Wifi - Poor Signal

[Triassic]

Our house is fairly large in volume, laid out over 4 floors and is L shaped, as a result the wifi signal is poor in some rooms. I have Cat 6 to all rooms and the fibre optic router is in the centre of the L. Can anyone recommend a mesh wifi system that will eliminate the weak spots and is easy to set up.

[Conor]

I've a TP link Deco system. Pretty easy to install. Probably take you 30mins to get three units up and running. A techy friend also reccomemded the Nest system.

[Gone West]

We also have a TP Link Deco system which is an M4 AC1200 with three units. It's in an small, 130m2, old stone bungalow. It's been going for eighteen months without any problems.

[Triassic]

54 minutes ago, Gone West said:

We also have a TP Link Deco system which is an M4 AC1200 with three units. It's in an small, 130m2, old stone bungalow. It's been going for eighteen months without any problems.

Good to hear which model you're using. When I searched TP Deco I find there are 12 different models! So which is the best of the 12 on offer?

 

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Triassic

[Gone West]

3 hours ago, Triassic said:

So which is the best of the 12 on offer?

I don't really know. I just looked at reviews and prices for the specifications given and came up with that one. It seemed the best for what I wanted. I have since found out that not every wireless device will work with a mesh system and unfortunately my weather station can't connect. Everything else I have works with no problem so I will have to change over to a Powerline wireless system to get the weather station to send data to the PC. I have it but it's on my long list of to do's.

[Triassic]

2 hours ago, Gone West said:

so I will have to change over to a Powerline wireless system to get the weather station to send data to the PC. I have it but it's on my long list of to do's.

I’ve noticed that a couple of the 12 include power line as part of the wifi offering. I’ll have to look closely at these.

 

I also need a wifi in a garden office around 40m from the house. Luckily I have a Cat5 cable into it.

[joth]

2 hours ago, Gone West said:

I don't really know. I just looked at reviews and prices for the specifications given and came up with that one. It seemed the best for what I wanted. I have since found out that not every wireless device will work with a mesh system and unfortunately my weather station can't connect. Everything else I have works with no problem so I will have to change over to a Powerline wireless system to get the weather station to send data to the PC. I have it but it's on my long list of to do's.

This is one nice thing with the ubiquiti gear: you can create a 802.11b legacy network with advanced features disabled. This has kept a lot of old and basic and low bandwidth IoT devices working for me, such as Fitbit scales, petwalk catflap, tempest weather station, etc 

[Pocster]

Tried ubiquiti , then orbi - no joy . ASUS though - perfect ! 

[Temp]

Personally I prefer wired WiFi Access Points as these allow you to space them out further. But you do need to do a bit more setting up.

[Triassic]

6 minutes ago, Temp said:

Personally I prefer wired WiFi Access Points as these allow you to space them out further. But you do need to do a bit more setting up.

I have the wiring in place but no idea how to set up access points.

[Pocster]

21 minutes ago, Triassic said:

I have the wiring in place but no idea how to set up access points.

Ir's easy. With Asus for example you just run a cat5 to each hub - then back to the central hub ( not through a switch ) then into your router.

You've then got a wired wifi access point. You then change the mode of Asus to access point - that's pretty much it.

 

So in Asus futuristic looking app - you can see what's connected (wired or wifi ) and you can see that the backhaul is also wired.

Depending on your house though you may need numerous hubs - I manage well with 3.

Edited November 15, 2022 by pocster

[Pocster]

[Pocster]

I always purchase things like this from Amazon - because it's easy to return 😁

[Temp]

2 hours ago, Triassic said:

I have the wiring in place but no idea how to set up access points.

 

This is the typical set up but they usually come with (inadequate) instructions..

 

Run CAT cable from your router to each AP.

 

Power up one of the AP.

 

Browse a Web page listed in the the instructions. This web page actually resides in the Access Point. You may have to enter a password listed on the box.

 

Then you have to change things like the admin password, the SSID (network name you want), the user password and the chanel frequency (so its not the same as your router or neighbours). 

 

Then you should be able to connect to that AP over WiFi.

 

Repeat for other AP.

 

However it's not always that simple and there can be tricky problems with IP addresses. If not confident then the mesh type are simpler.

 

 

 

 

[Susie]

I have tp link three m5 deco and two ax3000 covering an old stone barn conversion of three levels and two barns all Wi-Fi no cables brilliant mesh system. I can be out in the veg plot with full Wi-Fi which is 30m at least to main deco, using one in a barn to boost signal, also have cheap security camera on it. I was going to get outdoor type but these do the job for me sending signal from in house to in barn to in another barn. There are new Decos coming out soon.