Wi-Fi routers what do you use? Coverage in the house?

[drajj5]

So, for those who live "In the rural areas" or "Own extraordinarily Large homes"....

Having lived in the country for most of my life, and spending vacations in the Big City. I am envious over the fact that those who live in suburbia have (great cellular phone coverage) and amazing internet connection speeds! Where I live in the Ga Mountains, this is not the case. I do not have Cellular coverage, and deal with slower internet connections. While waking up and enjoying a coffee and watching the clouds rise from the valleys within the Smokey Mountains is wonderful on brisk mornings, there are some drawbacks. If I were to get hurt there is no one to call, cellphone is useless.

On to the dilemma, wi-fi coverage for homes are terrible. I do not have a neighbor nearby, and I leave my router (open for everyone) - police have left a note in my mailbox thanking me for (their ability to use my network to call out). Both my wife and I have the cellular phones that connect to the router so we can send and receive calls. We have just purchased a new router and it seems that the coverage area is less than the older unit. Placed in the same location and using all new cable(s) the signal is weak. ( the older unit would make it at least a small bit in the driveway ). I suspect that they make new routers with short ranges to accomodate houses that are stacked one one another, or for folks who live in an apartment complex. My home is 1500sqft which is not big, and on one level, so coverage should not be an issue.

Perhaps someone has solved (coverage in their home) - and would like to share with us "your" solution(s)! I am sure that their are a ton of people in my same situation and possibly worse off than I.

 

[Darth_DMack]

I have StarLink, and use their router, as well as their range extender. So far, 8 months in, I'm pretty happy with the performance. I am able to get a wifi signal from my attic, out to my RV, about 150' away from my home. Strong signal all through my house.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I use Cambium E410 and an outside E500 accesspoint. I manage these on Cambiums free cloud management tool, but this is enterprise grade Wifi solution. They are not cheap, but work awesome, and oh....I'm an IT manager for a large equipment rental company, so I do this for a living.

 

[drajj5]

I use Cambium E410 and an outside E500 accesspoint. I manage these on Cambiums free cloud management tool, but this is enterprise grade Wifi solution. They are not cheap, but work awesome, and oh....I'm an IT manager for a large equipment rental company, so I do this for a living.

Excellent!! A Guy who works in the field! Coverage area (if you had to guess)? Is what you are using, typically used in commercial application? My set-up is 75 ohm wired to service provider modem then router. I did run a 200' direct bury either-net cat 6 to the shop and a second router resides there.

 

[TractorTYMe]

The outside Cambium E500 can cover 15-20 acres of outside property easy, microwaves are easy dampened by steel structures (Faraday cages) and moist weather (rain drop). If you have a cable run, that is a pretty good setup. If not then a wireless bridge running on 6Ghz works pretty good for a point to point service to a large shop a few 100 yards away, and can up to a mile or two if a clear optical line of view to site.

 

[DarkBlack]

Your new router should be dual band.
2.4 GHz is better for longer distance than the faster 5Ghz band . Make sure you’ve compared connecting to it using both bands. You should find 2.4 to go further.
You can also play around with which specific frequency if you go with the 5Ghz signal , within your settings menu

 

[davrow]

My provided router could not reach my 2.4Ghz outdoor cameras. So, I replaced the single router in the middle of my 1 story house with an Asus XT9 4 router (2 2-packs) mesh system.
I chose Asus because the two primary competitors do not allow you to specify 2.4 or 5 Ghz. They choose automatically. Just doesn't work with 2.4Ghz wildlife cam apps.
2300 sq ft home, large yard, system works adequately.

 

[California]

Drajj5, maybe something in this can give you some ideas.

In town - when I went from DSL to fiber, I moved the entry point and modem/router from the kitchen, to a new entry point in an upstairs bedroom near the center of the house. This made a huge improvement in wifi signal everywhere. I no longer needed the distant repeaters (two bridged cheap routers) I had been feeding by Ethernet-over-powerline.

Setup diagrams which show wifi signal showering down from the highest point seem bogus but in my experience, that actually seems to work.

Drajj5, using EOP to bridge to a router in a more central location, might give you whole-house coverage.

And - I asked the fiber install tech if EOP could be used to move the fiber 'modem' from the terminal where fiber entered the house, to a more central location. He said sure, the connection between the entry terminal and the modem is simply Ethernet. This creates new possibilities.

But out at the ranch, 10Mbps DSL over ancient copper is all that's available. I tried a borrowed T-Mobile cell phone hotspot, nope. It was occasionally fast but generally far slower than the DSL.

The ranch wiring is so bad that EOP didn't work to bridge wifi out to repeaters in the barn. Moving the DSL modem to a new shelf near the ceiling in the house, improved the wifi signal everywhere. This made it possible to place a critter camera at the far corner of the barn, and another looking down the driveway. (Wyze, Arlo wifi security cameras).

 

[ericm979]

I set up an Orbi mesh router for the house and garage. The service is a radio link to the next mountain. The ISP provides a box with an RJ45 on it, I set up the rest. I ran IT for a company that grew from 20 to a couple hundred so I have some experience setting equipment up.

I like the Orbi because it doesn't need an app to set up. There's a good web based management UI. I don't trust companies with my router set up info.

 

[drajj5]

Drajj5, maybe something in this can give you some ideas.

In town - when I went from DSL to fiber, I moved the entry point and modem/router from the kitchen, to a new entry point in an upstairs bedroom near the center of the house. This made a huge improvement in wifi signal everywhere. I no longer needed the distant repeaters (two bridged cheap routers) I had been feeding by Ethernet-over-powerline.

Setup diagrams which show wifi signal showering down from the highest point seem bogus but in my experience, that actually seems to work.

Drajj5, using EOP to bridge to a router in a more central location, might give you whole-house coverage.

And - I asked the fiber install tech if EOP could be used to move the fiber 'modem' from the terminal where fiber entered the house, to a more central location. He said sure, the connection between the entry terminal and the modem is simply Ethernet. This creates new possibilities.

But out at the ranch, 10Mbps DSL over ancient copper is all that's available. I tried a borrowed T-Mobile cell phone hotspot, nope. It was occasionally fast but generally far slower than the DSL.

The ranch wiring is so bad that EOP didn't work to bridge wifi out to repeaters in the barn. Moving the DSL modem to a new shelf near the ceiling in the house, improved the wifi signal everywhere. This made it possible to place a critter camera at the far corner of the barn, and another looking down the driveway. (Wyze, Arlo wifi security cameras).

I hadn't thought of relocating the "router to an elevated position". I have the option to move the router to a more central location/high on a wall and can change it entirely with cn pilot e410 system "this has been incorporated at the Post Office and can handle a pile of devices". I do have DSL which is all that is available where I live. I am prepared to run necessary cable in the attic to (fix the issue once and for all).

 

[drajj5]

I set up an Orbi mesh router for the house and garage. The service is a radio link to the next mountain. The ISP provides a box with an RJ45 on it, I set up the rest. I ran IT for a company that grew from 20 to a couple hundred so I have some experience setting equipment up.

I like the Orbi because it doesn't need an app to set up. There's a good web based management UI. I don't trust companies with my router set up info.

Never heard of this.. I will have to check it out! And the bonus of setting up locally seems easier I.E. (setting up without internet service)

 

[Mtsoxfan]

We use Verizon. For $25 per month, we get this magic cube. It provides wifi. We can stream Thursday Night Football without issues. Get at least 100' range, haven't tried any father, no need to.

 

[Locoweed]

I bought a older Orbi off from ebay & have been very pleased with it. If you have a router with external antennas, try mounting a outside antenna up high & connect it to the router with a cable. That worked well for me while it lasted.

 

[ultrarunner]

That’s a great deal… I used a borrowed Verizon Cube that is not suppose to work here and it does but more like $45 per month.

 

[tomplum]

Ubiquiti access point in the house, one in the shop via cable and one outside to cover the front.

 

[LittleBill21]

you are better off with mesh units, you need to understand wifi is a 2 way street, although the router can yell louder, the phone in your pocket can't. Now some units have better antennas' but there is a limit. most mesh units on the market are good enough for most people. Commercial units have different requirements, and won't necessarily gain you much.

buy a 3 pack. hardwire one to the main router, disable the wifi in the main router, and just use the mesh units. follow the directions. they typical tell you how to place them.

this would work well for you.

Amazon.com

 

[FullMetalBucket]

Currently Amplify mesh which is part of Ubiquity. This one here:

AmpliFi | Faster, Whole-Home Wi-Fi

Prior to that I used Orbi mesh, but my system went EOL, no more firmware updates. Had good luck with it.

 

[mikester]

I use several wifi routers running OpenWRT and I keep my networks separated with firewalled LAN/VLANs. Guest, Kids, Home, IoT, Work. Important stuff is on wired gigabit LAN. Hardware these days is less important, most modern hardware is pretty capable.

 

[jk96]

I like the tp link routers. 2 story home plus basement. We have a tp link mesh extender in the basement. 4300 sq ft all 3 levels and no signal issues.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

That’s a great deal… I used a borrowed Verizon Cube that is not suppose to work here and it does but more like $45 per month.

I double checked, still 25. That said, Verizon limits who can get, maybe don't want to overload system? IDK, we had to use a different address in another state to get approved though...
Tmobile was 50