Question Need help choosing and configuring a WAP

[Snoopdon]

I read the Do's and Don'ts sticky and I think I am providing the information that is pertinent to my question.

xFinity (Comcast) is my ISP. I lease the modem/router/gateway from them. Router info: Model:CGM4140COM, Vendor:Technicolor, Hardware Revision:2.2. The input to the router is connected to the same coax over which the TV signal is provided. It looks like the dark gray device shown here:
https://www.xfinity.com/learn/internet-service/modems-and-routers


There are 11 devices connected via Wi-Fi and 8 devices connected via Ethernet.

Our house is a rambler with a daylight (AKA walkout) basement. The front door (main level) is on the driveway/street level. The grade slopes down towards the back yard. The basement is under the grade in the front at at the grade of the back lawn in back. That is, you can walk out the sliding door from the basement to the back yard.

The router is on a shelf in a coat closet about 1/3 of the way from the front to the back of the house on the main level and about in the middle of the long dimension of the main level.

Wi-Fi clients/devices have good signal on the main level. The "Wi-Fi Analyzer" app running on my Samsung Galaxy S9+ and connected to the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network shows about -50 dbm (middle of the green section of the meter scale).

About a year ago I agreed to let the xFinity app on the S9+ "simplify your network" and it combined the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands into one SSID but I found that at least one device that only worked on 2.4GHz became unreliable. After doing some research I reverted the combination back to advertising the two bands separately.

I have a music studio in the basement at one end of the long dimension of the house. Wi-Fi has always been weak there. The "Wi-Fi Analyzer" app shows -60 dbm, just at the top of the yellow part of the scale.

About a year ago I bought Gosund Smart Mini Plugs WP5 to control the order of turning on and off equipment so I don't blow out my speakers when a piece of equipment sends out an audio glitch during power off.

https://us.gosund.com/products/app-smart-plug-wp5?spm=..index.header_1.1

These were a little hard to get connected reliably but after a while they seemed to be ok and are working now using the Gosund app.

A few weeks ago I purchased Atomi Smart LED Sconces at Costco to use in the studio.

Smart Wall Lights | Atomi Smart

Beautifully and intelligently designed, the Atomi Smart LED Wall Lights are easy to install and can be controlled remotely from your phone. It’s more than traditional wall lights.

atomismart.com

I installed the Atomi Smart app on the Galaxy S9+ and was able to connect the sconces to the app with the sconces placed on the main level of the house. But when I moved them to the studio they would not connect reliably to the app, showing "Offline". I took them back upstairs and they connected with no problem.

So my reason for coming here is to get advice on choosing a Wi-Fi extender or Wireless Access Point.

I would prefer a Wireless Access Point (connecting to the Ethernet network and advertising the same SSID as the Comcast router) vs an extender. But after reading some reviews of those on Amazon it seems they are pretty complicated to setup as they seem to be directed more to the office environment vs home. Also, they all seem to require Power Over Ethernet (POE). Our house has OnQ wiring with Ethernet, cable and phone drops in most of the rooms (eight rooms including the studio). But it does not provide POE. I see the POE injector for one of the WAPs on Amazon costs as much as the WAP. I see there are Netgear and TP-Link POE switches on Amazon for about $50. I alread have an Ethernet switch in the studio to supply Ethernet to a couple of computers so I could replace it with the POE version but I'm still concerned about the complexity of the setup for the WAPs I've been looking at.

One thing that is non-negotiable is that whatever I use must advertise the same SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz that the Comcast router is providing.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Don

 

[bill001g]

A actual AP is nice when you want to mount it where you do not have power say in the middle of the ceiling. You pay a lot extra for that ability most times.

It is actually much simpler than you think. All you need is any wifi router. Many/most have the ability to set them to AP mode but you can make almost any router into a AP even if it does not have the feature.

So if you have a old wifi router you likely are all set. You need nothing real fancy. Buy a very cheap router since you are only using the wifi part. I guess if you want/need wifi6e or something then you are going to have to buy a better one. I would also buy one with gigabit ports but if 100mbps is good enough then you can save money.

You can set the SSID to anything you want. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. When they are the same the end device decides what to connect to and they are not always smart. Kinda like your problem when you had both 2.4 and 5 on the same SSID but in this case you would have 2 different radios both on 2.4 it has to choose from. It mostly works ok, you can reduce the transmit power of the radio on the ap router to reduce the overlap so the device has a more obvious choice. Using different SSID you the human decide what is best. You manually must change it but it all depends on how much you move the device between the 2 locations.

 

[Snoopdon]

Thanks for the reply. I actually tried using my old Netgear WNDR4500 router as an extender/WAP but I could not get it to work. I can't remember the details but I think it refused to use the existing SSIDs. Anyway, I got rid of it so that's water under the bridge. Do you have a suggestion for one that would work? BTW, I need to AVOID Wi-Fi v6 because the sconces can not do Wi-Fi 6. The manufacturer says they may incorporate this in a future firmware upgrade (assuming one can upgrade firmware via Wi-Fi) but no ETA for that at this time.
Thanks,
Don

 

[bill001g]

Actually wifi6 "E" is even newer and is not supported by many devices. It was just a example, some people just have to have the newest and shiniest toy.

Other than spending too much money it doesn't really hurt. The router/ap can run both the newer forms of wifi and the older forms at the same time. It really doesn't matter what the end device supports.....unless you get really old stuff that for example does not support encrypted sessions.

The old netgear would have been fine unfortunately even used they cost more than new better tplink units.

These are just 2 examples I normally don't recommend specific routers because the vendors change the internal parts but keep the name on the box the same. Mostly this was when people used to run third party firmware more.

So a if you look at cheapest ( you can get even cheaper by looking at unknown brands or 100mbps ports)

https://www.amazon.com/Dual-band-Gigabit-WiFi-Internet-Router/dp/B08KJF5BS7

A very popular device that also support very basic wifi6 and many people use as their main router when they want inexpensive is. It seems to also be the cheapest one I have seen that has a both vpn server and client in it...you can not use that feature if you put it in AP mode.
https://www.amazon.com/WiFi-6-Router-Gigabit-Wireless/dp/B08H8ZLKKK

Again a disclaimer I have not used these devices myself but have used many older tplink devices and they seem to have good customer support.

 

[Snoopdon]

Thanks for the links. $37.99 is a great price. Even if it dies later as some reviews have said, it's cheap enough to just toss in the trash. However, here is a 1-star review that concerns me. Doesn't seem like a good thing.
"
1.0 out of 5 stars Creates a second, hidden wifi network
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2021
Style: AC1200 WiFi Router(New Version)Verified Purchase
As other reviewers have pointed out, once you update the firmware this device creates a second wifi network with a hidden SSID. This isn't disclosed anywhere in the documentation. There is no place in the settings to turn it off.

It's likely used by other TP-Link devices to set up a private mesh network. Unfortunately this means that the SSID and wireless key are all hard-coded. This means that if they're ever leaked, you have no way to change them -- and your wifi is suddenly wide open to everyone. This is, quite literally, a back door into your network.

This is a very, very, very bad security decision by TP-Link. I have had multiple APs and switches from them in the past and have always been happy with their quality and performance. Unfortunately this is a deal breaker. The AP looks nice and has decent hardware specs, so I'm torn between flashing OpenWRT (which is supported) and returning it for another brand."

Too bad they don't mention the model of the other router that worked. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[bill001g]

I don't know I have not used that device. You have to be somewhat careful about what people say. You have a idiot on their talking about his cat8 cable and not getting 500mbps over wifi.
Some people have no clue what they are talking about.

It is not uncommon for routers to come with passwords preconfigured, they have stickers on the box with the passwords. If they used a similar method to generate the passwords they should still be very unique and not possible to guess.

If it creates a open unencrypted network that would be a huge issue. Nobody is going to be bothered to park in front of your house to use your internet conenction.

This is all done because of the lazy people in the world that can't be bothered to read anything or likely complain they had to take it out of box. They want a magic mesh system to the vendors do stupid stuff to accommodate them.

Even the cheap routers are getting to fancy with too many features. When you run it in AP mode it might not do that since it can not longer run as a repeater. I am somewhat impressed a cheap router like this can run third party firmware which would solve any security issues.

 

[Snoopdon]

Ok, you convinced me. I just ordered it. Amazon says it should be here tomorrow 7am and 11am via Prime Overnight. Amazing. We have a new Amazon Fulfillment Center opening about 5.5 miles (5 minutes) from us. I imagine we will be getting some Prime deliveries same day after that FC is running at full capacity. Maybe we'll even get drone deliveries ;-)
Thanks,
Don

 

[bill001g]

They maybe a year ago opened a amazon center less than 2 miles from my house. I used to get all my delivers between 9am-10am. Now that they have one closer I don't get it until closer to 5pm.
It gets to the warehouse very early in the morning and then doesn't get put out for delivery until afternoon. Kinda likes the one that was about 15 miles away better.