WiFi Router with Long Range

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

I agree, power line adapters may work, they have a range of something line 300m so unless your power feeds to the house come from very diverse points they may still work, I've recently started to use tp-link power line adapters to connect TV's, play stations etc they they work really well and have also got one that acts as a WiFi access point and that has been placed where the WiFi signal is very very poor.

If you can't get the two ring mains to act as one network, if you have a couple of sockets, one on each main reasonably close you may be able to use an ethernet cable to bridge the networks.

[Blatman]

DON'T USE LONG RANGE WIFI "ROUTERS" OR ACCESS POINTS LIKE THE UBIQUITI THAT CLAIM TO BE "LONG RANGE".

 

Why? Easy. The hosts connecting to them aren't "long range". There is zero benefit in having a wifi router or access point being able to broadcast through 3 walls and 100 feet of building when the host does not have the same capability. So whilst the router/ap signal might reach the host, chances are the host can't reach back. Think of it like this: with a "long range" AP the AP is shouting. The host is whispering and there isn't really much you can do about it. So the shouty "long range" device can be heard a long way away. The whispering host not so much.

Why do I keep putting "long range" in quotation marks? Wifi transmission power is limited by law. In the UK the max transmit power of an AP is 100Mw (100 milliwatts) whether it is badged as long range or not. Beam forming may help range but that doesn't work at short or long distance from the AP. The benefit of beam forming is in the middle distance (from the AP) range. Quality of construction, a good chipset and good implementation of the 802.11 protocols has a MUCH bigger effect on the strength and QUALITY of a wifi signal.

 

Try not to be seduced by wireless AC headline speeds either. To get full speed from AC needs both the AP and the host to have multiple antennas (4 usually, to take full advantage of MIMO). Less antennas means less speed and currently there are very few hosts, especially tablets and smart-phones that have more than 1 antenna. And that's before I get on to the challenges of using the 40, 80 and (coming soon) 160Mhz wide channels in a crowded wifi environment.

 

The "domestic" way of doing this is to use things like wifi range extenders. Purists (and I am one of them!) will say they are not especially good. I say it depends on the use case. I have had great success with TP Link range extenders in a couple of larger properties BUT I don't use them for customer sites.

 

Depending on budget and level of competence I'd start with TP Links (easy/cheap) go up through Ubiquity access points (I'm not a fan) or Cisco WAP121 or WAP321 (cheaper or the same price as Ubiquity and I am a Cisco guy...) or if you want wireless AC then Cisco WAP371. You can use power-line adapters to extend the LAN via the mains if pulling CAT5e or CAT6 isn't an option.

 

I could go on at length about doing wifi in a big (or even small) house. Suffice to say if you need some professional advice on this, PM me.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Eh oop Blatters! Are you well Old Bean?
 

I have to say that your argument makes sense. It harks back to the old CB radio freaks with afterburners. They could blow everyone away but their reception was still the same as all the others unless they had multi-element Yagi aerials with a few dB gain. Didn't matter really 'cos they didn't seem to have anything to say that was worth hearing anyway!

[ianht71]

Wifi range is governed by physics

I've just had to move my wifi router to get around this.

I'd say you'd be better off installing a but of network cable and putting a second wifi hub in

So many opinions of course.....

[Blatman]

Eh oop Blatters! Are you well Old Bean?

 

I have to say that your argument makes sense. It harks back to the old CB radio freaks with afterburners. They could blow everyone away but their reception was still the same as all the others unless they had multi-element Yagi aerials with a few dB gain. Didn't matter really 'cos they didn't seem to have anything to say that was worth hearing anyway!

 

Pretty good thanks MotCO. Happy New Year to you.

I had a burner on my rig in the car as well as at home where  had a Sigma 4 on the roof of my parents house! The CB had a slide mount so it was easily move-able and as it was an AM/FM radio with side-channels I had all sorts of illegality going on! Never once got a call from Busby though... 

[SootySport]

I have a good result with locating a bog standard Homehub 5 in the loft of an single storey old cottage with thick walls.   The ceilings were lath and plaster and let a good signal through. Just had to experiment where to position the Homehub and hanging from a roof truss high up in the loft was the optimum position.   All trial & error with Wi-Fi in a house.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Thanks Blatters, same to you!

 

I had 2.8i Crapi with a carphone aerial (1986 so unusual then) and a CB aerial (can't recall the brand) plus a Thunderpole on the house. All gone now, obviously...  Still got the rigs somewhere in the garage. I did 50,000 miles p.a. and traffic advice from lorry drivers was invaluable. I was in Edinburgh once and asked for directions to somewhere or other on the CB and it reminded me of using my schoolboy French in France: great to say what you want but totally FUBAR when they answer! 

[Blatman]

MotCO, I have the same trouble when I'm north of Watford, although these days I spends a lot more time south of Nice where they actually speak French...

 

All trial & error with Wi-Fi in a house.

There are some fairly easy to use free tools to help move along from trial and error. With about half an hour of reading and fiddling around these tools can be very useful indeed in planning a wifi deployment. Suffice to say for my work a wifi survey happens several times between initial testing and actual customer sign off.

There is a free version of Ekahau heatmapper to help visualise the signal strength for an area. Used alongside InSSIDer on a PC or Wifi Analyzer on an Android phone it is possible to get a much better idea of what is happening with wifi and critically it helps to be able to see the differences when changes are made.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

SOUTH of Nice! You is a fisherman, man?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Ah, luxury yachts, the only way to travel

Not me, I hasten to add, but a programmer I know has progressed to the point where he only really does real high end vessels now. He doesn't arrive at the docks/ports any more, just the local air strip - from where the customers chopper picks him up and flies him out to the boats!

[kevip6]

I really appreciate the detailed replies guys, what you're saying makes perfect sense Blatman, I didn't think of it the other way around.

 

I wouldn't have said roof space would help me Bernie as there are 5 separate roofs so I would hit the same issues. Network cable would be a pain as well as the house is listed and so the cables would have to run along the timbers which isn't a route I ideally would like to go down.

 

I'll have a good re-read through the info on here and take a look at the options.

 

Again, thanks for taking the time to give such a detailed reply

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

MotCO, I have the same trouble when I'm north of Watford, 

Talking about north of Watford, here I am.

How do Blatters, Happy New Year to you and yours 

[boris77]

I had a similar problem in our last house. Our master socket was the opposite side of the house to the lounge. Same problem with power line adapters not working. My solution, I had the homehub 5 off the master socket in the study then ran some outdoor cat5 tucked in under the lathe so it couldn't be seen and fed in to the lounge. Put sockets on each end to make it tidy, and used a homehub 2 in the lounge I had laying about as a switch/WiFi hub. Gave me full coverage and had the bonus of a cabled connection for you view/Netflix etc.

[windy]

I have this problem with router upstairs and smart tv downstairs. What's the best kit for me? Looking on the various sites there's lots to choose from. Looking to spend about £20 to £30.

 

Any recommendations please?

[Blatman]

I have this problem with router upstairs and smart tv downstairs. What's the best kit for me? Looking on the various sites there's lots to choose from. Looking to spend about £20 to £30.

 

Any recommendations please?

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-PA411KIT-Powerline-Adapter-Starter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1452551979&sr=1-1&keywords=tp+link+powerline

 

Hello Hurdsey. HNY 2u2 

 

MotCO, as Gadgetman alludes to I spend a fair amount of time on the water these days. I can't give details of my actual projects but I spend quite a lot of time on things like this: http://www.superyachttimes.com/editorial/31/article/id/8554 

I am responsible for on-board wifi and internet connections, telephone systems, radio systems and occasionally chatting up stewardesses! And Monaco is south of Nice

 

Kevip6, where (what town) in Essex are you? If you happen to be near-ish to the Herts/Essex border I'd be happy to swing by and give you an almost professional  wifi survey.