Wifi Extender

[Mystic1906]

For Prime Day I bought a Ring Pro Doorbell which seems to be losing connection to my wifi signal more often than is reasonable. I have a two story house with the router being up in the office on the 2nd floor. It isn't terribly far from the front door as it is right over the garage but the door is towards the opposite side of the front of the house.

I am looking for recommendations on a wifi extender. Have looked at the Netgear AC750 and TP-Link N300 just based on price but do any of you have/use an extender and if so would you endorse it? I like the Google Wifi mesh system but not ready to invest that much money yet (still too much boating left in the year and I need gas money ).

 

[Julian]

I bought a netgear....not impressed....drops connections, not much boost.

Neighbor is raving about his Google Wifi...says its been bulletproof.

 

[biffdotorg]

You don't need to spend a ton on these, as they all seem to work. Read the reviews on Amazon. I have had a netgear and belkin over the years. Go grab the one with the best reviews under $50 and you will be set. I can't say that I have ever paid more than that and have had good results. Your construction and distance may require something with better power or more external antennae.

On any of them, be sure to update firmware on them the day you take them out of the package. If you have no way to move your existing access point, and extender is a good idea. Otherwise, consider moving it.

We put our primary Access Point in the mechanical room in the basement of a 4-level split. And then put a WiFi extender on the top floor. This allows full house coverage, and good coverage in the garage and driveway from the top level extender. That's important for garage work and streaming to the driveway while washing things.

We also use an extender out at the lake to get access over to the cabin next door and out to the end of the dock.

Good luck,

 

[bronze_10]

The net gear I bought drops too... Don't like..

 

[Mystic1906]

@Julian My boss just bought the 3 pack cause she says her brother is raving about it too. I want to get into home automation with the Google Home and the mesh system but I'm looking for an inexpensive short term solution. I'm hoping that there are deals on the google products around Black Friday/Cyber Monday so I'm holding off on the big purchase.

 

[Julian]

@Julian My boss just bought the 3 pack cause she says her brother is raving about it too. I want to get into home automation with the Google Home and the mesh system but I'm looking for an inexpensive short term solution. I'm hoping that there are deals on the google products around Black Friday/Cyber Monday so I'm holding off on the big purchase.

Makes sense. The netgear I have is my 2nd extender (can't recall the model of the first). Both work, but only ok. My Amazon Alexa's frequently disconnected from both, and required tedious reconnection fiddling to get them to re-establish a connection....PITA...my time is valuable. So I'll be buying the Google wifi once I dump my current Internet Provider!

 

[biffdotorg]

Total agreement. There are many issues on some of these and a firmware update to the latest firmware can stop many issues. The directions are included or on the MFG website of most. Netgear is notorious for releasing product quickly, and firmware updates are priority one.

 

[Mystic1906]

I'm running AT&T's Internet 50 plan right now. I wonder if part of my issue (just thought about what speed I had and checked my account) upgrading to the Internet 100 plan would significantly help my issue. It's another $10 a month and I will still need an extender but I have data leeches in my house (9yo son, 16yo nephew, Ring Doorbell, TV's, and multiple gaming systems.)

Side note - I would really love to be able to disconnect from AT&T but I still have some to go on my contract and they were better than Spectrum on price. They just drop service so damn often.

 

[BigAbe75]

Neighbor is raving about his Google Wifi...says its been bulletproof.

Loving my Google WiFi, too. Had it about 2 weeks now.

I put one in a corner room of the house and another in my tin outbuilding. It reaches out there... says the signal is low between the access points, but I get a solid 10mb on speedtest (100mb inside the house) which is great for streaming audio and the occasional YouTube to remind me how to install whatever the current mod on the boat is. Lol. Covers most of my back yard (about 1/2 acre)

 

[ripler]

I installed Netgear Orbi, it's awesome. It uses a dedicated backbone between Orbi units with zero lag. Each Orbi has a ethernet connection that is fast as plugging directly into your modem.

I was going to use Google Home but didn't feel like having Google spy on me.

https://www.netgear.com/orbi/

 

[GiddYupJoe]

I installed Netgear Orbi, it's awesome. It uses a dedicated backbone between Orbi units with zero lag. Each Orbi has a ethernet connection that is fast as plugging directly into your modem.

I was going to use Google Home but didn't feel like having Google spy on me.

https://www.netgear.com/orbi/

I was just looking at these as a recommendation from a friend. I like that it has circle built in too. The reviews were talking that they drop signal a lot especially with Mac eco systems. Have you recently had any issues since the March firmware update? That seems to be when issue started popping up...

 

[ripler]

I was just looking at these as a recommendation from a friend. I like that it has circle built in too. The reviews were talking that they drop signal a lot especially with Mac eco systems. Have you recently had any issues since the March firmware update? That seems to be when issue started popping up...

Now that you mention it I have had some issues with dropping connections and just chalked it up to my provider, I'll have look into this.

 

[Ilmmct]

I’ve moved away from an Extender and invested in a higher quality router with 4 directional antennas (WRT1900ACS). I am able to get WiFi from my dock which is over 200’ from the router.

 

[Mainah]

Beyond dropped connections as the signal weakens so does the speed. Mesh setups like google may only be 2.4 ghz but they make up for that in signal strength. I have a large home and a centrally located netgear r7000 does cover everything but the speed drops off far away from the router.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Get the RingPro extender for the Ring. Works like a charm.

 

[Scottie]

A mesh system is absolutely the way to go. Take it from someone who makes his living in networking. Mesh systems used to be business grade only and cost a fortune. In the last couple of years they've made their way into the home and for good reason. Spend the money once and be done with it. AmplifiHD from Ubiquiti is the front runner by far, but the google mesh system and the netgear orbi are both good systems as well. You can spend money now on a temporary solution and then spend more money later if you like, but a mesh system is the fix, for all of your wi-fi issues, whatever they may be. The only thing better than a mesh system is hard-wired access points. If you're willing and able to run cat5 or cat6 throughout your home to POE access points, then by all means do so, and purchase UAPs from ubiquiti to do it with. For most however, a mesh system is the best way to go, as you can achieve near wire speeds in most cases without running cables.

 

[Steve Risley]

We use Netgear Orbi Mesh System. Main internet feed is in our basement and have two satellite units in our upstairs. We lose 0 speed via WiFi throughout our entire house (2,500 sq. Ft.) and get a very strong signal to our dock, which is about 100 feet from our house. We ditched cable and use PS Vue with Apple TV & Amazon Fire sticks. Orbi System is a little pricey, but worth it for the coverage area

 

[biffdotorg]

This is all good advice especially for someone considering upgrading their bandwidth. People start looking at bandwidth packages and think this is going to solve their speed and connection problems. When in actuality, their performance may be due to their connectivity and interference of their home wifi network.

Be real, I don't care how many children you have on your home connection, 100Mb is a massive pipe. Most businesses don't run on one quarter that pipe. So before you up your pipe from 25 to 50 to 100Mb, put some money in a better Access Point or Mesh system as suggested. It will be better money spent.

We have 60Mb at home and stream to a number of devices without issue. At the lake, we have no TV, so everything is streamed over a 50Mb pipe. Two families, 4 kids and upwards of 15 devices connected. We also extend it to our neighbors without issue.

I have our Access point setup with a 5Ghz SSID and a 2.4Ghz SSID. 5 gives us higher performance inside the cabin. And 2.4 is slower, but gives us better range out to the end of the dock and to the neighbors cabin.

I also used a WiFi scanner to check what channels overlap with my neighbors at home and was sure to put our equipment on non-overlapping channels. Now my neighbors have better performance as well as their equipment is not fighting for the same WiFi space as my equipment.

So to give some reality, 2.4Ghz can hardly touch the bandwidth of the pipe coming in. So upping to 100Mb makes no sense at all. That and the fact that all the things we are streaming cannot take advantage of it either. These newer WiFi standards can, but check to see if your devices are utilizing them. Many don't. Most everything has both, so it's a non issue really.

So again, listen to the advice above and save the monthly up charge. Put it into infrastructure to increase performance, eliminate drops and you will be happy once again.

Good luck,

PS: those that have whole home wired networks like I do (I swapped all RJ11 phone connectors for RJ45 Ethernet jacks when we bought the home) I put all of our DVR's and Blue Ray players, game consoles, Color LaserJet, 4Tb NAS and kitchen desktop on Gb Ethernet rather than WiFi. It's just less devices fighting for WiFi. And they are much more stable. And rather than extending the WiFi, I setup a wired Access Point on the same SSID so our devices roam from AP to AP on a stable WiFi network.

Sorry, been designing data centers for over 25 years. I turn into a geek once in a while.

 

[bronze_10]

. (Wondering what a round trip plane ticket coats from MN to NC)!

 

[biffdotorg]

None of this stuff is hard. And most of these tips are available with a google or youtube search. Trust yourself and feel free to PM questions. Once you have it rockin' you will be so happy with the accomplishment.

I earned one of these as a youtube mechanic. HA!!