Looking for networking ideas

[boomh]

I have a dlink dir655. I know its not the best or the worst but I have it located downstairs (basement) at one end of the house. Upstairs living room where my family and I stream netflix, movies etc.. some days its ok some days its horrible. I am trying to find ways to make it better. I was thinking of getting some powerlines. 2 maybe 4 of them and at the top floor (living room) other end of the house have 1 powerline connected to a router (possibly ap).

I am not very knowledge in networking etc.. but from what I have gathered powerline is better than using range extenders.

Any ideas on what I should use, set up, etc.. Even new antennas for the dir655, which powerlines, etc.. compatibility wise etc..

Thank you!!

 

[DarkSable]

So here's my question for you. Why is the router downstairs in the basement? If you got more powerful antennas, and a long ethernet cable, and even managed to get the router on the same floor as the living room, that would go a LONG way towards improving things.

If it's because there's a computer down there that's hardwired, you can just get an ethernet switch / hub and put it down there so you still only have to run one ethernet cable up to the router. That's what I did for my grandparents in nearly the same kinda scenario, and it works perfectly.

 

[boomh]

The location of the router is there because thats the outlet where the cable wire comes into the house. Its in a bedroom, so to get a long enough ethernet cable to get the router upstairs I would need roughly 50ft+ and to get it center of the house but downstairs I would need about around the same (thats if I tuck it along the sides of the wall but I would still need to drill through walls or a couple doors wont be able to close.

 

[DarkSable]

Okay, so I'm going to take it from your response that's not a viable option?

I'm asking just because that's going to be the cheapest, likely easiest thing for you to do - and 50ft. of ethernet cable isn't all that expensive.

One trick I've found for doors is taking a sliver of the out-most protruding section of the moulding off - you can then slot the ethernet cable between the hole in the carpet and the bottom of the protrusion and the door will close just fine.

 

[Pooneil]

Powerline adapters may be the easiest way. My personal experience was that they are slow have intermittent dropouts. My 25Mb internet service would crawl at 2Mb on some electrical circuits and they would just stop working sometimes. Buy some from a place with a good return policy and give them a try.

Wired Ethernet is almost always the cheapest and fastest mode of networking, but if you aren't comfortable with puling wires behind walls it may not be for you.

 

[boomh]

Yes I understand ethernet is the best. But the way this old house is and everything is already position, it sucks. I'm trying to find ideas to help boost the signal/connectivity upstairs. I have comcast 50mbps and some days it feels like I have 3-6mbps.

I don't know if there anything I can do to the router besides changing or setting g/b/n etc.. new antennas, powerlines, powerlines + ap, or other ideas and other stuff that I don't know about.

 

[DarkSable]

That's fine - I can certainly understand your frustration.

You could try to work with powerline adapters, but I really don't know if they're going to be that much of an upgrade.

What you could try is getting a directional antenna - Asus has one for about $20. They look like a radar dish, and you sacrifice one of your antennas (meaning slightly worse coverage everywhere else) to get this thing and aim it specifically at the room you need the best connection in. Now, I don't know how well it'll work with a floor AND several walls in between it and its target, but it's possibly worth the $20 to find out.

I've tried using extenders and repeaters before... they're pretty much universally POS's.

 

[boomh]

Yes, it sucks but this definitly gives me ideas since my wife and I are looking to purchase a new house in the next couple years.

I've been looking at reviews from cnet and pcmag on powerlines, repeaters etc.. I might just have to try the powerlines out..