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

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dafman

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#115814 8-Apr-2013 09:54

My sister in Auckland is looking to replace her aging g router with the a new n router. Her house is a large villa with downstairs, so I am keen for recommendations for routers with very good wifi coverage.

The router will be used for browsing on laptops and ipads, nothing more sophisticated than that.

If the new router is unable to reach all corners of the house, I have suggested she also consider an wifi extender. I have no experience with these, so am interested in feedback on whether these are any good? If yes, does it make sense to pair the router and extender brand for best compatibility?

thanks in advance

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#794868 8-Apr-2013 10:25

Apple AirPort Extreme and Airport Express both are Dual-Band N. And Airport Express can automatically (detected) and set up for extending WiFi. I have this at home and I also use Ethernet Over Power (PowerLine) for connections.

However, seeing that 801.11ac is slowly becoming standard and has greater coverage, so probably worth looking into that.

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sbiddle

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#794909 8-Apr-2013 11:41

"Wireless extenders" are something that sound great but in reality doesn't necessarily work.

Using an AP as a repeater or in WDS mode will typically halve the maximum throughout. Whether or not it'll even work also depends on your exact setup - there is no point putting an AP somewhere with poor coverage because the unit requires a wireless signal, so if that's very poor you're only going to get poor coverage as a result.

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.

khull

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#794911 8-Apr-2013 11:42

Airport Extreme here - the new version has quite a good range. Far better than any I have seen.

I know of people who will swear by that and they own brick houses.

I suspect you'd see more AC devices become standard this year

networkn

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#794912 8-Apr-2013 11:43

Skip the router with Integrated Wifi if you want good range. Look for the Engenius Wireless Access Points.

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#794917 8-Apr-2013 11:48

networkn: Skip the router with Integrated Wifi if you want good range. Look for the Engenius Wireless Access Points.

Good luck with Engenius. Works fine for a year and then dies. I have a box here with probably 60+ dead Engenius AP's.

networkn

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#794921 8-Apr-2013 11:50

sbiddle:
networkn: Skip the router with Integrated Wifi if you want good range. Look for the Engenius Wireless Access Points.

Good luck with Engenius. Works fine for a year and then dies. I have a box here with probably 60+ dead Engenius AP's.

Eeek that doesn't sound great. I've been deploying them to all our clients. Which model?

What are you using instead?

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Yoban

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#794961 8-Apr-2013 13:07

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.

nice thing about it is you can "dial" up the power output until you have good coverage of your house.

can be sourced from gowifi.

also have a look at their unifi products - a mate has these and they are superb and can work in unison with the rocket http://www.ubnt.com/unifi#UnifiHardware. They are also styley for the misses at home if on display. Rydges hotel in Wellington has them installed on the floors for Wifi.

Have fun

zaptor

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#795003 8-Apr-2013 13:53

You may wish to consider keeping your current g router and feeding that off an n router. Of course, depends on what the g router model is.

I got an ASUS RT-N16, and put Tomato on it. It feeds (via wire) a WRT-54GL (running DD-WRT). They both operate @ 2.4GHz - albeit on different channels naturally. The RT-N16 can do 5.8GHz, but, apparently it's performance at that frequency is somewhat unimpressive, and not every 802.11n device I have can communicate at 5.8GHz anyway. Plus, 5.8GHz doesn't travel as well 2.4GHz anyhow (assuming same signal strength), although it's a lot less congested.
However, I don't live in an apartment, and there's only really one other device on the 2.4GHz spectrum I can see (neighbor's WiFi), apart from the WRT-54GL.

So, the WRT-54GL feeds the older 802.11g-only devices, and RT-N16 takes care of the 802.11n nodes.

It's a poor-mans g+n setup (cost was a determining factor in the decision making process), but, IMHO it's actually easier to maintain than a single - more expensive, dual-band router.

chevrolux

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#795009 8-Apr-2013 14:17

Yea don't muck around with combo modem/router/wifi things. Get a router for routing and a wireless access point for wireless access lol. Unifi is my favourite WAP. They look awesome and are extremely easy to set up. Just make sure the computer you load up the controller on keeps the same IP address forever as it will screw things up if the IP changes.
A Rocket probably isn't a bad idea either for a device around the same price. Just put some little rubber ducky antenna on it rather than a giant sector or dish antenna I guess.

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#795014 8-Apr-2013 14:19

Yoban:
nice thing about it is you can "dial" up the power output until you have good coverage of your house.

In most cases turning up the power makes things worse, not better.

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. Turning up an AP power level typically reduces sensitivity, making it harder for it to pick up a low powered device.

In an built up urban area 2.4GHz WiFi can have very poor perfomance these these days due to noise. In a very dense area (such as CBD apartments) it's basically useless right now.

networkn

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#795017 8-Apr-2013 14:20

We have used the unity as well and they are good, but they require the controller software which is why in most places we put engenuis. Giwifi seemed very surprised at sbiddles experience and I'm keen to hear what models as there was a batch which engenius replaced/refunded.

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#795020 8-Apr-2013 14:25

networkn: We have used the unity as well and they are good, but they require the controller software which is why in most places we put engenuis. Giwifi seemed very surprised at sbiddles experience and I'm keen to hear what models as there was a batch which engenius replaced/refunded.

A few different models but at least 45+ ECB3220's

networkn

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#795024 8-Apr-2013 14:29

sbiddle:
networkn: We have used the unity as well and they are good, but they require the controller software which is why in most places we put engenuis. Giwifi seemed very surprised at sbiddles experience and I'm keen to hear what models as there was a batch which engenius replaced/refunded.

A few different models but at least 45+ ECB3220's

Not sure who your supplier is, but I believe that Engenius would look at this as a matter of warranty given the number of them.

sbiddle

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#795028 8-Apr-2013 14:31

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.

sbiddle

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#795031 8-Apr-2013 14:32

networkn:
sbiddle:
networkn: We have used the unity as well and they are good, but they require the controller software which is why in most places we put engenuis. Giwifi seemed very surprised at sbiddles experience and I'm keen to hear what models as there was a batch which engenius replaced/refunded.

A few different models but at least 45+ ECB3220's

Not sure who your supplier is, but I believe that Engenius would look at this as a matter of warranty given the number of them.

Most were units that had been swapped out, they all just failed again within 12-18 months. The rest were units we've found at other jobs that have all suffered the same fate. There is insufficient cooling so they pretty much just cook themselves.

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