Setup Advice

[Perenthis]

Hello,

I currently have an Asus rt-n66u, I've had it for a few years and it's always been good but ever since I moved / bought a condo the coverage has been lackluster.

The router is in one of the bedrooms and whenever I'm in the living room I get from 1-2 bars of signal on my smart tv / wireless devices. That and every now and then the wifi just dies (wifi remains connected but no internet access while wired internet works fine). I suspect it's a mix of walls killing the signal and / or the amount or wifi's around causing interference and / or just the router dieing

In an ideal world I'd have a wire coming to the living room but with the layout of my current place it's not very practical to do. (the kitchen separates the living room and the bedroom). I'm considering either getting a new router but I'm effraid I'll suffer from the same signal drops or just getting a good AP (ubiquiti?) and putting it in a more central area.

Also If it matters any, I'm looking into building a small home lab in the near future ( nas / switch / small servers).. Would love some input on the matter.

Thank you

 

[Klueless]

• OK, you're stuck in the bedroom. You might want to start by grabbing a length of Ethernet cable and trying your router at another location or two in the bedroom. You might get lucky and it won't cost anything to try except 15 minutes of your life. Off the floor and closer / looking out the door?
• Check the obvious. Baby monitors and 2.4 GHz cordless phones come to mind. (Don't microwave popcorn while you're online : -)
• Load up a WiFi Analyzer. Check for conflicts and change channels as needed.
• Do you have separate SSIDs, e.g., one for 2.4 GHz and one for 5 GHz? It might be easier to troubleshoot one band at a time?

We don't know much about your house but I do share your concern. Throwing a better router at the problem might not fix it. An Access Point is cheaper and more likely to work. But if you can't run a wire to relocate your router how are you going to wire an AP? If you've the money some rave about mesh solutions.

How's connectivity in the area you're thinking of using as a lab area? Given what you've said so far it sounds like running cables?

 

[Perenthis]

• I already tried moving it a little around the room but there wasn't really any meaningful improvement. I sort of expected it because it's already just sitting on my desk just by the door... wish I could post a layout of my place so its a little easier to picture but my drawing skills are pretty much non existant. One thing I noticed that I didn't mention though is that I have two antennas thats are kind of broken (doesn't stand straight) The cat may have something to do with that.. I'm sure it doesn't help but I don't know how much it actually affects the signal.

• That's a very good guess but I have neither of those.

• That's one of the firsts things I ran, and aside from having lots of wifi around and some people sitting on some weird channels overlapping with everyone else, the channel in using was getting a decent rating

• Yup, two different SSIDs

My plan was to possibly put the AP in the corridor next to the kitchen which would only require to get a cable from the room to the corridor where as if I wanted to get one to the TV in the living room I'd have to get through the kitchen or towards the corridor and all around the living room till it reaches it.

I was planning on setting up my lab in the same area as my main computer and current router are sitting so wiring around the room isn't a big deal. Budget is more or less an issue although I do wanna spend smartly.

Thanks for taking the time to help me

 

[Klueless]

Hey, you are no amateur! Sorry about being "Captain Obvious" but I didn't know : -)

Sounds like you're leaning towards an AP then? I can't disagree.

I also had an N66U. I upgraded to an Asus RT-AC1900P last week because it was on sale, because I want to install a Roku on a TV in a far corner of the house and because the N66U wasn't mine anyway.

The signals are a little better but not enough to write home about. If I wasn't "married with children" and had the extra money I would have gotten the AC3100 just because ...

BTW does all this stuff sit over an unfinished basement? Might be easier to run cable than one might first think.

 

[Perenthis]

No harms done, it's actually a good thing because it easily could of been something very silly that I didn't think of.

That AC3100 is sexy, I really like Asus routers good products.

Yeah I'm leaning towards an AP, something Ubiquiti probably, still doing my research on that end. As for the stuff, I'm living in some sort of 6 appartement building where I'm in the middle of it so I can't quite easily run cables up/down/ inside the walls which is unfortunate because I really would of prefered that.

 

[Klueless]

I can't quite easily run cables up/down/ inside the walls ...

I've always pondered my stupidity while watching the TV guys miraculously pulling coax through impossible places for "free" and not offering them an extra hundred cash to pull a little Ethernet while they were at it

 

[sfx2000]

I've always pondered my stupidity while watching the TV guys miraculously pulling coax through impossible places for "free" and not offering them an extra hundred cash to pull a little Ethernet while they were at it

It doesn't hurt to ask - some are company employees (which likely won't), but others are independent contractors - paid by the job, not by the hour, so time and materials...

When I do consulting - the guy I work with who does contract installs for DirecTV and Dish, along with Cox and Spectrum (ex-Time Warner) - running coax or ethernet, he's fast and efficient, minimum 1 hour labor charge - he's usually done within 20 minutes or so, and it's a lot easier than pulling cable on one's own - he's got all the tools/test equipment, and he guarantees his work.