[SOLVED] cost-effective wifi set up

[sprite06]

I recently bought a townhouse which has 4 floors (1st floor is just laundry and garage, 2nd floor kitchen and living room, 3rd and 4th floors have the bedrooms).


I see the Ethernet cables on the 2nd floor and the previous owners made a hole in one of the rooms on the 3rd floor with Ethernet cables coming out. 4th floor has no Ethernet cables.

Would be the most-effective wifi setup that provide me strong coverage? Don't care much for not being able to have reception or weak reception on the 1st floor (after all, it's only the garage and laundry room).

specific wi-fi routers/repeaters model recommendations would be appreciated.

i currently have a crappy WRT54GL and I have no issue not being able to use it in the new place (ie willing to buy a brand slew of networking equipment).

 

[bill001g]

Just buy a couple mid price 802.11ac routers. You likely do not need anything that has a higher number than say 1200-1450. Your end equipment is half the connection and unless it also supports the fancy feature of better routers you will get no benifit.

It depends on where the internet comes in but I would put a radio source on the 2 and third floors. You want to use the secondary router as a AP.

How good your coverage will be is completely unpredictable. The routers themselves tend to no be the issue, almost all put out full legal power. How the house is built makes much more difference. Some people can get great coverage even in a huge house other can not get the signal to even leave the room where the router is.
In most cases the problems are cause by the end device because they are low power to save battery and tend to have small antenna.

So best option is to start with 2 routers and see how well it works. I would avoid a repeater of any form. Either run more ethernet cable or use powerline if you can not get signal to the 4th floor.

 

[punkncat]

Depending on the construction of the townhome....

If standard wood construction even your WRT54 should offer good coverage for the floor above and below if placed on that third floor connection.
If it's concrete and steel that will change the game considerably.

 

[sprite06]

would 2 of these do ?

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07451WCQW/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_idDYDbZS5B6PA

how would I set up the 2nd router on the 3rd floor as an access point ? do I physically connect it via ethernet to the main router? and what kind of configuration would be involve to "tell" the second router to act as an access point ? can I do it via any computer wirelessly connected to the network or do I have to physically plug in a computer to the second router to do the configuration ? is the configuration done via windows or the router itself ?


sorry never done this before..

 

[bill001g]

Tplink equipment tends to be well liked so they should be fine

The key advantage to a AP is it is using ethernet to get the signal between the AP and the main router. Since the wire goes between walls/floors etc at full speed unlike wifi.

I am not 100% sure but most tplink routers have a AP mode. You would run a cable between any lan port on your main router to the wan port on the tplink. Even if it doesn't have AP mode all you do is connect to a LAN port on the remote router instead, turn off the DHCP, and make sure the LAN ip on the AP does not conflict.

Like most equipment you hook it directly to your pc when you take it out of the box. Make changes to the configuration and save it. For AP you likely never have to change it again but it will be on your network......this is why you choose a IP that you can use later that does not interfere.

 

[sprite06]

looks like that router can only support internet speeds up to 100 Mbits?

 

[bill001g]

I did notice that. You can likely get a router with gigabit wan and lan ports for about the same price. Routers that are gigabit are getting to be the standard.

It all depends on how fast your internet connection is.

 

[sprite06]

appreciate the responses..thank you