Wifi Extender

[sofa king]

Interesting to see this topic rise up again.
I have my router in the basement, basically because that is where the cable was brought in to the house.
I've been thinking to experiment and put it in the attic, only issue is, then it is all wireless and once it's set up, it's in there.
Curious if the coverage would be better for the house there though rather than bottom's up....

Edit - Ok, maybe not the best idea for more than the reasons I mentioned above...

Phoenix_Router.png

[grr456]

I will tell you - I have the Synology router (this one) on the 1st floor, with an extender on the 2nd floor (this extender). I live on acreage, very flat open land, and I can get a signal (weak, but it connects) on my phone out at my barn 400' away.

For your yard, Geoff, that really may be powerful enough to get out to the garage. $200 router, and you can add extenders later at $140/ea if needed.

So now lets say I have these in my hands - Now what do we need to do to hook it up? Does this replace my existing WOW Router or does this work in conjunction with it?

[Atrus]

I'm not a super tech guy or anything, just sharing the experience I had. Prior to this I had the first gen Google Mesh system, and it started giving me a lot of grief. I switched to this and noticed it was far more powerful and remediated a lot of our issues.

As far as your WOW router, I assume it's an integrated modem/router? You'd need to leave it there to function as a modem, but you could turn off (or ignore) that wifi network, plug a different router into the WOW box, and then run everything off that wireless network.

[Atrus]

If I were in your shoes and mostly happy with what I have, I'd consider the AC adapter setup. I don't think they are very expensive. It may not work amazingly well if you have large bandwidth requirements, but for general usage it could/should work. Like I mentioned, my buddy is in IT and uses one at his place and seems happy with it. He works remotely and is on Google Meets all day with it.

Again, I am not anywhere near an expert on any of this.

[Detroit Gearbox]

My wife stuck eero wifi transmitters all around out house. I have one on my detached block garage as well (about 60' from the main router) they daisy link to each other to extend coverage.

[mustangmike6996]

I redid my house and ran CAT6 to all of the rooms to plug in my TVs etc, this freed up a bit of bandwidth. In the process, I ran a CAT6 cable to my garage and hooked up my old WiFi router then configured it to be a repeater. It isn't great but it gives me WiFi throughout my entire garage and yard. My current modem/router is located in my basement due to having old plaster walls, so this give the best overall WiFi coverage throughout the house but wouldn't travel (or give a strong enough signal) to my garage.

[93 saturn sl2]

See if the manufacturer of your router makes any sort of mesh kit and go with that. I would try to avoid running ethernet outside in case of a lightning strike. Fiber with two fiber-to-RJ45 converters (one each side) would do the job.

My networking equipment is in my basement, on one end of the house. On the 2nd floor I have another Asus router (wired) that is used with their AiMesh system to act as an access point. Works pretty well for me and I have coverage throughout the 26xx sq ft house and outside.

I also ran cat 6 to all rooms before moving in and have one run up in the attic for a POE access point (when I switch over to Ubiquiti equipment). I thought about installing the future POE AP in the attic but I do not know if that will be the best for it (since its un-conditioned space). I will probably just install it on the hallway ceiling which won't look so bad, IMO.

Edit: Photo of the rack.

[WhiteHawk]

I ended up getting a WiFi repeater for $65 at Microcenter. I could have spent a lot more for a mesh network, but really this was all I needed. Probably won't work in the garage, but the house is covered. The guy advised against using the stuff that runs the Wi-Fi through your outlets too, said they always had signal issues.

-Geoff