Question HELP WITH WIFI COVERAGE

[mark83]

Hi guys.
I need your help with covering my house with WiFi signal. I've tried with powerline adapters, but that had a very poor performance and i'd often loose the signal, probably due to the bad wiring issues.
What i have is a 3 storey small house, and my phone line/internet/router is placed on the top floor, actually in the attic. Of course, I'm getting a pretty good WiFi signal on the top floor, but as you can imagine,
signal is pretty bad on the middle floor, and it dosen't cover ground floor at all. I tried with powerline adapters, different kinds, but the result was very poor. I managed to get LAN cables from my router
to each floor, so basically i can connect any type of WiFi extender / router in lower floors via LAN cable as well to get a good coverage. Currently, i have some entry level router from my service provider, and even though it's working
ok, it isn't really covering the entire floor where it's located with 100% WiFi signal. So i would really need your help and advice with following;

1. I was thinking on buying another WiFi router, maybe one with better WiFi coverage, and possibly 300+ mbps one
2. I wouldn't switch my current ISP router into a bridge mode, but i'd disable WiFi on it and i'd just use one of it's LAN ports to connect my new router's WAN port (for internet access)
3. I'd use some sort of WiFi extenders or possibly another routers in lower floors (middle floor, and ground floor) to cover the entire house with WiFi signal, since i have LAN cables installed on all floors now

My questions are:

• Since I'd really like to have a single SSID all around my house, so that i don't need to change networks when i go on different floors, what kind of equipment should i buy ? additional WiFi routers or WiFi extenders ? (Having in mind that now i have LAN cables on all floors connected with router, so new WiFi routers or WiFi extenders can use LAN cables for internet access)
• how to connect them together to achieve a single SSID option all around the house ?
• i currently don't have too much money to spend, so please suggest some affordable equipment, one i could actually buy

Thanks for your time and effort to help me out!

 

[kanewolf]

If you have ethernet cabling to each floor. Purchase one (to start) Ubiquiti AC-PRO or nanoHD access point for each floor. Setup the Ubiquiti controller on a PC/Laptop/Raspberry PI to manage the access points. The forum and WIKI on the Ubiquiti website have tips on optimizing multiple access points and a single SSID.
If you don't mind used, there are lots of Ubiquiti AC-PRO access points on E-Bay. I bought mine for $85.

 

[mark83]

If you have ethernet cabling to each floor. Purchase one (to start) Ubiquiti AC-PRO or nanoHD access point for each floor. Setup the Ubiquiti controller on a PC/Laptop/Raspberry PI to manage the access points. The forum and WIKI on the Ubiquiti website have tips on optimizing multiple access points and a single SSID.
If you don't mind used, there are lots of Ubiquiti AC-PRO access points on E-Bay. I bought mine for $85.

Thanks for your reply kanewolf. I found some "cheapter" products, like Comfast, Tenda, Wavlink , actually things that i've used before and was satisfied with and they come way cheaper than Ubiquiti or similar branded items. I'm just not sure which one to get really, additional extenders or additional routers and how to make them all work on same SSID, without having to change networks every time i go on different floors. Can i make them all have the same SSID in access point mode ? I guess access point mode would work perfectly, since i just need to access the internet wirelessly with smart phones, laptops, tablets, TV's etc etc

 

[kanewolf]

Good luck. I (and many others here) recommend Ubiquiti for a reason. They work. They were designed to do what you want to do. Good luck on the cheap route. You may succeed or you may realize that you were given decent info here but didn't listen.

 

[SAMJOSEPH]

hey @kanewolf .. thanks for your suggestion. actually i was also looking for 192.168.l0.l login your response was helpful for me!!

 

[Solandri]

What i have is a 3 storey small house, and my phone line/internet/router is placed on the top floor, actually in the attic. Of course, I'm getting a pretty good WiFi signal on the top floor, but as you can imagine,
signal is pretty bad on the middle floor, and it dosen't cover ground floor at all.

If your house is one of those small, narrow 3-story townhouses, try turning your router antennas 90 degrees, so they point sideways instead of straight up. (If the router doesn't have antennas, either get one that does, or place it sideways against a wall.)

Although those little whip antennas on routers are called omnidirectional, they're only omnidirectional in the horizontal axis - most of the signal strength goes out to the sides when they're pointed up. There is almost no signal going straight up and down. The beam pattern from those antennas forms a torus. If you imagine dropping a donut so the antenna goes through the donut hole, the strongest signal strength is where the meat of the donut is, with virtually no signal straight up and down. This obviously presents a problem if most of your house is directly underneath the router.

http://mpantenna-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FIGURE-1.png

So if your house is tall and narrow, you may actually get better coverage pointing the router antennas sideways. Try to point the antennas so the meat of the donut covers the sections of your house where you most need coverage. Receiving antennas ideally should be pointed so they're parallel to the router antennas (sideways and pointed in the same direction). Laptops, tablets, and phones typically have two internal antennas mounted at 90 degrees to each other, so their orientation is less of an issue. Although there remains one orientation which is orthogonal to those two antennas.

If your router has multiple antennas, you can compensate for this by orienting two of them at 90 degrees to each other. e.g. Point one so it's aimed North, another so it's aimed East. If it has a third antenna, either aim it at 45 degrees between the other two, or (if you need coverage in the attic) straight up.

 

[digitalgriffin]

I tecommend an access point on floor 2.

Ubiquity is a good brand that works well with single ssid. So does netgear. Mine works flawlessly (r7800 and ex7000). The ex7000 works in extender/bridge mode or ap mode)

However i do recommend you take that router out of the attic. It will lead to premature failure. They do run hot and most are passive cooling.