Poor WiFi coverage in the house with HG659

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liquidcore

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#195509 22-Apr-2016 10:17

Hi guys/gals,

I have a 100/50 connection with Vodafone and use their HG659 RGW which is placed on the second floor of the house, towards the front. The house is about 250 sqm and a bedroom on the ground floor towards the back of the house has very poor (next to none) coverage on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The area around me is completely covered with WiFi networks so I have exhausted my options in terms of changing channels to optimise range/speed/reduce interference as pretty much every channel is taken up by multiple networks.

I have currently resorted to installing OpenWRT on an old HG556a and running it as a repeater of sorts (it is placed downstairs closer to the ground floor bedroom) which obviously sacrifices throughput (only getting around 20/6).

It is not really possible to move the HG659 to the centre of the house because it requires two jacks at the wall (one for ONT -> RGW and one for RGW VoIP -> patch panel so that all the other jacks in the house can have phones connected) and I can only find single jacks near the centre of the house. Additionally, it will also require some tinkering with the patch panel in the garage which I am not so keen on.

So I believe that essentially only leaves me with two options (please correct me if I'm wrong) - purchase an access point and run CAT5/6 cable to it from the HG659 (which is a bit unsightly) and place it near the centre of the house, or purchase a router which provides better WiFi range, set a static IP on it, disable DHCP, and connect it to the HG659 (and disable WiFi on the HG659).

I am not looking at spending too much ($200-250 max) and from doing some research online I keep seeing TPLink Archer C2/C7/C9 being mentioned. Does anybody have any experience with these or are there better (and affordable) options out there?

Cheers!

Jase2985

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#1537953 22-Apr-2016 10:25

have you looked at Ethernet over Power? some of them come with an Access point on one end of the connection which could do what you want

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sbiddle

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#1537955 22-Apr-2016 10:26

Expecting a single router / ap to provide coverage across an entire two story house is unrealistic.

Your best options are a 2nd access point, either cabled via Ethernet, or plugged into Ethernet over power extenders.

liquidcore

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#1537961 22-Apr-2016 10:37

Thank you guys for your quick replies!

I did think about ethernet over power but the house is about 7 years old and I don't know what to expect in terms of wiring.

Do you have any product recommendations if I did want to pursue the ethernet over power route (with a built-in access point or with an independent access point)?

venomio

178 posts

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#1537971 22-Apr-2016 10:46

liquidcore:

Thank you guys for your quick replies!

I did think about ethernet over power but the house is about 7 years old and I don't know what to expect in terms of wiring.

Do you have any product recommendations if I did want to pursue the ethernet over power route (with a built-in access point or with an independent access point)?

7 years is a pretty new house, I'm sure it'll handle EoP (Ethernet over Power) OK (but lots of factors change your experience). I've currently bought one of these to try out at a co-worker's house: http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=NETNCM0508&name=NetComm-PowerLine-NP508-500Mbps-Starter-Kit-w-AC-P

I'm sure you might get better results if you get a dedicated EoP device and a separate Access Point, but she wanted everything as small as possible and with minimal devices, so I'm going to try the above next week.

Jase2985

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#1537975 22-Apr-2016 10:50

there is not much point in getting a super fancy AC1300 type access point for the other end if the connection between the two EoP adapters can only handle less than 500mpbs

liquidcore

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#1537982 22-Apr-2016 10:55

Okay, I shall investigate - since I only need it to serve 2 or 3 devices max using the second AP I might just go with an integrated solution

gorringS

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#1538000 22-Apr-2016 11:15

get one of these and turn off the other built n wifi. You probably get massive improvement in coverage and speed be close to what a achieve using a Ethernet cable

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=26134

shk292

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#1538014 22-Apr-2016 11:25

I'd sacrifice POTS over the second jack near the router, replacing it with a DECT system that will cover the whole house

Then you could use the installed wiring (assuming it's Cat5 or better) to connect an AP in a suitable room with an existing jackpoint

liquidcore

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#1538477 22-Apr-2016 23:31

So I've had a look and found these options:

https://price.geekzone.co.nz/product.aspx?pid=889895368

https://price.geekzone.co.nz/product.aspx?pid=893945209 (coupled with a HG556a, or a Sercom SHG1500, or a new cheap but reliable router)

I am also quite interested about the Ubiquiti. What is so special about it in terms of wireless performance? How hard is it to set up to work alongside the HG659 so that it only handles WiFi connections?

dacraka

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#1538484 23-Apr-2016 00:39

liquidcore:

I did think about ethernet over power but the house is about 7 years old and I don't know what to expect in terms of wiring.

Seven years old for a house is pretty much perfect brand new wiring!

sqishy

470 posts

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#1544680 30-Apr-2016 22:59

Best to buy another router like ASUS top end range with aerials out the top.

Option 1:New Rouer connected to OTP

Note you will need VOIP which can be done with another device eg Linksys SP2102 but hen you need your VOIP password.

If you use your own router then you cannot use the HG659 VOIP.

Option 2:New Router as Wireless Access Point

Alternatively use the HG659 as is and add on the new Router cabled in from HG659 LAN to LAN on new Router and set-up new Router as a Wireless Access Point and that can work fine.