I come humbly asking for help...

[doncapps]

First of all, I am reasonably tech savvy. I build my own computers. I also build them for others as a small side business. And I have some modicum of networking knowledge...albeit limited. Here's my issue.

For the past six years I have lived in an old two story farmhouse with cinderblock/plaster walls. The place was build in 1915 and was very structurally sound. However, I could make no network infrastructure changes (such as running ethernet all over) because I was renting. Nonetheless, my trusty eight year old Asus wireless router (RT-AC66R) served us well and we got decent signal everywhere.

So fast forward to now. We have moved into a three story town home. The Man Cave (where my main/gaming computer and our media server reside) is now in a large finished basement room just behind the garage. Above me is the kitchen/dining area and the great room. Then yet another floor up are the bedrooms.

From the moment we moved in, the Asus just simply lacked the juice to reach the top floor. We got decent (not great) signal on the second floor, but really weak on the third level. So in casting about for a solution, I came across Netgear's Nighthawk X4S Mesh Extender...which it was claimed would work with your existing router and create a powerful mesh network. So I bought one, took it home and proceeded to set it up. The setup process was pretty promising as all went well and it connected easily to the old router. Then I took it to a remote location and plugged it in.

At first, I tried it on the third floor. But after a day or so I noticed it would lose it's link to the router. I would unplug/replug it and it would work for a time. Then it would lose the link again.

So I moved it down to the second floor. And it maintains a solid connection to the router now. But now we have slow to low connectivity on the third floor again!!!

So my question is two fold.

1. As the old Asus is dual band and the Netgear extender is tri-band, would I be better served by upgrading to a new tri-band router in the basement? I am assuming the extender is using one of the bands to link to the router, so I am guessing that a tri-band router would give it a dedicated channel to link to...? Maybe? Or am I way off base here?

2. Would I be better served turning off the radio in the Asus and hardwiring a powerful access point (such as a Unifi AC Long Range or a Amped Wireless Athena) to the router? I have ethernet access to the second floor from/to my router in the basement. So I could easily place an AP on my second floor, hard wire it, and let it handle wireless duties. The Amped product sounds interesting as it boasts 5db of antenna gain and 800mW of output power to better penetrate walls. However, I know advertising hype can be deceiving. And I have worked with the Unifi AP's in an enterprise environment where they performed like champs.

So there ya have it. My tale of wireless networking woe. Sorry to make it long, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible. Any suggestions? Questions? Please fire away.

 

[terry4536]

I would suggest using Power Line to connect a network switch on the top floor. Or you could connect your extender to the power line for a better WiFi signal on the top floor.

It acts as an ethernet connection using your household electrical circuit.

https://www.newegg.com/Powerline-Networking/SubCategory/ID-294?Tid=164043&Order=RATING

 

[bill001g]

I would agree on the power line units. You have already tried a radio source on the second floor.

There is no magic device that can solve this problem. Almost all routers put out the maximum legal power. So if you have tried one quality brand it is likely going to be the same as others. Companies like amped try to pretend their products are stronger but when you go to the FCC reports they must file they are pretty much the same as other device since they must comply with the laws if they want to sell their products.

Any form of mesh/repeater is going to be slower even if it has great signal. It is using 2 times the bandwidth so you use 1/2 at best but because you now have 2 wifi signals subject to interference it generally is worse.

The reason AP work in enterprise is they are placed in huge open areas they still transmit at the same legal power levels. In fact many AP transmit at lower levels intentionally to avoid interference between them.

Many times it is not the router that is the issue. End devices, especially portable ones like cell phones, do not transmit at the maximum power levels. So you maybe able to hear the signal from the router but the router can not hear your end device.

 

[doncapps]

Yeah. You guys are likely right. I suspected that the radio links might be the issue. I think I'm going to hardwire a Unifi LR AP to my router and use it on the second floor. My past experience with them tells me they are very reliable and will have enough reach to cover the area I need to cover.

 

[failboat]

what is your internet speed? much lan traffic? smart home things / wifi cams?

can you get ethernet to any locations?

the ideal setup would be modem->router->switch-> wireless aps configured to cover specific areas little overlap, clients, etc.

depending on the performance you need things like wireless mesh and powerlines can work very well, but it would be better to have an idea of the performance you want.

for low latency wired or line of sight wifi

for high bandwidth wifi space is shared, so broadcasting in smaller areas gives you more bandwidth across the house. 1 device in the center can use up all the channels across the whole house. stuff that uploads constantly on wifi like a wireless ip cam puts overhead on the channel it's using. the NAS should be wired to avoid congesting any wifi space. hubbed smart home things use different wireless bands, eg, zigbee or zwave. wireless mesh eats channels.

powerlines are a gamble, the performance can be great and latency low or it's terrible all the time or some of the time.