Multi story home Wi-Fi and routing question

[StarStrider]

I’m looking for some advice on a network setup. I currently live in a two-story home, with the modem and router upstairs so that my roommates and I can have ethernet connections for our PCs. However, when downstairs we have weak Wi-Fi signal, and all of our game consoles download speeds are very slow. So, right now we have a 100’ Ethernet running down that we switch between the PS4, Xbone and our living room PC. I was thinking about getting a network switch, having that 100’ cable plug into it and then sharing the connection between all the consoles, but then I was also thinking having a device that could also extend the Wi-Fi would be good. Which I realize means I’d just be hooking up a router to a router, which I think I remember you can’t actually do.

 

I realize I could spend a couple hours researching and find my answer, but I wanted to take the lazy route and ask you guys. Can I hook up a router to a router? Is there specifically some kind of network switch/Wi-Fi extender out there I can buy? My current router is the TP-Link Archer A7.

 

-Thanks in advance

[GorujoCY]

if you want quality ones, for an extender, ubiquiti products is a good option to buy

[Master Disaster]

Since you already have a cable run go with a simple unmanaged switch. It will be cheaper (including 3 or 4 cables), faster than WiFi and much more reliable.

[Exidor]

15 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Since you already have a cable run go with a simple unmanaged switch. It will be cheaper (including 3 or 4 cables), faster than WiFi and much more reliable.

Agreed wired is always better.

Also right now Netgear is killing off its Netgear GS108E or the GS105E if you can find them. They are deeply discounted often and they might not be the fastest switches but they are good enough for most home use and unbeatable quality for the price. Those things are basically unkillable. No cooling and no caps that could burst. 

 

Ubiquiti is a good brand. A bit of a pain to set up if you only worked with consumer products before.....

What you want for WiFi extension is a WiFi extender as mentioned above. They can be simply hooked behind a router or a switch.

[Sorenson]

If you don’t mind the Ethernet cable you can just run a simple switch and have wired connection. 
 

if you want a more elegant solution you can use mid-higher end mesh WiFi routers with the cable hardwiring them together. I do this in my house with two ORBIS connected through a Moca adapter (runs 1gig speed through existing coax in the house). 

[StarStrider]

Yes, I wanted a wired connection for all the consoles/PC but I also wanted better Wi-Fi on my 1st floor in general for phones and other smart devices. Despite saying I wasn't going to do any research, I now think what I'm going to do is get a simple unmanaged switch to connect the router and consoles to and also get a wireless access point to hook up as well to have better signal downstairs.

[wseaton]

Bet if you disabled 5ghz on the Router and left 2.4ghz enabled the problem will go away. Bet those devices are trying to connect to 5ghz. On dedicated PC's or laptops I can usually force them to 2.4ghz, but not going to try this with consoles. 

 

5ghz dies when trying to penetrate or floor or wall. 2.4ghz is theoretically slower and often runs into a lot of band competition, but it can punch through walls and floors WAY better than 5ghz. Most modern clients are pretty stupid though and try to connect to 5ghz even though the 2.4gh signal is stronger. Or you have an iPhone that has the bad steering logic of a marshmallow and always wants to sit on 5ghz.

 

Wifi repeaters can cause terrible lag and over head. Avoid for this kind of scenario. I install a lot of Ubiquiti and their AP Pro saucers handle big offices with a few dozen mixed clients with pretty much no BS. Just stick one on the end of the Cat5 in the basement and let the TPlink handle DHCP. The Ubiquiti won't care. They just aren't the most intuitive to set up.