Home Setup Advice

[Anivicuno]

Hi forum, newb here. First time out, so please don't flame too hard.

 

Recently I've been looking into ways of getting better wifi in my parents' home (I'm in uni and I live with my parents, sue me) and the run of the mill Telus box doesn't cut it at all. The house is 3 stories including the basement, and since the only DSL port is on the main/ground floor, the wifi in the upstairs and basement bedrooms is spotty at best. So I'm here for advice for about the most powerful wifi router for a reasonable (around 200 Canadian rubles) price. I'm not so much looking for fancy dual band or extreme wireless speed but rather a wireless ac with the biggest punch. As long as it's not too abysmal in terms of speed

 

As a side note, I do recall Linus having a video about the new wireless ACS he got for the warehouse, but I'm still unsure if it translate directly to my usecase since the signal has to penetrate the wooden structure, and it's not just one big warehouse.

 

Another thought that occurs is that if I should just give up and snake Ethernet cables through the ventilation system and run on lan for the upper and basement rooms

[RileyTheFox]

19 minutes ago, Anivicuno said:

Hi forum, newb here. First time out, so please don't flame too hard.

 

Recently I've been looking into ways of getting better wifi in my parents' home (I'm in uni and I live with my parents, sue me) and the run of the mill Telus box doesn't cut it at all. The house is 3 stories including the basement, and since the only DSL port is on the main/ground floor, the wifi in the upstairs and basement bedrooms is spotty at best. So I'm here for advice for about the most powerful wifi router for a reasonable (around 200 Canadian rubles) price. I'm not so much looking for fancy dual band or extreme wireless speed but rather a wireless ac with the biggest punch. As long as it's not too abysmal in terms of speed

 

As a side note, I do recall Linus having a video about the new wireless ACS he got for the warehouse, but I'm still unsure if it translate directly to my usecase since the signal has to penetrate the wooden structure, and it's not just one big warehouse.

 

Another thought that occurs is that if I should just give up and snake Ethernet cables through the ventilation system and run on lan for the upper and basement rooms

 

You should probably buy a few wireless extenders, hook them up to the router (via Ethernet usually) and configure them to act all as the same network (Eg: MyHomeNetwork and not MyHomeNetworkExt1, MyHomeNetworkExt2). This saves you having to connect to each extender manually and it will automatically switch to that one without dropping the connection.

[kirashi]

26 minutes ago, Anivicuno said:

Hi forum, newb here. First time out, so please don't flame too hard.

 

Recently I've been looking into ways of getting better wifi in my parents' home (I'm in uni and I live with my parents, sue me) and the run of the mill Telus box doesn't cut it at all. The house is 3 stories including the basement, and since the only DSL port is on the main/ground floor, the wifi in the upstairs and basement bedrooms is spotty at best. So I'm here for advice for about the most powerful wifi router for a reasonable (around 200 Canadian rubles) price. I'm not so much looking for fancy dual band or extreme wireless speed but rather a wireless ac with the biggest punch. As long as it's not too abysmal in terms of speed

 

As a side note, I do recall Linus having a video about the new wireless ACS he got for the warehouse, but I'm still unsure if it translate directly to my usecase since the signal has to penetrate the wooden structure, and it's not just one big warehouse.

 

Another thought that occurs is that if I should just give up and snake Ethernet cables through the ventilation system and run on lan for the upper and basement rooms

Alternatively, instead of buying Wireless extenders/repeaters, I'd add your own router and have Telus bridge your modem.

This will disable the wireless, DHCP, and routing table capabilities of your modem, turning it into "just a modem" only.

https://ca.camelcamelcamel.com/NETGEAR-AC1900-Nighthawk-Smart-Router/product/B00F0DD0I6

 

Then go out and buy a Netgear R7000 router, flash it with DD-WRT or AdvancedTomato, and place it as central as you can on the main floor.

Run ethernet from the modem if you have to, just to get the router centrally located. This will give you the best signal possible.

Also keep in mind that any dense or metal objects will vastly impede your signal. (Glass, filing cabinets, brickwork, refrigerators, etc.)