[SOLVED] Poor Wifi range with new router ?

[bluenitepk]

After a recommendation, I replaced 7 years old ZyXel VMG1312 VDSL WiFi Router with a TPLINK Archer v300. It said it was an improvement in the quality of the Internet and also WiFi range. Unfortunately, the opposite is the truth and the old ZyXel had better parameters. Even without an external antenna... It is mainly about improving WiFi range at home, where the apartment of 60m2, the signal after third door is zero.

Is it possible to improve something in the router settings? Or is there an external solution - repeater, or something like this? The technical data lies when it lists 200m2, etc. I know everything is relative, they take free spaces without walls. But it would be worse until so, it will come strange. Or get more powerful router? Does anyone know about something specific to look at? Or get a repeater?

Thanks for the tip and any advice

Peter

 

[Ralston18]

Most likely you will not find a "more powerful" router. There are limits on allowed power levels.

Remember that wireless problems could be caused by the lack of transmission power on a connected wireless network device. The device can receive but if not able to reliably transmit then the network will be slowed.

= = = =

This router?

https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/archer-vr300/

Start by double checking the current installation and configuration per the User Guide.

Antenna orientation? Might try varying the directions and angles.

On the new router: what frequency and channels are you using? Same as the old router?

Is your apartment in an area with lots of other wireless networks?

 

[Lutfij]

You could make sure that you're on the latest firmware for the router, then make sure that your router is mounted above the line of sight of electrical devices. I would also ask to look into the firmware/GUI of the router and see if you can fine tune some parameters, such as the channel number, the frequency you're on and lastly to see if your ISP's info are all there.

 

[bill001g]

Those so called coverage numbers are bogus, they assume thing like you live in a football stadium with no walls. Coverage varies a lot from building to building, a place with concrete walls can make the router almost unusable even in the next room.

Both routers should have similar coverage. I can't find the fccid for the tplink to confirm but I strongly suspect it is transmitting at the legal maximum.

The tplink is not any faster unless you use the 5g radio band whcih the zyxel does not have. Both routers have a 300 number on the 2.4g band. The problem is even though 5g might be faster the signal is more easily absorbed. So are you sure you are looking at the 2.4g radio strength or have you connected to the 5g. If the router is using the same SSID for both radio bands you will have to change them so you can tell.

A repeater is last choice option. You are going to trade wifi coverage for performance. Even in best case you now have 2 radio signals that can take interference.

Most problems in apartments are not really the signal strength, it is more the signal strength of your neighbors is too much and is interfering.

Your best option is going to be to try some form of wired AP. If you can run ethernet cables that is best. There are powerline units that have wifi radios in the remote end. Since you have only dsl the newer powerline units like av2-1000 and av2-2000 should be fast enough to not limit your bandwidth.

 

[eldridgep2]

Get a mobile phone app which will allow you to see what channels are in use in your area I'm on android and use Wi-Fi Analyser which is free. Most routers out the box will default to a channel like 1 or 11 and this means if people don't change from the default those channels can beome really congested. Where you have lots of signals on the same channel it causes interference and everybody suffers. Use the app to see which frequencies aren't used and assign that to your Wi-Fi in built up areas it can work wonders.

Always go for 2 channels of separation if you can so if someone has a channel on 1 you go for three etc. But essentially go for the channel that gives you the widest gap from anyone else.

For 60m2 on the specs that router should be fine, you can also look at the placement of the router. Don't put it behind any think walls or anything metal as that will kill the signal, try moving it higher or lower to see if that helps and try and keep it away from any sources of RFI like microwaves, electrical motors/pumps etc. Unlikely in an apartment but worth mentioning,

 

[bill001g]

The rules you see on channel selection are all outdated. They are based on use of 20mhz channels. The channel numbers in a router on the 2.4g band are only 5mhz which means a 20mhz signal uses 4 of them. This is where you see the 1,6,11 recommendation. BUT that is all old information. Modern routers uses 40mhz channels on 2.4g. This means it is using blocks of 8 of the 5mhz channels. There is only a total of 60mhz on the 2.4g band so it is impossible to fit 2 signals without overlap no matter what number you pick.

It is just as bad on the 5g. Most devices uses 80mhz channels on 5g. The channels you see in the router represent 20mhz this time but it need to use blocks of 4. There are only 9 20mhz channels total that you can manually set. This means only 2 routers can exist without overlap. Problem is everyone is putting in mesh systems or tri-band routers with multiple 5g radios and using all the 5g bandwidth also. The newest wifi6 devices uses 160mhz blocks.

So it is highly unlikely you will find any non used channels. The other problem is the scanner tools can only see the channel the router puts out the beacon messages on. They can not see how many other channels are actually in use since some use different channel widths.

I guess it doesn't hurt to try but it seldom works any more. When we get wifi6e there are 9 160mhz blocks...I think...so maybe we can not overlap the neighbors.

 

[Blackink]

I would power off both the modem and the router.
Let them set for a few minutes then turn on the modem, let that power on fully. It may take 10 minutes or so?
Once the modem is fully powered up, turn on the router and let that power up fully.
Maybe this will help......maybe?!?

 

[bluenitepk]

Thank you very much gentlemen for your opinions and advice