AC RT-3100 range advise

[djbordie]

Hello Lads, great forum. Have read everything on here in helping me to buy the right equipment and setup properly. Very helpful.

I just moved from an old 1960's house with unfinished basement, the wifi signal there was incredible. Also ran my own Cat6 as there were many unfinished walls. this was ideal...
Now I am in a 5 year old home and the build is much more finished/insulated. Surprisingly giving me about half the signal quality. Not to mention they installed cat3 in the walls!!! wtf is that, how much more would it have cost to even use cat 5...jesus only 5 year old build. Toto toilets, but cat3 in the walls...

My dilemma is this:

- AC-RT3100 at basement stairs, facing the stairs. (clean line of sight to living room, albeit up 1 flight of wood stairs)

- Nighthawk EX700 range extender in living room to hookup the wired only TV and Media server/nas

- Even though the distance is only 30ft, almost direct LOS, the signal is only 75% quality and about half the strength it should be. (-75db to -65db)

My TX rates are hovering around 500mbps to the living room, android wifi analyzer apps say ~200mbps link speed. No where near the 800+ i would get through a floor at about 15ft at the old house. (unfinished floor, was a breeze to go through i suppose)

AC - RT3100, Merlin latest update.

My only idea is to "somehow" get the hggomes Firmware or use the
john9527 firmware and increase the TX power. (edit, it seems no RT3100 firmware from John)

Does telnet work on the 88u/rt-3100? (to switch to EU and increas tx)

Any suggestions for this or tips on where to get Hggomes firmware?

thank you

 

[Blinkyz]

Any suggestions for this or tips on where to get Hggomes firmware?

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/where-in-the-world-is-hggomes.40859/

 

[RMerlin]

Power boosting won't really help, since you wouldn't be boosting your client's own power as well.

Look into a powerline-based solution to connect an AP. If the house is recent, the electrical wiring should be pretty good for powerline usage.

500 Mbps through a wall is still very good for the 5 GHz band, and pretty much what you can expect.

 

[djbordie]

I figured i could boost the AP Client as well.
Its just silly to think we are capped at 80mw in a country where we are allowed up to 1000mw
I thought getting her to 150 or so would increase the throughput plenty.

As usual its best to take 8 hrs and figure out how to run a cat7 to the tv area...what a pain in the butt.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I had zero luck with power line adapters in my 1968 home. I'd be curious to hear if they work better in a new home, but even if they do, I'd be surprised if they will do better than 500 mbps, even for the "2000 mbps" adapters.

For the speeds that you want, I think your best bet is to run some good quality Cat 6/6a/7 cable. Crawlspace is going to be the easiest if your house has one and if your router and entertainment system are on the ground floor. Drilling straight through the floor is easy although it does mean having a cover plate on the floor vs on the wall. If no crawlspace, running a cable outside the house or in the attic are the other obvious choices. On a side note, crimping ends onto Cat 6a/7 cable may be fairly tough. They are considerably thicker cables.

 

[djbordie]

Sounds about right, thanks for the suggestion.

i was really looking forward to using the ac3100 to its full potential.
I had a laptop hitting 70MB/s transfers at the old place on 5ghz.

here with a proper wifi extender ac1900 i am getting 35MB/s...
kinda hurts. but i suppose 1 wall will do that.

i could almost guarantee that a power increase would suffice in this case. the distance is so minor.

the finished nature of the basement/location of modem/router to tv room is a tough fish. No chance actually now that i think of it, without extensive wire runs crossing finished surfaces/etc.

I think i am humped for the time being.

 

[RMerlin]

here with a proper wifi extender ac1900 i am getting 35MB/s...
kinda hurts. but i suppose 1 wall will do that.

Repeaters will cut throughput in half.

 

[djbordie]

Repeaters will cut throughput in half.

media extender mode only.

so it grabs the 5ghz from the rt3100 and allows Ethernet plug in from my 2 media devices.

From what I read this does not half the situation. Certainly not in fastlane mode which disables the 5ghz to the main floor and uses it solely for connection to the main router.
right?

 

[RMerlin]

From what I read this does not half the situation. Certainly not in fastlane mode which disables the 5ghz to the main floor and uses it solely for connection to the main router.
right?

Should be correct.

 

[maxbraketorque]

...

the finished nature of the basement/location of modem/router to tv room is a tough fish. No chance actually now that i think of it, without extensive wire runs crossing finished surfaces/etc.

I think i am humped for the time being.

ok, yeah, not so easy if you are going through the floor, but there are long drill bits that can span the thickness of the joists and flooring. Combine that with enclosed cable guides, and it should look like a pretty clean setup.