Small Deadspot - How to address?

[ChrisF60526]

All. We have a small deadspot in our bedroom that the wife wants to be addressed. I currently have (2) ASUS RT68U's running in AIMesh mode and it works pretty well. Everywhere in the house is covered except small area in a bedroom.

How would you handle this? I was thinking of putting a cheap extender up there but was wondering if that works with AIMesh. I can't hardwire another node to that part of the house. Other option is to move to a more modern router (ASUS RT-AX86U) and think that maybe Wifi 6 could hit that area.

Anyone with creative ideas?

 

[CaptainSTX]

I can't hardwire another node to that part of the house.

Is it possible for you to extend an Ethernet cable from an existing node to the bedroom and not worry about installing a home run? Also do you happen to have coaxial cable in the bedroom so you could use MOCA adapters to extend a hardwired connection to the bedroom.

I can't tell you how your network would work with both AIMesh and an extender but generally extenders slow a wireless network down and should be considered as a last resort.

 

[Tucu]

If you have not done it yet, check in both routers if Explicit/AC beamforming is enabled under Wireless->Professional.
How far is the deadspot from the closest routers? Do you have any obstacles that could be avoided by moving around one of the routers?

 

[ChrisF60526]

I can't run a cable there. The extender would be to just a bit better range in that area. I know the downsides to those things.

@Tucu

Here are my settings

 

[Tucu]

The settings look fine. Do you have a deadspot on both the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands? You will need to find a spot close enough to the deadspot that also has a reasonable good signal in the 5Ghz band (around -60 or -65 would do).
Asus sells one range extender compatible with AiMesh 2.0: RP-AX56U. But for the same money you could get one of the previous generation AC routers that have been upgraded to support AiMesh 2.0 like the RT-AC1750 B1. It is a 3x3 router with external antennas so it should have better coverage than the range extender.

 

[degrub]

Your dead spot is more likely the client device’s weakness or possibly outside neighbors with similar signal level rather than the AP coverage.

even powerline to a small AP somewhere in the room could give enough bandwidth and signal strength on 5GHz for most uses.

 

[ChrisF60526]

Your dead spot is more likely the client device’s weakness or possibly outside neighbors with similar signal level rather than the AP coverage.

even powerline to a small AP somewhere in the room could give enough bandwidth and signal strength on 5GHz for most uses.

Probably correct. It's hit or miss. I can do speedtest or throughput test and its fast, but it seems to drop to LTE more often in the one spot

 

[noah way]

By changing the router locations and adjusting the antennas you may be able to eliminate the dead zone. Also use site survey to see if any other networks are causing interference - a channel change could resolve that.

 

[Mr Tvardovsky]

If Ethernet or MOCA connection aren’t possible, I would use a powerline extender. For me they have always been more stable and offering stronger WiFi signal than purely wireless range extenders.

 

[krkaufman]

All. We have a small deadspot in our bedroom that the wife wants to be addressed.

Role-playing can liven things up.

 

[Smokindog]

Are the 2 nodes connected by wire? If so ditch AiMesh and put the second router into AP mode so you can select the frequencies independently on each router and for each band. As suggested above, you may have some interference issues. If not, then you go to the other solutions like repeaters, powerline, ........