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]

[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-Editors-Choice-Extender/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-AV1300-Powerline-WiFi-Extender/dp/B076CYV2XH/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

[vino68]

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

[lone shooter]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.