Old house, old people, need wireless help.

[FyrFytr]

Hello all, thank on advance for your assistance.

I have good friends of mine who I am attempting to set-up an easy, effective wireless network for. The house was built in the 1920s, with lath & plaster walls, and the signal has a helluva time getting through them. I want to get them strong wireless signal on both levels in order for them to use their laptops, as well as a Roku & wifi connected TVs for streaming services.

What they have:
FIOS (great service & features, but I hate having to use the Actiontec FIOS router)
Roku
Office desktops
multiple laptops
'Smart' TVs w/ wifi
2 Engenius RSR9850 routers I bought for them (I use this router at home, and love it.)
Cat5e cable run from the office to a couple of rooms upstairs. Wire is loose, not connected to wall plates.


Issues I'm initially having:

1) Internet connectivity issues.
They appear to have issues with both of them accessing the web from laptops simultaneously. This happened w/ a Netgear WNDR3300 that they had running previously, along w/ the FIOS Actiontec router. Verizon disabled the wireless on the Actiontec, and they said the problem stopped. I believe that the WNDR3300 was running the mode that has 5ghz 'n', but the 2.4 ghz radio running 'g'.

I hooked an ESR9850 to the Actiontec in 'n' only mode, and re-enabled the the Actiontec wireless so that they can use non-N devices wirelessly. I set both devices on a completely different channel to prevent overlap and interference. The wife tells me today that the dropputs are happening again. Any suggestions???

2) What to do w/ the ERS9850s...?
Currently the one is set-up downstairs in the office, next to the Actiontec, as previously noted above.

Should the other be put upstairs in repeating mode? Or, should I connect it to that Cat5e that's run upstairs, and just create an 'upstairs' network separate from the downstairs? They aren't moving data around the house from computer to computer. They just want to stream video well and reliably.

3) The Cat5e cable.
In the office, should it be connected to the FIOS Actiontec router LAN ports, or the ESR9850's LAN ports?


They live 120 miles from me, so I'd like to set this up as simply, and reliably as possible the first time.

 

[stevech]

We'll assume you've done the obvious:
- Assure the WiFi router is elevated and as best as possible, in the clear. Not blocked by furniture. May need longer cables to do this.
- Try to move the DSL/Cable modem and the router to a more central location in the home.

Failing that...

One Internet connection means ONE router in the home.
As I read your description...
Verizon provided a modem+router all-in-one. But has disabled the router. This means their box is now a modem/bridge, not a router.

So to their box you can connect your own router - meaning your router's WAN port goes to the Verizon device.

Now you have a WiFi router - and you setup security and so on.

Need more coverage in this home? Best way is to add an ACCESS POINT (AP). An AP can be purcased, or can be a "re-purposed" commonplace router. There's a FAQ here on how to do this. It's easy.

The AP then connects by cat5 to THE router, and is placed in a weak signal area. Usually, it's impractical to run cat5 nearer to the weak signal area - under the house, in the attic, etc. So a good alternative is to use, instead of the long cat5 cable, a pair of HomePlug AV devices. These use the home's power wires in place of the cat5 cable run. They are plug and play - no setup. Now the "AP" can connect to the HomePlug AV device and create new coverage.

See the section in this forum: HomePlug and MoCA.

The alternative is to not use an AP. Instead, use a "WDS repeater". This is quite problematic: The WDS device is similar to a router, and sold as a WDS capable product. Sometimes, the WDS and the main router have to be the same vendor and product generation. When WDS is made to work, it is a repeater - meaning it has to be in an area with a decent signal to/from the main router, but close enough to the weak signal area to be of benefit. A WDS repeater halves the data rate - but if the ISP's connection is rather slow, like DSL, it doesn't matter.

These are the most common ways to deal with weak signals. Using a better antenna on the main router helps, but only a little.

 

[GregN]

Verizon provided a modem+router all-in-one. But has disabled the router. This means their box is now a modem/bridge, not a router.

In most cases, it is different with FIOS, Fiber runs to the house, to something like a NID, and twisted pair runs into the house, regretfully often into the basement utility closet/furnace room where the Actiontec router is placed - the last place you want your wireless router.

For those looking at a FIOS install, I find slipping the Verizon installer some cash can help that situation significantly, they are often open to running Cat5 for you.



The Actiontec was a limited router when I had one (see the other posts here), there are several good write-ups on DSLReports on replace that the verizon provided router. I was able to just slip mine in, but I didn't have VOIP or TV service.

I'm under the impression that if you do have TV Service - you turn off the wireless, and put the Actiontec in Bridge mode, bypassing the problematic limitations of the Actiontec (I did this at one point, but was long ago), see the DSLReports pages. The actiontec is transparent, as are its' limitations - you'd be going directly to your router.

I would then run one of your Engenius routers as an AP, and one as a wireless router ( at the other end of house, or central to the upstairs ) at the best Cat5E drop point. Hopefully that will be enough to cover the house.

Ideally you want to just drop the Actiontec all together....

 

[FyrFytr]

As for the Actiontec...w/ FIOS, it's still used as a router, and I want the wireless in use for older, wireless G devices. I'm running the Engenius in N only mode. I have this same set-up in my house, and it's run virtually trouble free for over a year. The FIOS router needs to stay in play w/ FIOS TV, as it gives the guide information to the set-top boxes and is necessary for video on demand services.

As for setting the other Engenius as an access point, it's not as 'easy' as I had hoped it would be. The documentation is minimal, and the web interface implementation appears to be easy, but it's obviously not giving me options I need to be able to control it once I've set it in repeating mode. I'll keep playing with it...

 

[GregN]

As for setting the other Engenius as an access point, it's not as 'easy' as I had hoped it would be.

You might want to take a look at the article How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point