I'm trying to figure out the best way to get better, more consistent wireless coverage at my moms house.

She used to have Time Warner internet and I had a nice wireless router set up on the main floor, but a couple years ago she switched to AT&T and they gave her a combo modem/router which is now in the basement.

With the old router on the main floor the wireless signal was good for most everywhere except for the basement. You could usually get a signal but it would be weak and wouldn't hold. With the current setup, the basement now has a good signal, but the rest of the house can be spotty.

For the devices, A computer and TV on the main floor and a TV in the basement, along with two cell phones and a ring door bell. She does the streaming thing with both TVs

Basically she is still having a hard time in general keeping multiple devices connected at the same time. It's kinda acting like the router itself is limiting the amount of devices, alltho I don't think it actually is. Her phone seems to get kicked the most, with the TV and computer going back and forth. The Ring seems to mostly stay connected and shows a "good" signal but she doesn't get notifications consistently on her phone and live view is pretty much a crap shoot.

I am able to run a hard line to the main floor but I can't cant hard wire the computer or T.V. because of their locations compared to where the line would need to come up so they need to remain wireless. I can hard wire the basement TV.

So the question...
Being that I can run a hard line to the main floor, if I keep the AT&T router as is and only use it for the basement, can I set up a second wireless router on the main floor for everything else, or would a mesh network be a viable/better option? I do need to keep wireless for the basement because of the cell phones and occasional guests with laptops.

The mesh has improved the signal in our home, Netgear Orbi or Google Mesh are good, and is my preference of equipment/network type for us its mesh.

However to answer your question, hard wire the upstairs router you use before to the ATT modem in the basement, then she can connect to it if it provides the better signal.

Access points are 3rd option to wifi extenders or mesh network. All 3 are better than another router with another name.

I have a main wifi router, and 2 access points at far ends of house. The access points are connected via Cat 6 cable, and have the same name as main wifi router with a different channel. My access points can be configured as extender or access point, and I chose access point since it's double the speed of an extender.

Ok a mesh is great but not if you are monkeying with ip addresses and remote printing and scanning or using remote desktop.
Then it goes to shit.

For just expanded wifi coverage, its a great solution.

One, I have never seen a combo modem/WiFi router unit that was worth a damn. They all have pretty much sucked. Two, if it were me and an ethernet cable is available on the main floor of the home, I'd turn off the WiFi portion of her modem/WiFi router and install a WAP (wired access point) on the main floor of the house and see if that resolves her WiFi issues. You can do that for under $100 and most WAP's are very good at broadcasting a strong WiFi signal. MESH is another option, but WAP's will be faster and more reliable.

Pretty much what bigdeal wrote, except, instead of turning off the WiFi on the AT&T thing in the basement, keep it for basement coverage and set the WAP up for the same SSIDs on each of 2.4GHz and 5GHz--as tatertodd is doing.

Note: Do not enable band steering on either the WiFi router in the basement or the added WAP. 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios should have separate SSIDs, but the SSIDs on each band should be the same on both for both router and AP so roaming between the two is seamless.

bigdeal: WAP stands for Wireless Access Point, not "wired."

Thanks
I will look into the WAP option also. Didn't even think about that lol.

Pretty obvious from your info that placement is critical.

IF you can run cables (Ethernet) then:
* Turn off the wifi in the basement (unless you need it down there)
* If you DO need it in the basement and you cannot adjust the level then turn it off and get an additional AP for the basement.
** Run a cable in or near the predominant area.
** Place the AP there
*** You will need an AP for each area and also a POE Injector or small switch with POE

Summary:
Turn off the basement wifi.
Buy AP (not router) with POE and get POE switch.
Run cable to upstairs location and plug in AP.
Configure AP

If you have multiple AP's is also critical that the levels are properly adjusted so roaming will be better.
Full blast and lots of bars is not a good thing as most think.
It is a "conversation" between two devices not a "concert" so each needs to speak to each other at proper levels.

Note: if you do have multiple devices then the same SSID and security but different channels will be set up on each.
I also agree to separate 2.4 and 5.0 bands (SSID).
Also turn down the 2.4 even more than 5.0.
5.0 is where the fastest performance is but the signal is weaker (not really but it doesn't transmit through places as well as 2.4).

Can you have the cable extended/relocated to where it was before?
And move the modem/router to a better location.
That just might solve all your problems.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Can you have the cable extended/relocated to where it was before?
And move the modem/router to a better location.
That just might solve all your problems.

Unfortunately no. It is a finished basement and where the lines come into the house I only have the one spot in the basement I can put things and still get a line upstairs through the floor.

ISP provided Wifi usually has crappy antennas - it's cheap & 'stylish', so usually internal antennas.
It might be as simple as getting another router that has a reputation for good coverage & setting it next to the AT&T, while turning the AT&T wifi off. Or one of the mesh-in-a-box systems would probably work better than what you have now - but see my experience below.

I've had good luck with Asus & TPlink routers. Both have add-on mesh devices/software on a lot of their router offerings. Asus' is more powerful, TPlink is easier to set up & cheaper (but more limited in hardware choices). My TPlink router is underneath basement stairs, next to furnace/ductwork & still gets "ok-enough, mostly" to my shop (metal pole barn, 75' from house). This reminds me to check for a black friday deal on a TPlink mesh/extender for the shop. Inside my house is good signal. Garage on other end isn't great-better than shop, 2acre yard gets spotty ~75-100ft from house, not bad for the placement of the router.

I tried one of the dedicated mesh systems & returned it. The internal antennas had worse signal than the router that it replaced & couldn't 'mesh' to the shop via wifi or powerline (bought that model specifically for the powerline backend, furnace fan kicking on killed the powerline connection & it took 5+ minutes to re-establish). I had to set the 3rd unit in a window facing the shop & double-hop back to the base unit. Double-lag comes with it.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Note: Do not enable band steering on either the WiFi router in the basement or the added WAP. 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios should have separate SSIDs, but the SSIDs on each band should be the same on both for both router and AP so roaming between the two is seamless.

Really? Well, I know what I’m doing when I get home. I had one SSID for both WAPs and both bands, plus beam-forming enabled. Yes, I had all sorts of trouble with devices connecting to the WAP with lower signal or not swapping to the better signal. My kids were complaining about losing connections. I setup separate SSIDs and called it a day, but it would be nice to get the roaming working well.

Back to the OP:

Do you have coax cable running throughout the house and to the location where the current cable modem/router/WAP box is? With a pair of MoCA (Multimedia over Coax) adapters, you can use the coax to connect a WAP upstairs to your modem/router/WAP in the basement. It’ll be a 2-2.5gbps connection, so plenty fast for up to 1gbps internet.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Note: Do not enable band steering on either the WiFi router in the basement or the added WAP. 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios should have separate SSIDs, but the SSIDs on each band should be the same on both for both router and AP so roaming between the two is seamless.

Really? Well, I know what I’m doing when I get home. I had one SSID for both WAPs and both bands, plus beam-forming enabled.

Beam-forming or band steering? They're not the same thing. Beam-forming: Good. Band steering: Problematical.

Beam-forming causes a WiFi AP to attempt to optimize for specific devices, when it can.

Band-steering causes the AP to attempt to "steer" clients to either 2.4GHz or 5GHz based on a number of parameters.

The problem with band steering is many client devices don't handle it well.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Yes, I had all sorts of trouble with devices connecting to the WAP with lower signal or not swapping to the better signal.

What you mean by this could be variable. Could either be band steering, if you have it enabled, or roaming.

When roaming, often a client will be reluctant to switch from a degrading AP to a better one unless the connection degrades "X" much over time "T" - those both being highly variable.

I will say this: I had roaming on all the APs at work and was able to roam the entire building with the same TCP connection and never had it drop. At home I installed a Powerline Ethernet adapter with a built-in 2.4GHz WiFi AP in it out in the µBarn and was able to roam from the house to the back of the back yard, with both phone and tablet, seamlessly.

To re-cap: APs should have different SSIDs on 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but multiple-AP setups must have the same SSID as each other on the same bands for roaming to work.

For multiple-AP setups: If you have something you can use to check WiFi signal levels in real time (WiFi Analyzer on Android works well, and there's a Linux app [can't recall the name] that works well, too), it's wise to adjust transmit signal levels so as to limit coverage overlap.

Which one(s) to turn down may require some experimentation.

E.g.: Since coverage was more important to me in the house than in the yard, I turned the AP in the µBarn down to about 50%, so the house AP would be the stronger on the patio and so that I'd retain house AP coverage in the garage.

quote:

Originally posted by PakRatJR:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Can you have the cable extended/relocated to where it was before?
And move the modem/router to a better location.
That just might solve all your problems.

Unfortunately no. It is a finished basement and where the lines come into the house I only have the one spot in the basement I can put things and still get a line upstairs through the floor.

Since it sound like you also want WiFi downstairs too the the only option is to run an Ethernet cable upstairs to an additional Access Point. (see my plan above)

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

.... it would be nice to get the roaming working well.

Roaming is largely the decision of the client aka laptop, phone, other device.
When the signal reaches a point (which can be configured in many AP's) it will look for another connection.
THAT is why you WANT to have an Access Point and not an AIO router/WAP combo device.
*You NEED to adjust the level so your client rejects the weaker signal and picks up the closer stronger signal.
Client that do not play well are called "sticky clients" and sometimes tweaking is required.
AGAIN the average Joe just thinks that a strong broadcast signal is all that is needed - wrong.
*The RSSI (signal strength) minimum is around 67dBm or lower (the higher the number the lower the strength is) > received (or relative) signal strength indicator.
*The output of the AP is adjusted to be in range of an acceptable strength level.

https://www.metageek.com/train.../understanding-rssi/


Antennas: another subject but most all have omni-directional antennas.
Difficult areas can be fixed sometimes with external or directional antennas.
Not usually something for most home installs.

Also for all of the MESH/Extender enthusiasts:
* You still need to have decent Wi-Fi communication path to and from the main AP (or next stop)
* Yes they make for easy installation and sometimes it is the only option
* Performance is substantially less that multiple AP's or wired direct connection (< Do this if you can )
* EASY - yes it is but not the best (I am repeating myself).

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Inside my house is good signal. Garage on other end isn't great-better than shop, 2acre yard gets spotty ~75-100ft from house, not bad for the placement of the router.

The internal antennas had worse signal ...

This is an ideal scenario for an AP with connections that you could use a directional antenna. ^^

I’m sorry, band steering is what I meant. I had it set such that if the signal on 5ghz band was lower, then it should have kicked the client to the 2.4ghz band. Problem was the client would then connect to the other WAP on the 5ghz band.

Realistically, it’s a one story split plan, MBR on one side and the other bedrooms on the other side, so there isn’t really much roaming happening. Setting my kids to use one WAP and my wife and I on the other along with certain devices on their own SSID (exercise equipment, thermostat, ThermoWorks BBQ monitor, etc) worked. Then we got a Roomba. That sucker has no clue what to connect to.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I’m sorry, band steering is what I meant. I had it set such that if the signal on 5ghz band was lower, then it should have kicked the client to the 2.4ghz band. Problem was the client would then connect to the other WAP on the 5ghz band.

Yeah, don't do that

Disable band-steering, have separate SSIDs on each band (which will preclude band-steering in any event), use the same SSID on each AP on each band, and allow human intelligence to choose which band suits their needs best.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I’m sorry, band steering is what I meant. I had it set such that if the signal on 5ghz band was lower, then it should have kicked the client to the 2.4ghz band. Problem was the client would then connect to the other WAP on the 5ghz band.

Band Steering is more of a preference that a process.
It is not meant to seek out the strongest signal.
It is to nudge to a particular band for whatever reason you need it to.
It is now being downplayed and not supported by the IT- WiFi community as much any more.
I quit doing it on clients years ago.
Proper signal strength control is the key aka output/placement/configuration and the client itself for roaming.

https://www.networkcomputing.c...-band-steering-myths

Proper signal strength is great, but it requires the WAPs to be properly located. I didn’t do that. I could have and in hindsight should have. Instead I picked locations where I thought I’d get good coverage, which I do. But they overlap in the middle. Turning either one down means loosing connections on the outskirts.

What I should have done was spaced them much further apart almost kitty corner from each other. One in the MBR on close to the back wall of the house would have given me great coverage on the lanai. One in the middle bedroom on the other side of the house would have given me great coverage there as well. They would be about 50 feet away from each other separated by multiple walls. Instead, they one is in the living room and one in the family room separated by the dining room. Maybe 25 feet apart.

I should move them.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Proper signal strength is great, but it requires the WAPs to be properly located. I didn’t do that. I could have and in hindsight should have. Instead I picked locations where I thought I’d get good coverage, which I do. But they overlap in the middle. Turning either one down means loosing connections on the outskirts.

What I should have done was spaced them much further apart almost kitty corner from each other. One in the MBR on close to the back wall of the house would have given me great coverage on the lanai. One in the middle bedroom on the other side of the house would have given me great coverage there as well. They would be about 50 feet away from each other separated by multiple walls. Instead, they one is in the living room and one in the family room separated by the dining room. Maybe 25 feet apart.

I should move them.

Yup, location is important.
It's why we do site survey's first.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
bigdeal: WAP stands for Wireless Access Point, not "wired."

I know that, but my damn Samsung super cellphone doesn't. And the reason I suggested killing WiFi on the dual unit was simply to make maintenance easier. The TP Link WAP I had installed in the center of my home more than covered the entire house with WiFi so I was betting it would likely do the same for the Op.