Exploring options to improve WiFi coverage

[loft]

Hello dear community,

I am, sadly, in a bad edge coverage situation and I am looking for options to improve the signal around some edges.

Building situation:
- 2 floor apartment, with reinforced concrete structure (including ceiling/floor) and masonry walls (I have attached the plan)
- Upper floor ceiling made out of drywall on wooden structure
- No ethernet wiring and no possibility to pull wires through walls
- Router (ASUS RT-AC68U) placed on the lower floor, on the green dot. Currently the router is sufficient for most of my needs. I am already thinking of exchanging it because of EoL software, but I'm not eager to do so since it still works perfectly fine.
- Home office desk placed on the red dot with occasional dropped meetings (Lenovo T14 Gen2)
- 7 other wi-fi (both on 2.4 and 5 GHz, respectively) networks seen by my Samsung S24 at the location of the router, with multiple others seen around the edges of the apartment


I thought of the following solutions, in no particular order:

1. Buy a co-ax white cable and place one of the router's antenna's on the upper floor, at the blue dot. Probably getting it just above the floor level would be enough.
- It would probably be the cheapest solution, barely visible.
- I am not sure if the results would be significantly better

2. Buy an PoE AP and place it at the same blue dot. I happen to have a switch with PoE capabilities
- More expensive and I am not sure I will be able to find a thin enough AP to pass the wife audit.
- I cannot find any reasonably small AiMesh compatible APs from ASUS

3. Buy a wi-fi extender and plug it in one of the sockets I have on the wall outside the bathroom.
- Probably the most plug and play solution, but not sure about the results. Currently no speed or lag critical clients ever make it to the upper floor.
- Will definitely add to the already crowded spectrum in the building.

What would you do? I open to other solutions beside the above.

Thank you!

 

[OzarkEdge]

What would you do?

Buy a new, current WiFi6 wireless router or perhaps 2-unit wireless/mesh system with dedicated wireless backhaul (third band)... newer, faster, and more effective WiFi radios at distance... and then re-evaluate your need from there.

OE

 

[tgl]

@OzarkEdge 's suggestion is probably the best answer if you want to stay within the ASUS ecosystem (ASUS doesn't do PoE-powered APs as far as I know). However, if you are in an already wifi-dense building then a setup with an additional radio for wireless backhaul is not a really great plan. It might work okay, or it might encounter so much interference as to not work well.

Since you seem to be willing to run an ethernet cable up the stairwell, I think you should seriously consider the alternative of placing an AP with ethernet backhaul (and, probably, PoE power) at the top of the stairs. That avoids all the issues that come with wireless backhaul. A model that might pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor) test is the UniFi U6 Mesh AP.

If you just buy that AP then you will need something to configure it with --- UniFi APs don't have an inboard management GUI. I think you could get away with using the free UniFi phone app to configure it. If you wanted to go all-in on UniFi then replacing your RT-AC68U with a UniFi "cloud gateway" (probably the UX7) would be the next step, but you don't need to do that if the immediate goal is just to improve your home office wifi experience.

 

[loft]

Thank you guys for your suggestions! They have pushed me into really checking the router market and I got to a couple of conclusions:

- With their prices (at least in Europe) Ubiquiti would push me into 500+ € territory with a router and two APs - didn't even pitch this to my wife
- Buy and Asus AX88U Pro for 241 € and use the current AC68U as an extender - got the wife's approval to pull some wires around the door sills and such. Might even manage to get it into the attic
- Go with the above scenario but go one step above and buy an BE88U (300 € at the time
- Go with the wife's suggestion and buy a cheap Asus AX ruter (plenty of options under 100 €) and use ut as an AiMesh node.

I am aware that the last 3 conclusion are 3 very differnet paths in terms of future proofing my network:
1. Will probably not have to think about upgrades for a 5 to 10 years, unless some things change dramatically: I buy an NVEm based NAS, more Wifi 7 clients join the network?
2. Will probably be set for the next decade, unless updates stop coming and some serious bug is found.
3. For now things are cheap. But my AC68U is already at the end of its software lifetime and probably I'd only be pushing the today's upgrade for another time in the next 3-5 years.

Do you have any comments on my 3 upgrade pahs?

Thanks!

 

[degrub]

Don't worry about wifi7. Currently in beta testing and the realistic gains are marginal at best for this use case. Wifi6 (not 6e) is the sweet spot for performance and cost right now. Don't be concerned about 5-10 years from now for devices. Plan the wiring for that long. The devices will be swapped out when they are end of life, fail, or end of support (if first device facing internet).

With your physical setup, the concrete will absorb a lot of signal on any wifi band. You best bet is to go with two AP radio setup - one the main wifi router and the second as a AP using ethernet cable as backhaul. You should be able to get flat ethernet cable that is easier to hide, but do not crimp it or fold it going around corners. CAT6 or even 5E would be fine. Wire any devices that can be wired to reduce the wifi loading.
Make sure the POE std the switch supports provides more than enough power for the consuming device, both for the individual port and overall. Otherwise, use a power injector of the correct or higher power rating. Make sure the voltage output is correct or you can fry the consuming device.

One of the main RF advantages of Ubiquitu or other SMB gear is that you can turn the power down low on the radios as they are designed to work that way. SMB gear is intended to have more APs at lower transmit power to facilitate coverage and reliability. Consumer gear, like asus, is intended to try to reach the far corners of any situation and has limited power reduction . Too much RF power is just as bad as too little.