing to spend.

[mtz_federico]

I think that the best option is to put POE APs all around the house

[whitedragon101]

5 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

I think that the best option is to put POE APs all around the house

 

7 hours ago, vermicryx said:

How about a small 4 port POE switch to some APs around the apartment? I'm not sure the freedom he would have to run Cat5e/6. Nor how much he's willing to spend.

 

Do you know of any that hand off well to each other?

 

I often find in multi AP setups that they hold on for dear life to even a super weak signal as long as its active before looking for a new one. 

 

[scottyseng]

8 hours ago, whitedragon101 said:

Do you know of any that hand off well to each other?

 

I often find in multi AP setups that they hold on for dear life to even a super weak signal as long as its active before looking for a new one. 

 

Sadly that's more device dependent in my experience. Some devices (certain phones) really do not want to change to a different AP sadly.

 

At least with UniFi APs, you can set it so that below a certain signal strength range, the AP will disconnect the device (forcing the device to join a different AP with better signal)

[LunaP0n3]

If you want just one router, a Netgear R7000 is my personal choice. It has incredible range at my home, albeit with a few wood walls between it, but it has an extra 150M of range outside my house. It's an absolute beast on range.

Two of these completely cover my grandfather's place in strong WiFi signals.

 

[Mikensan]

From where the modem sits, use powerline adapters and attach APs throughout the house.