Network coverage in apartment

[Vlatko]

Hi,

We've recently bought an apartment which actually consists of 2 separate apartments, i.e. we just teared down a wall between both.

Now my router is at one end of the apartment hence the WLAN strength at the other end is extremely weak.

I was thinking of buying Poweline adapters but then I realized that the it is actually 2 apartments with separate fuseboxes. Will the powerline adapters work from one apartment to the other as the signal will have to cross the fuseboxes. Ay experiences regarding this.

Thx

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

If there are two distribution boards, that means the two incoming supplies are totally separate & independent of each other, which means powerline adapters won't work from one apartment to the other.

Consider buying a wireless range extender, and if your existing router & WiFi devices are dual band , make sure the range extender is also dual band.

 

[Vlatko]

If there are two distribution boards, that means the two incoming supplies are totally separate & independent of each other, which means powerline adapters won't work from one apartment to the other.

Consider buying a wireless range extender, and if your existing router & WiFi devices are dual band , make sure the range extender is also dual band.

Thx for the info. By wireless range extender, do you mean a WiFI Repeater? Also don't these extenders/repeaters basically work at half the speed (I've read smth like that).

 

[nigelivey]

Yes they half the bandwidth. Can you get in the roof and run a cat5e cable? Then just install an access point the other end.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"By wireless range extender, do you mean a WiFI Repeater?"

Well we call them by their correct name "range extenders" here in England, so do the product manufacturers.

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My range extender gives me 15Mbit, router gives me 17Mbit (which is my ISP's promised bandwidth).

I assure you these figures are correct.

So I don't know where you're getting "half the bandwidth" from. It's less yes, but not 50% less (at least not with my setup).

Router: Billion 7800DXL AC.
Extender: Netgear AX6150 AC.

 

[nigelivey]

"By wireless range extender, do you mean a WiFI Repeater?"

Well we call them by their correct name "range extenders" here in England, so do the product manufacturers.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My range extender gives me 15Mbit, router gives me 17Mbit (which is my ISP's promised bandwidth).

I assure you these figures are correct.

So I don't know where you're getting "half the bandwidth" from. It's less yes, but not 50% less (at least not with my setup).

Router: Billion 7800DXL AC.
Extender: Netgear AX6150 AC.

Wireless is shared bandwidth and is half duplex. Unlike a wired connection that has one path dedicated for transmit and another dedicated for receive you only have 1 frequency in wireless. Means you can't be sending and receiving at the same time. So if you were to use a repeater on the same frequency it will indeed cut your bandwidth in half. It is actually much worse since there is no way to prevent 2 devices from talking at the same time only a method to correct it after it happens. This can be mitigated slightly, as I guess it is in your case by using different channels on the repeater.