[SOLVED] New Home Office Needs Coverage

[gregger77]

Hello, I'm looking for advice on the best set-up to extend internet coverage to a new home office.

At the risk of providing too much detail (vs. having to answer questions later), here goes:

• ISP is Xfinity Blast, "up to 300mbps down/10mbps up" (haha, I never measure more than 130 down)
• Wifi is distributed throughout the house by a TP-Link AC1750/Archer 7 dual band router; it's been really reliable and an excellent performer on the 1st floor; pretty decent on the 2nd floor
• The Archer 7 is connected via Ethernet to a port in a single room on the 2nd floor (the only port up there) and connects to "Desktop 1."
• I need to provide internet to a new "Desktop 2" + VOIP phone in a new home office that is also on 2nd floor, about 20 feet from the Ethernet port (and Desktop 1).
• Desktop 2, which is new and uses the latest WiFi protocols, becomes the most speed-critical device in the house to be used heavily for videoconferencing and web-based apps.
• As of today, there is one WiFi 6 phone in the house and probably another on the way.
• The "new home office" room has no wired ethernet; it would be complicated & expensive to add it

I would like to use the Ethernet port upstairs to feed a new Access Point that can provide the best possible coverage to the new office.

I do have an older TP-Link 600N router that might still work, which I could set up as an AP. Or, I could buy another Archer 7 for about $50 and take advantage of its excellent range. I've had some advice to look at a tri-pack of mesh routers (one as primary, one direct wired to location of Desktop 1, one acting as access point at Desktop 2 with ethernet ports for the computer and VOIP phone. (Perhaps triband to offer a dedicated wireless backhaul channel, to keep speed as close as possible to speed at the primary.)

Your advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

You best option is to try the old tplink as a AP/switch and see how well that works. I doubt the archer would have better range it will run faster becuase it support 802.11ac but the signal likely is about the same. It is not the router that is the problem in most cases it is your end device. They may not have full power radios so they can hear the router but the router can not hear them.

Mesh is almost all marketing. It is the trendy thing to do so everyone thinks they just have to have it. When they make electronic boxes as designer decorations for a room you need to run far away.

Mesh is mostly a wireless repeater. You do not need that since you have ethernet cable. Sure mesh units can run as AP but why would you pay 4 or 5 times the cost of actual AP or a router running a AP. These systems are used in houses that nothing else works to get coverage. Normally you look at powerline or moca if you do not have ethernet and then run AP on the ends of those. Mesh is for the very uneducated consumer that just want to plug magic boxes in every room and not really worry if it is the best solution for his problem.

Note be very careful about getting on the wifi6 hype train. It does not work as well as they made it seem. Most the problem is tries to use 2 times the bandwidth in a already crowded wifi space. Wifi6e equipment is just starting to come to market this allows use of a massive new radio band on the 6g. For a while everyone can get radio channels and not stomp on everyone else. I expect wifi6e stuff will be very common maybe next summer.

 

[gregger77]

Thanks for the feedback. I agree that for the time being, I have nothing to lose by blowing the dust off the old TP-Link.

That would hold me over until the dust settles on WiFi 6 and prices comes down. I failed to point out that Desktop 2, which is the client we care about most here, is equipped with 802.11 ax and is biding its time! But ac is certainly handling my own needs well. I have not yet tried working at home while a visiting son (or two) pops in with his latest laptop or iPhone and decides to camp out for a while and work remotely. But those would only be sporadic events.

Thanks again.

 

[bill001g]

802.11ac should be able to max out your internet connection. 802.11ax will still be limited by that. The results for wifi6 (ie 802.11ax) are very inconsistent. Although some people are saying they get 600mbps many other are saying it is just a small amount faster than 802.11ac, It is not uncommon to get 300mbps on 802.11ac. Of course what affects it the most is the house itself and the neighbors using wifi so there is no way to predict how well any wifi will work.

 

[gggplaya]

I would keep what you have and hold off on the upgrades until WIFI 6E routers start coming out.

You can use the old router as an access point and a network switch to connect ethernet to the other desktop. You can use the same SSID, or I recommend just using a different SSID for upstairs because it's a desktop, it's not like it'll be roaming. It's better to lock it into a specific access point.

 

[gregger77]

Agree, I am holding off for now.

I went ahead and configured the old router as a WAP and it seems to be working okay. I will try this with the new home office set-up and see how well the connection serves the new location.

BTW, because the "Desktop 2" computer is actually a laptop with docking station, that and other devices will occasionally roam. Therefore I kept the same SSID for both.

What is a "best practice" on latest-generation laptops and other recently made devices for roaming? (ie., what is the best way to encourage the devices to switch to the main router's signal when going downstairs...) Thanks for any advice.

 

[gggplaya]

For now, just shut off the wifi by putting it into airplane mode, then turn it back on and it'll pick up the the closest wifi AP with a better signal.

In the future, when you decide to replace your system, some systems work together to help you devices roam by bypassing many of the authentication steps using the 802.11r fast roaming protocol. Many new client devices like smartphones support it. Here's a good article on it, essentially normal roaming takes about 11 seconds to do all the necessary authentication and transition, whereas fast roaming takes about 0.6 seconds, which should be imperceptible to most people using wifi unless you're gaming or something very latency intensive. https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004662107-UniFi-Fast-Roaming