Question TP Link Deco W2400

[punkncat]

My mother barely uses the internet. She has a laptop and a phone on a really poor speed (and reliability) DSL connection with her phone company. Even at the best of times her internet is actually too slow to stream a video. Cell options are not available.

I installed a WRT54G there YEARS ago and by and large it has been pretty decent for the use case. Obviously, it is well past its prime and aside from that the internet has started coming and going in a pretty regular cycle of failure and restore. When I stayed to help her out a bit last year (or so) I actually installed one of those wireless plug accessories where I could push a button to kill the receptacle and turn back on a couple of minutes later to speed up the restore process. I would like to say the whole issue is the 'WRT' but even being hardwired to her modem is painful.

With all this said, I don't want to spend any level of significant monies to try and help with this. I found a refurb set of (2) of the W2400 on Amazon for sub $50.

Her home is two story and the modem comes in on the upper level on one side of the house, over the garage. I have no option to change that location as there is no way to run cabling without stapling them down a wall and she simply isn't going to go for that. The whole place is probably ~1400sq/f per level and uses the internet mostly in an area one room off, below the router. The previous WRT unit gives workable signal most of the time but doesn't have dual band and all that goodness. I had considered this kit to use one base at the modem and then the other base about 50' down the hallway on the same level to sit at the top of the stairs down. Her main use location would be a chair that sits a few feet from the bottom of these stairs.

Wasn't aware if anyone on here uses this system but would like to hear your own input on its signal strength and reliability in relation to long term periods of disuse.

 

[bill001g]

I assume you are still going to use DSL. How did you plan to solve that the tplink boxes do not have a dsl modem. Where you going to keep the old wrt56.

I normally try to persuade people to not use any kind of repeater. They are very poor performing and a repeater will cut your speed in at least half in exchange for more coverage. The problem is most other recommendation like say powerline networks cost more than what you are looking at. Even with the units you list and using them as a repeater it is still likely much faster than wrt56g.

You have the proper plan for location. The remote unit does not go in the remote room you want the signal in....even though the marketing makes it seem that way. It needs to go where it gets good signal from the main unit but can still deliver signal to the remote room. In a huge empty room with no walls it would go 1/2 way but with walls/door/ceiling etc it is always trial and error to pick the best location.

As far as reliability in general you should never have to touch them. I always run my router and other network equipment on a UPS so most times it is always on and working. Maybe once every couple years the power stays off long enough to drain the UPS battery that supplies the router.

 

[punkncat]

There is a DSL modem which will not be eliminated. IIRC the current WRT unit is only being used for Wi-Fi access point and a lesser role as a switch for the room the head end is in. There is only one wired device connected in the whole house, a PC which I will probably bring back home with me at this point. I figure it hasn't been turned on in two years or more. I honestly can't recall much about the (WRT) setup anymore but pretty sure it is run on Tomato or similar as even at the time it was installed it was pretty old.

This will actually be my first foray into this type of mesh repeater. I have tried some of the plug in the wall repeaters as well as powerline adapters and find that both of these solutions were worse than poor for this location. She is way out in the country and honestly think the power (lines) have too much noise or other issue (that I may not fully understand) that causes them not to be as reliable as the old WRT has been up until recently. At the best of times it sucked, but now is beyond what I would consider usable.

I appreciate the other comments. I looked at a few online reviews about the product and it seems that for this particular application it should work well. Nothing other than the modem will actually be hard wired to these so the link speed issue really shouldn't come into play. Otherwise, they seem to review well for the price. I think the only thing giving me pause is that two different reviews recommended doing an ethernet back-haul (network cable attached) to work their best, which simply will not be a possibility given the installation parameters and challenges.

For $46 and a generous return window, I will probably spend more time re-learning what I did on the current installation so many years ago than the consideration of cost or setup in time/labor. Thank you for your comments.

 

[bill001g]

The key issue is there are 2 radio signals using the same radio bands. Really expensive repeater/mesh units have extra dedicated radios. So even in the very best case you have 2 times the bandwidth being used. In addition the unit actually interfere with each other further reducing the speed.

The reason for the wire backhaul for any kind if mesh/repeater is it eliminates the second radio signal.

In any case you will likely get 50mbps or maybe a bit more if you are lucky.

 

[kanewolf]

And remember, you want the repeater 1/2 way to the poor WIFI coverage area. Putting a repeater in poor coverage, just means it gets a poor signal also. Half way to the problem is the best answer.

 

[punkncat]

The key issue is there are 2 radio signals using the same radio bands. Really expensive repeater/mesh units have extra dedicated radios. So even in the very best case you have 2 times the bandwidth being used. In addition the unit actually interfere with each other further reducing the speed.

The reason for the wire backhaul for any kind if mesh/repeater is it eliminates the second radio signal.

In any case you will likely get 50mbps or maybe a bit more if you are lucky.

The internet speed here, for real, is likely less than half of this.

To expand on that comment:
Up until a while back the only option available was dialup 56K. They finally did away with all that and I am pretty sure they upgraded her internet "free" as they didn't offer dialup any longer. I think the DSL was 5 up/down, seriously. A bit over a year ago they came back and replaced her equipment again because they no longer offered service that slow. I "think" current speed might be either 10-15/5 or 25/5. When I say you cannot watch a video I really am not lying, like perhaps in 420P and super short content. Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming and "download to watch" simply will not work here. She uses it for basic shopping comparisons on static pages and to file her taxes once a year.

edit- without actually logging in and checking her bill, a quick search online indicates it is 10/1.

 

[bill001g]

Time for starlink

I still have land I used to live on out in the country that I can not even get DSL. They are now building thousands of houses within a 1/4 mile so maybe someday fast internet will be out there.

 

[punkncat]

When I first looked into that it was crazy expensive but have heard it has come down a great deal since then. I would get her one of those T Mobile cube things for $50 a month, but there is no service for it there. I went ahead and ordered these as for the price and the lack of internet speed there I really see no downside other than not working at all. In that case, the return window is generous for Christmas.

 

[bill001g]

verizon home is a ok price if it is available. It does not have a data cap

 

[punkncat]

verizon home is a ok price if it is available. It does not have a data cap

A couple of my friends use this for when they travel, which is how I found out it is a good service. Just no signal at mom's house.