Second AP for Basement?

[mamamia88]

Long story short I picked up a nighthawk at goodwill the other day. I used that to replace my trusty Asus router running in AP mode. Everything for the most part is wired and I even have 70% signal strength in the basement. Most everything I care about is wired already but, I have it lying around already setup as an AP. It would take me about 30 seconds to deploy it but, I'm worried it would overlap too much with my existing AP. Would it be better to have 1 AP if I can get away with it? Actual routing is done on a pfsense box. 

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, mamamia88 said:

Would it be better to have 1 AP if I can get away with it?

Depends on the size of the space you need WiFi for. Large multi-level homes generally would benefit from more than 1 wireless AP.

 

When it comes to physical distance between APs, you will have to test them yourself to see the extent of coverage. On the same level, placing this is straight-forward. On different levels you might have to stagger them so that they are not directly above/below each other. While omnidirectional antennae work best to broadcast WiFi in the horizontal plane, some does reach vertically.

 

Keep in mind that can always turn down the antenna output power to cover the area they are placed in. You can also use non-overlapping wireless channels

[mamamia88]

17 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Depends on the size of the space you need WiFi for. Large multi-level homes generally would benefit from more than 1 wireless AP.

 

When it comes to physical distance between APs, you will have to test them yourself to see the extent of coverage. On the same level, placing this is straight-forward. On different levels you might have to stagger them so that they are not directly above/below each other. While omnidirectional antennae work best to broadcast WiFi in the horizontal plane, some does reach vertically.

 

Keep in mind that can always turn down the antenna output power to cover the area they are placed in. You can also use non-overlapping wireless channels

Yeah my pfsense box/switch is pretty much directly below the existing ap. Not sure I want to be running cable across the house. Main room I use it is pretty much directly below.