wifi signal through 3 floors

[mcnamara69]

I live on the 7th floor and my other apartment is on the 4th, basically i can choose to have my modem on either floor as both apartments are wired for service. I have a Netgear N600 router and a TP link WR841. I've installed DD-WRT on the TP link and used it as a client on the 7th floor while the modem and Netgear was on 4th. The TP link's speed was barely crawling at < 1mbps (I have a 25 mbps package) with frequent disconnection.

So, I am not looking to get the full 25 mbps with a prospective access point or any other hardware, I just need something that maintains a steady connection around 5-6 mbps.

I am a noob when it comes to networking and any suggestions about range extenders or pass-through power line stuff or any other equipment will be much appreciated.

 

[Solandri]

The beam pattern of those little whip antennas on your router forms a torus (a donut). Signal strength is strongest to the sides, but almost non-existent above or below.

http://mpantenna.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FIGURE-1.png

Assuming your 4th floor apartment is directly below your 7th floor apartment, you want to rotate the antenna so it's horizontal (parallel to the floor), not vertical. Same thing for the client if it's got an external antenna. You want it parallel to the router antenna (and preferably pointing in the same direction).

If your apartments are displaced slightly horizontally, you want the antennas of both devices oriented so that they're perpendicular to the same tilted plane that intersects both devices

 

[LilDog1291]

Powerline ethernet adapters signal degrades the farther the signal has to travel. Plus it doesnt transmit through breaker boxes so unless the whole building only has one breaker box it probably wont work. Every time you extend your wifi, you are taking the speed that the extender gets from its position, and cutting it in half usually unless your extender uses both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bandwidths.

With that in mind, if both floors are wired for service, I'm guessing that they aren't in any way physically connected that you could get a hardline connection going. The best thing I can think of is to beef up the source connection router to the point that the DD-WRT router can connect to it better as a client. This will take you into the Netgear Nighthawk level or Linksys 1900ACS. These aren't cheap but you are in a very unique situation.

I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of an easy solution.

 

[mcnamara69]

So, which one will work better given the situation? Nighthawk or Linksys?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Signal degradation through 3 floors is massive.
Only way to circumvent that, would be using external antennas on same outside wall of the house.

 

[Pooneil]

The newest AV2 powerline adapters may or may not work. They use MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) that can use the ground as a path.

A wifi bridge using directional antennas is likely to have interference from intervening wifi but might also be worth a try. However doing this, pointing the signal from directional antennas through several floors and causing interference with others wifi, could reasonably be considered unneighborly. Look at Engenius or Ubiquiti equipment .

Buy from a store with a customer friendly return policy because satisfaction from either option is questionable.

Ethernet is the far superior option if it can be arranged in the building.