I need some advice re: a wifi booster. We have an atrium ranch, with an ASUS ac1900 in the lower atrium. Two of the kids bedrooms have lower reception than the rest of the house. Looking at the setup, both furnace units are directly in line with the router and their rooms. I'd like to put a booster on the first floor but I am not sure what route I should go. Should I get just a booster or another ASUS router and set up the AiMesh with both routers? Not sure if one is better than the other.
Normally, it's manageable, but with them being home virtual learning 3 days per week, it's becoming more of a problem.

Thanks in advance.

I've had good luck with a Google Mesh network at the rescue squad. We had one router centrally in one of our offices and couldn't get decent reception throughout the building. When our router died, I updated to a Google Mesh network and strategically placed the router and 2 pucks. Now we get great signal throughout the entire building. The nice thing about the mesh network over an extension is you don't have to worry about changing networks when you move from place to place. Once on the mesh network, it seamlessly hands you off from one device to another device when you get out of range.

Move your AP/Router closer to where you need signal and away from the interfering object.

Also you might want to thread-search for answer as there has been a million + 1 threads here on the subject.

I have an Orbi base with 2 satellites. The base is on the west side of my ranch home and a satellite in the east side of the house and one in the outside, detached garage. Great coverage with no loss of signal throughput. Costco has them on sale, I believe.
Mike

I sent you an email, Erick.

Go mesh. Boosters and extenders often reduce speed to connected devices.

quote:

Originally posted by TAllen01:
Go mesh. Boosters and extenders often reduce speed to connected devices.

WiFi boosters = extenders = repeaters. Mesh networks are simply sophisticated WiFi repeaters.

The Asus AImesh worked great for me.

Like Mike, I also have Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi.

Netgear state it is a mesh system, but my opinion is that it is not a true mesh system.

My problem was extending the Wi-Fi system to the garage, for the 2.4Ghz security cameras.

The distance from house to garage is about 100 feet. Not too far for WiFi, yet I didn't like the signal drop, resultant interference from the garage metal and brick materials.

The garage power circuit, and one of the Orbi satellites, is on the same electrical circuit.

Used Netgear Powerline 1000 + WiFi adapters.

Plugged the Netgear Powerline into a power socket next to the Orbi satellite, connected the Netgear Powerline adapter to the LAN port on the Orbi satellite, plugged the Powerline WiFi access point to the garage power outlet.

End result is 150 mbps connectivity, fine for the 2.4Ghz cameras, and also, delightfully, provides a great 2.4/5Ghz WiFi by the firepit.

My internet connectivity, is 50 mbps downstream and 20 mbps upstream. That's the average connection speed in Australia, with the National Broadband Network (NBN).

As a side note, I also use Ubiquiti solutions - Amplifi HD Mesh router and a UniFi Dream Machine - for more secure business/work WiFi.

I had a wifi router and a wifi extender half-way between router and my home office. I was unhappy with performance (e.g. Roku in home office was unstable) and looking into mesh networks.

Turns out:

the extender I already owned was dual usage in that it with the flip of a switch it could configured either an extender or access point.

my home is only a few years old so it has Cat 5e going everywhere and it terminates in a structured wiring panel

my router is located 18" from the aforementioned structured wiring center.

I found the cable going to my office and plugged it into the access point and the router. I named the access point's wireless network identical/ to wifi router's wirelesss network, and put the router and access points on different chanels which means I can seamless walk around the house connected to the same network. Since the backhaul to the router is Cat 5e, the speeds are 10x faster than I had with an extender.

In fact, I bought second identical extender/access point for the master bedroom, plugged it into the Cat 5e, plugged that 5e cable into the router, named the access point the same as other 2 devices, and put its own channel different from the other 2 devices.

As a bonus, my system is faster than any mesh system on the market and I can seamlessly walk room to room with screaming fast performance. I just made better use of what I already owned and made it better for a grand total of $47 (i.e. much less money that the $300ish I was looking to spend on a mesh network).

I'm not an IT guy, and was able to figure this out with an evening of reading and YouTubing.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

Google Mesh is amazing on all 3 floors. Neighbor was so impressed, they got one.

Personally, I'd run a CAT cable to the best location for installation to get WiFi where you want/need it, and then install a POE WAP there. That should all but cure your WiFi problems while maintaining consistent through put.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Personally, I'd run a CAT cable to the best location for installation to get WiFi where you want/need it, and then install a POE WAP there. That should all but cure your WiFi problems while maintaining consistent through put.

A year or 2 ago that would be my advice as well. The issue with that plan is that you either have 2 SSIDs/independent networks or you set up a WDS which is sometimes a PITA with various methods for various hardware. Wifi clients are still relatively bad at switching networks seamlessly - unless the network orders it.
Buying the mesh type hardware solves the backend problems & really is easier to set up a solid network. For 200ish, you MIGHT get the CAT cable ran, or you can get a pair/triplet of the mesh devices & likely get more/better coverage.

I'm eyeballing the TP-link version with powerline backend (Deco P9) right now to get better signal in my detached garage. It's about 80ft from the house & my current WAP is in the basement, under the stairs. I get signal, but it gets weak if I'm not by a window. I have an older Asus router with DDWRT that I can use as a repeater, but again, it's sometimes a PITA to have the 2 networks, or get the right settings between different brands/software.

Hardwiring would be best. I did that in my office when I started working from home 2 years ago. Honestly, I don’t have time to mess with that right now. Aestocles is selling me his Asus router, the same one I currently have, that I will be setting up with Asus’ AiMesh. We’ll see if this alleviates the issue.

I did a speed test in the boys rooms last night and it’s about half what it is in my daughters room (next to them, but no furnace in the way). I don’t want to mess with moving the current router and rewiring in the walls, so hopefully this works.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Personally, I'd run a CAT cable to the best location for installation to get WiFi where you want/need it, and then install a POE WAP there. That should all but cure your WiFi problems while maintaining consistent through put.

A year or 2 ago that would be my advice as well. The issue with that plan is that you either have 2 SSIDs/independent networks or you set up a WDS which is sometimes a PITA with various methods for various hardware.

WDS: Wireless Distribution System. E.g.: Wireless bridging. What bigdeal is talking about is Multi-AP Roaming. I've done it with both same-model and mixed-model hardware. No problem.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Wifi clients are still relatively bad at switching networks seamlessly - unless the network orders it.

Not in my experience. Besides...

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Buying the mesh type hardware solves the backend problems & really is easier to set up a solid network.

Solves what "backend problem?"

I don't know where people get the idea mesh networks are some kind of magic. They're not. They're just WiFi repeaters with some smarts built-in that can let them automatically re-configure traffic routing based on signal strengths and node load. Or they're Multi-AP Roaming networks if the backhauls are wired. Or they can be a mix.

Just like with any other Multi-AP Roaming system or WiFi repeaters: The clients have to switch from AP-to-AP.

And some mesh networks can induce issues. In a misguided attempt to improve performance, some mesh systems automatically block or discard certain traffic they regard as superfluous noise. This can wreak havoc with certain network and service discovery protocols--causing devices to mysteriously appear and disappear on the network.

I agree that hardwired is best for now.

I hardwired and back hauled my mesh to the main router.

I use tp-link mesh that that runs much better than a my older repeater set up.

Technology is always evolving.

I am on FIOS and have no problem streaming three Amazon fire cubes at once and a couple of computers

Before the mesh set up two of the rooms had buffering problems.

This is a three story house and two mesh units an a floor.

While hardwired is the best solution, I find it a pain to use the wires while out mowing the lawn or sitting on the patio/garage on my wireless device.

Put in the Orbi Mesh, it's solved a lot of problems we had with devices on the other end of the house, namely huge delays and low connectivity with the Ring Doorbell, wifes streaming on wireless devices or her TV all solved with the mesh.

Are there better options, sure, but for the average person, installing a pre configured Mesh network will probably solve more problems than it creates.

Can't remember one instance where the Mesh blocked traffic that affected anyone in the house, or any devices dropping off and we have a ton of them connected.

Considering adding the external Mesh pod for more coverage outdoors, I can loose lose signal at the extreme ends of the yard when mowing..

This message has been edited. Last edited by: HRK,

I have my Apple TV box hard wired to my Comcast modem/router, it really well. Never any buffering.

quote:

Originally posted by kalei:
I have my Apple TV box hard wired to my Comcast modem/router, it really well. Never any buffering.

That's the best, but not necessarily mandatory for good performance.

I've done tests where I've had up to five video streams running simultaneously off our single WiFi AP. Zero pauses/buffering.

And that's with other traffic simultaneously.

Highly recommend a mesh system. I had spotty wifi coverage around my home until I put in a eero mesh with the router and two beacons. I have fantastic coverage over my entire property now.