What is good home router for strong wifi coverage - also are extenders worthwhile?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › What is good home router for strong wifi coverage - also are extenders worthwhile?

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#795045 8-Apr-2013 14:43

sbiddle:Remember WiFi is a two way medium. It doesn't matter how high you crank up the power, your laptop/phone/tablet which typically has a very low gain antenna still needs to transmit back to the AP.

This.

On the odd occasion I get asked if boosting the signal on the AP will make a big difference.

Arguably, if the problem domain is to improve some type of streaming app via UDP, then perhaps the boost would be worth it. Otherwise, if it's TCP, then the (s)lowest common denominator can have a significant impact on perceived/expected throughput.

ushare

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#795168 8-Apr-2013 18:47

i m planning to buy a asus rt-ac66u. Apparantly these have really good range and are future proof.

TBH, i cant seem to decide between the D6300 and the RT-AC66U.. :(

corksta

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#795214 8-Apr-2013 20:23

ushare: i m planning to buy a asus rt-ac66u. Apparantly these have really good range and are future proof.

TBH, i cant seem to decide between the D6300 and the RT-AC66U.. :(

I prefer the cleaner look of internal antennae so I went with Netgear.

mobiusnz

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#795863 9-Apr-2013 21:44

Have to say, I second the idea of ignoring the wireless on crappy all in one routers and getting a decent wireless access point. Your average all in one is probably around 100mw for the transmit power, I use a Ubiquiti Picostation M2 which outputs at up to 800mw. Its got incredible receive sensitivity and being small and lightweight with power over ethernet supplied standard its a lot easier to locate it in an ideal location only having to run one network lead. I've set one up at a bar in a mall in Christchurch, its surrounded by countless other 2.4ghz wireless networks and masses of interference and yet worked perfectly with great receive and transmit speeds with my iphone from 150 meters away across the carpark. I live in a back section down a long drive behind two other houses and I can sit in my car on the roadside and use my iphone with no noticeable latency for normal browsing and email.

My experience is most of the flashy linksys, netgear, asus etc all in ones offer lots in looks and little in substance. My Ubiquiti has never needed a reboot (unlike my ADSL router).

Have a look at gowifi.co.nz - They are incredible little devices, the power APN is great too, I used one at my brothers to bridge his equipment in his garage to the wireless network in his house. His laptops wifi would barely connect to the wifi at all, plugged in via ethernet to the power APN with the Power APN connecting to the inhouse wifi and he was getting real throughput of 36 - 54Mb (Only a crappy 54G router). Again amazing power (1000mw) and fantasic receive sensitivity.

I would avoid putting an ethernet router behind an ADSL router too, double nat'ing can give you headaches. The number of times I've had clients with an ADSL router with wifi they weren't happy with so DSE or Harvey Norman sold them an ethernet router to stick behind it. At least change it to AP mode.

Put in a good A/P and you can change your provider / router like you change your underpants and your wifi will always work.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

Yoban

447 posts

Ultimate Geek

#797122 10-Apr-2013 12:58

sbiddle:
Yoban: I have installed the ubiquiti rocket M (http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#rocketm) and had great success. Placed it in a cupboard that is fairly central to the house, wired back to my router, added two high gain aerials and was away.

Did you just add two aerials to the snandard Rocket? This isn't something I'd recommend as the radio wasn't designed with this in mind (it was designed for being attached to a AirMAX panel) so the lack spacial and polarity diversity will impact performance as it's a 2X2 MIMI radio. It might work OK for you, but it's certainly not a solution I'd ever contemplate using in a production environment.

There is an outdoor UniFi which uses a similar case with 2 x omni antennas which is a much better solution.

Was following the guidance from this post http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=66&topicid=83632&page_no=1#471279

Seems to be working OK, thanks for the additional information and will do a bit more research.

timmmay

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#797157 10-Apr-2013 13:57

A friend wants help extending his WiFi range. Can I just get the Uniquiti Rocket M/Picostation, plug it into his router, and configure it? Or do I need other hardware as well to support it?

sbiddle

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#797164 10-Apr-2013 14:10

timmmay: A friend wants help extending his WiFi range. Can I just get the Uniquiti Rocket M/Picostation, plug it into his router, and configure it? Or do I need other hardware as well to support it?

The Rocket M is an outdoor radio designed to be used in conjunction with a dual polarity antenna.

The Pico can be used indoors or outdoors and is a single chain radio.

You can plug any AP you want into your Ethernet network behind your router and use it withiout any other hardware.

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mobiusnz

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Ultimate Geek

#797173 10-Apr-2013 14:19

timmmay: A friend wants help extending his WiFi range. Can I just get the Uniquiti Rocket M/Picostation, plug it into his router, and configure it? Or do I need other hardware as well to support it?

Certainly a Picostation you can, plug it in and connect to it with your browser - They default to 192.168.1.20 so you might need to change the ip of your machine to program it initially but they are pretty easy to setup.

As sbiddle said - The rocket isn't really the right device.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

networkn

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#797174 10-Apr-2013 14:22

I wonder how long it will be till Wireless a/c is available in devices, it looks epic.

timmmay

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#797189 10-Apr-2013 14:46

Thanks guys, looks like a better option than a WiFi repeater, plug and go is handy. Even if it's just sitting near the router on the floor I bet it works a lot better, but I'll try and get it up higher.

zaptor

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#797206 10-Apr-2013 15:24

Curious. Does anyone know what real world behaviour one would expect, if - for arguments sake - his/her neighbors all started deploying WiFi extenders/boosters?

Would it be akin to living in a WiFi congested apartment block?

sbiddle

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#797210 10-Apr-2013 15:39

networkn: I wonder how long it will be till Wireless a/c is available in devices, it looks epic.

It's starting to appear now. The problem is it doesn't deliver on most of the promises unless you're looking to deploy your own wireless network inside a lead encased house. 80MHz of clear spectrum just doesn't exist.

The solution to crowed spectrum is beam forming, but most people aren't going to be able to afford a Ruckus AP for their home.

dafman

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#797225 10-Apr-2013 16:05

Hard wiring AP's is always the best approach. If you don't want to run cabling then Ethernet over power adapters are a good way of getting an Ethernet signal to the area so you can plug in an AP.

Thanks - so, to check my understanding ...

We run an Ethernet cable from the existing g router to the other end of the house and connect it to a wireless AP?

If yes, will the new wireless AP create a new wireless network with separate SSID (ie there are two networks and you connect to whichever one is at your end of the house) or does the new wireless AP form part of the existing wireless network (ie has the same SSID and password as the existing g router?).

And cable may not be a goer, so do Ethernet power adapters work ok?

sbiddle

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#797244 10-Apr-2013 16:49

If you want to roam between AP's you should set the same SSID and password/encryption type but use a different non overlapping channels (1,6 and 11 are the only 3 non overlapping channels)

richms

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#797373 10-Apr-2013 20:07

I have had constant issues with same SSID on different gear at home. Seems that even tho they both report WPA2 there is some difference that makes a total disconnection and reconnection needed. Now I have changed to all the same accesspoints ($9 150 meg routers from PB tech - yes, $9. Total steal) it does roam seamlessly.

WDS is crap, its ability to handle a congested radio band is a joke. client mode works a lot better, but has the problem that you have the single mac address showing which breaks things when you roam between them.

I would buy all the same gear, turn the wireless in the ADSL router off, and just use the others, which are the same hardware for everything. That gives you the best chance of moving between accesspoints without it flicking back to 3g briefly and dropping all your connections. At work it does it about 80-90% of the time walking between buildings with all unifi accesspoints, at home its a bit less aggressive at moving off the weaker barely working accesspoint, but still more often then not will just get a brief glitch in the skype call or whatever, whereas when I was on different brand APs it would almost always drop, go on 3g for a second or 2 and then go back on the other wifi network.

Richard rich.ms

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