WiFi in an older house

[lone shooter]

So our home was build in 1955. Because of that, the walls are made of masonry (not drywall). I suspect that because of this, our wifi signal might get reduced range. I'm thinking of getting a range extender. What is you feeling on my situation?

[Master_Prestige]

Good idea that’s my feeling. Don’t get fooled by the MBPS speeds. You want bandwidth.

[sonofeugene]

Depends upon exactly how your walls are made. If just lathe (horizontal wood strips) and plaster, you need do nothing. But, if there's metal in the wall or they are actually masonry, that will attenuate. Our home, built in '35, is just regular lathe and plaster so we don't need anything. But, the house is very long and narrow, so I have two extenders at either end. Office with the main unit is in the center.

[crufflers]

I still use one wifi extender and the powerline adapters wherever there is a static device (PS4, TV, Shield) that can be wired because it is not a mobile device. Powerline is stable.

As far as extenders, RE450's are solid and when they are $50, a steal.

Decent price right now:

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-PCMag.../dp/B010S6SG3S

[crufflers]

There are also powerline wifi extenders if you are really having to get through some solid walls to get a wifi signal... I bet that would do it.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV130...dp_ob_title_ce

[vino68]

Go mesh. I hear there are some decent consumer mesh products.

[lone shooter]

Originally Posted by sonofeugene

Depends upon exactly how your walls are made. If just lathe (horizontal wood strips) and plaster, you need do nothing. But, if there's metal in the wall or they are actually masonry, that will attenuate. Our home, built in '35, is just regular lathe and plaster so we don't need anything. But, the house is very long and narrow, so I have two extenders at either end. Office with the main unit is in the center.

We remodeled the bathroom a few years back, I don't remember if it had chicken wire or the wood strips.

[crufflers]

Some routers like TP LINK Archer A7's have MESH or ONE-MESH or can be flashed to the latest firmware. Then you would use the RE300 or similar as an extender. Lots of routers are MESH, not just $400 white hockey pucks or lava lamps.

[MikeyMike_510]

Originally Posted by crufflers

There are also powerline wifi extenders if you are really having to get through some solid walls to get a wifi signal... I bet that would do it.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV130...dp_ob_title_ce

That is the way to go. I recommend it. I tossed a couple at my work (commercial building - 23,000 sq feet and it worked. Was just a temporary solution until my contractor was able to run more cabling.

[d0091sa]

Why do folks buy the cheap home stuff when the ubiquiti products are faster, better, more secure, more stable, with more control?

Give ubiquiti a look.... You could do their access points across the brick walls linked via cat6 and be done with a stupid fast connection

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[ibanezfoo]

Originally Posted by lone shooter

So our home was build in 1955. Because of that, the walls are made of masonry (not drywall). I suspect that because of this, our wifi signal might get reduced range. I'm thinking of getting a range extender. What is you feeling on my situation?

Is it a single story with easy attic or crawl space access? Just hardwire it. Its easy and more reliable than wifi.

[lone shooter]

So, I got a TP Link range extender to work with my Asus AC1750 dual band router. After some fiddling with it I was able to configure it properly and all my devices are happy including my Blink cameras. The house is now blanketed by 2.4GHz, 5.GHz, Extended 2.4GHz, and Extended 5GHz.

Spectrum recently upgraded my service to 200MHz too, so firing on all cylinders for sure.

[MikeyMike_510]

So do you now have different and additional SSIDs? One for Wifi_EXT or Extended? That's the issue with some of these extenders it's just a bridge and it creates an additional network. iPhone for example cannot bounce between both networks and figure out which has the better signal.

[d0091sa]

Originally Posted by MikeyMike_510

So do you now have different and additional SSIDs? One for Wifi_EXT or Extended? That's the issue with some of these extenders it's just a bridge and it creates an additional network. iPhone for example cannot bounce between both networks and figure out which has the better signal.

That's why we use the ubiquiti access points and configure so that there is a single ssid and meshing takes place. Same type of handoff you get with cellular.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[crufflers]

Originally Posted by MikeyMike_510

So do you now have different and additional SSIDs? One for Wifi_EXT or Extended? That's the issue with some of these extenders it's just a bridge and it creates an additional network. iPhone for example cannot bounce between both networks and figure out which has the better signal.

Using extenders like the RE450 with a router like the C7 or A7 there is one SSID, switching is automatic. I have used the type of cheap $30 "extenders" where it creates another network - not ideal to say the least. The TP Link Archer C7 and a RE450 might cost you $120 and covers 5k sq ft. If you have any dark corners you can simply plug in another RE450. I would assume the same can be said for the Archer A7 V5.0 / RE300 (One Mesh). If I was buying today I'd probably try the One Mesh setup.

[lone shooter]

Originally Posted by crufflers

Using extenders like the RE450 with a router like the C7 or A7 there is one SSID, switching is automatic. I have used the type of cheap $30 "extenders" where it creates another network - not ideal to say the least. The TP Link Archer C7 and a RE450 might cost you $120 and covers 5k sq ft. If you have any dark corners you can simply plug in another RE450. I would assume the same can be said for the Archer A7 V5.0 / RE300 (One Mesh). If I was buying today I'd probably try the One Mesh setup.

Pretty much this. And yes, I'm using the RE450. It does a handshake with your router/network to extend the range. So far, so good. Our home is single story 1800 sq ft.

[sholling]

Originally Posted by ibanezfoo

Is it a single story with easy attic or crawl space access? Just hardwire it. It's easy and more reliable than wifi.

This! Most (not all) range extenders extend the wifi network at half their rated speed so I don't recommend them when there is the possibility of running cables. Even if you need wifi at the other end of the house. You can almost always repurpose an old router, hardwire it, and use it as an access point at the other end of the house.

OP, before you buy a bunch of range extenders I suggest that you try placing your router in the center of the house and as high as possible. I remember helping a frustrated friend with poor wifi who had spent money on unneeded range extenders when the real problem was his wifi router was hidden under a desk at the far end of the house.

[MikeyMike_510]

Originally Posted by d0091sa

That's why we use the ubiquiti access points and configure so that there is a single ssid and meshing takes place. Same type of handoff you get with cellular.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Think the previous tenant at my work left a couple around. I am taking them with me haha.

[DrjonesUSA]

You want a system like Linksys Velop that has multiple nodes that you place all around your house.

That’s the ticket.

[OlderThanDirt]

I have never been satisfied with range extenders. With so many good wireless mesh systems out there, range extenders should be retired. I installed a Unifi system on a 1950s era house that has really bad wireless signal attenuation due to a lot of plaster, concrete and solid wood roof with foam. The nice thing about the Unifi system is that you can balance the load and signal strength to optimize your mesh coverage, as well as using both wired and wireless mesh points..

[SkyHawk]

I also would avoid extenders and build a mesh, but only if there is no way to hardwire another access point into your network.

If you use a PoE power injector (or a PoE switch if you have it), you don't have to worry about electrical access in any space where you want to place the access point - all you have to do is get a CAT5/6 cable to it - as long as you use PoE powered access points that is.

[the86d]

Some powerLine adapters are actually proprietary wireless devices that are just powered via AC... So if chicken wire plaster they might not help.

Chk reviews.

[Neil McCauley]

Best buys sells a commercial range extender (you can't install it yourself) costs around $900 and is designed to penetrate through brick walls, plaster & lath etc.

[Neil McCauley]

I also recently ran a cat 6 cable from one house to another using linksys hardware, works guud so far

[wilafur]

Originally Posted by ibanezfoo

Is it a single story with easy attic or crawl space access? Just hardwire it. Its easy and more reliable than wifi.

This is the best option if practicable.

My home was built in the 50's and consists of masonry walls w/ metal lathe. This caused issues with the Google mesh network, so I ended up ethernet backhauling all but one satellite/puck and that solved the issue.

I went with google wifi because it was plug and play. Ubiquiti almost won out but I didn't want to spend that much, nor, have the time/patience to configure and set them up properly.

[crufflers]

I notice there are a lot of combo units now too. There are powerline adapters where it also acts as a wireless extender at the end of the run. One of those with two or three RJ45 sockets plus wireless extender function would do it all.