Improving wireless performance

mancesco · October 8, 2014

Hi everyone,

I just want to point out that I DID read the FAQ regarding this topic, but my situation is a bit out of the ordinary.

I live in Sydney (Australia) in a two-storey house with five bedrooms and the living room service by Ethernet wall plugs. The problem is that whoever designed this network had the brilliant idea to put the switch and DSL line inside a cupboard, nested into a brick wall, under the stairs (check attached image). Needless to say the wifi strength is pretty poor everywhere in the house.

The router is a TP-Link TD-W8950ND

Channel: auto

Mode: 11bgn mixed

Channel width: 40MHz

Devices that connect to it: six laptops, two desktops, three consoles and six smartphones.

Now, relocating the router to a better position is pretty hard, considering the location of the ethernet ports, so I tried to replace the antenna but what I gained out of it wasn't enough. I'd rather avoid using range extenders and I was considering replacing the router altogether since the one we have his pretty cheap, but your advice on this matter is well appreciated. Thanks

d33g33 · October 8, 2014

unfortunately if the location is destroying your broadcast signal there isnt a whole lot you can do. You can get a more powerful modem/router/AP if you wish, something like the Nighthawk or WRT1900AC that can amp signal but if you want a true fix you will need to look at putting AP's outside of this room (though I know you said you didn't want to do this). Something like the Ubiquity AP's should easily give you excellent coverage throughout the home. You could always try and install it within the same cavity as your modem, it might have the grunt to push through the brick and make an improvement, and if it doesn't then you have the option to move it outside of that location if you need to.

Best of luck.