I’m familiar with the absolute basics of networking, but very little surrounding wifi.
I’m current using the modem-router-AP provided by my ISP, along with a couple repeaters. This isn’t working well, and in areas of my house further away from my main AP, packet loss is often around 20% - near unusable. How should I improve this?
I can run some wires (within reason), and have multiple spare routers-APs to work with. I can also buy something new off the shelf if needed, but don’t want to spend more than I have to. What would be the approach I should use? Like, is there a particular type of extender I should be using, or can I use multiple routers as a mesh or something?
Ditch the repeaters. Unless you have a mansion, or a bunker, that sounds like the effect of WiFi congestion rather than distance. Repeaters mean that each packet has to hit the air twice, or more, increasing congestion. Deploy multiple APs around the house, and run ethernet cabling to them from the ISP’s router. Configure all the APs with the same SSID, and security settings, and client devices can roam freely between them.
Repeaters are awful. It’s best to have multiple access points instead. One simple solution is to deactivate wifi in your ISPs router, and add your own APs instead, possibly via a switch.
I ran some cables throughout my house and bought a 3-pach of Aruba AP22. Wired them into a PoE switch, which in turn connects to my router (I managed to replace my ISPs router, but that’s besides the point). Works like a charm.
I’m seconding [email protected] 's comment, but would begin with 1 step below that:
simply find the best location in the house for having a good ( not your ISP’s, unless it actually is a good MIMO router ) wifi-router, with no AP’s or any other radios, & see how that works, 1st.
IF there are areas that won’t work, THEN do the wire+AP thing, as required.
hth!
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Good point!
Instead of chaining them together, try to put the “router” in a central location and do what’s needed to limit your repeaters to a single hop away from the router. Chaining them together will lead to problems.
A proper mesh system will work better than repeaters. Some systems can use powerline networking to use your existing power outlets as a network, but it’s not always that great.
Some locations such as apartments/condos have really bad interfering neighbors on 2.4ghz. If that’s your situation then using 5ghz exclusively might help.
Repeaters don’t work, especially on newer Wifi clients. You need a proper Mesh system to cover a larger area. Probably going to run you $300-$500USD for a 3 AP kit.
You’ll need to put that junky AP they sent you from the ISP into Passthrough Mode, hook up the new AP from the Mesh system as your new router, then just place the other new APs in mesh mode as you want them.
If you have multiple other APs and some wires Ethernet ports in the house, you could switch those into AP Mode, plug them into Ethernet, and they’ll act as extensions of your main router as a hacky mesh as well. The problem with this route is that if they are all different WiFi versions and standards, you’ll get a bit of wonky behavior here and there, but it will work.
So there isn’t really a good option, other than buying an off-the-shelf mesh system?
Edited to a bit more. See my other comment.
We can’t see your house, to it’s hard to give you very many options except the simplest.
You will more than likely need more hardware though.
