Wifi signal at home

BigClay

BigClay

Knower of useless ZJ things
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Location
Winston-Salem
So I need some advice. I currently have Spectrum (used to be TWC) internet. It has a router, and then I plugged my Apple wireless router into it. I connect to the interwebs through that Apple router, it is about 3 or 4 years old. My question is, my wifi is spotty in my house, and slooooooow, so what do I need to change?
 
Have you performed a speed test? Tried rebooting?
 
How big is the house? How many rooms? Floors? Where is the router in relation to all of that?

Mesh network would probably resolve the issue.

Ditching TWC won't help if you use another router :) but TWC/Spectrum does suck, fact.
 
DSM Turbos said:
Mesh network would probably resolve the issue.
Click to expand...

Mesh networking doesn't resolve shit. It just further clogs the available wifi bandwidth with backhaul networks.

I just spent a whole lot more money than you're probably planning on spending on some Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access points. They're fucking nice. One of best thing about them, though, is that they use gigabit ethernet for the backhaul.... and you can get that just by pulling some wire and buying $100 Asus routers set up as access points scattered around the house. We did that for years with three big ass external antennas mounted on each WAP.

It might be best to take two steps back (and answer Todd's questions):

1. Do you have any VOIP traffic in the house? Use wifi calling on your cell phone? Have problems with dropped calls as you move through the house?
2. How many wifi devices are there on the network? Are they 5GHz or 2.4 GHz? Where are they located in relation to the wireless access point(s)?
3. How big is the house? How many stories? Are the wireless access points centrally located?
4. Do you have any devices that are currently wifi that could be wired instead?

Keep in mind that 2.4 GHz does a fair job of penetrating walls, but doesn't have a lot of available bandwidth. One TV streaming netflix will easily soak up all of the 2.4GHz bandwidth if it's not located in the same room (or maybe next room) as the WAP.

On the other hand, 5GHz has potentially a ton of available bandwidth, but it doesn't penetrate walls as well. Devices need to be line of sight (more or less) with a 5GHz wap.
 
shawn said:
Mesh networking doesn't resolve shit. It just further clogs the available wifi bandwidth with backhaul networks.

I just spent a whole lot more money than you're probably planning on spending on some Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access points. They're fucking nice. One of best thing about them, though, is that they use gigabit ethernet for the backhaul.... and you can get that just by pulling some wire and buying $100 Asus routers set up as access points scattered around the house. We did that for years with three big ass external antennas mounted on each WAP.
Click to expand...

I didn't say mesh wired or not, don't go assuming! Basically the same thing you did with Ubiquiti you can do with a "mesh" network also for cheaper. When I had my netgear nighthawks setup as access points I still had some issues as they didn't want to always release off the farther away access point very easily.
 
DSM Turbos said:
When I had my netgear nighthawks setup as access points I still had some issues as they didn't want to always release off the farther away access point very easily.
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Same. That's one of the reasons I'm transitioning to Unifi. They'll force the handover from one WAP to another as you move through the house. Otherwise, it's left up to the client, and they (especially Apple devices, it seems) will hang onto a wifi connection much longer than they should.
 
We have Spectrum Cable and our old wireless router wouldn’t reach everywhere in our house, which is large and multi-level. At the recommendation of a friend who works IT, I bought the Google WiFi that came with 3 pods or whatever you call them. Works fantastic. Strong signal throughout the entire house and large yard.
 
shawn said:
Same. That's one of the reasons I'm transitioning to Unifi. They'll force the handover from one WAP to another as you move through the house. Otherwise, it's left up to the client, and they (especially Apple devices, it seems) will hang onto a wifi connection much longer than they should.
Click to expand...

I went google wifi, seems to be working good for me so far, and pretty cheap to do comparatively. It is working good so far, also anything I can is hardwired in directly to switches.
 
My house is so large and has so many levels that they haven’t invented the technology to reach all the space I possess. It’s hard for the 802.11 to pass through all my leather bound books and thick hardwood furniture that was purchased by me with all my money dollars.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
DSM Turbos said:
I went google wifi, seems to be working good for me so far, and pretty cheap to do comparatively. It is working good so far, also anything I can is hardwired in directly to switches.
Click to expand...

Doesnt it use a 5GHz backbone, though?

This is the new hotness.

IMG_20180916_090910.jpg
 
usmc42 said:
My house is so large and has so many levels that they haven’t invented the technology to reach all the space I possess. It’s hard for the 802.11 to pass through all my leather bound books and thick hardwood furniture that was purchased by me with all my money dollars.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...
:lol::lol::lol:
 
shawn said:
Doesnt it use a 5GHz backbone, though?

This is the new hotness.

View attachment 278541
Click to expand...

Garage is hardwired into the mesh system (on the google wifi pod). Bedroom, is wireless till I stop being lazy and hardwire it, but honestly it doesn't matter for the bedrooms. My phone and Roku work perfectly fine on the wireless network. You can hardwire any of the google fiber "pods" if you want to, or you can run them on wireless mesh. Everything that really matters for bandwidth is all hardwired into the network. Only reason I switched is my phone was being a bitch sometimes in the bedroom.

Your modem is cute, maybe one day you can get fiber :bounce:
 
DSM Turbos said:
Garage is hardwired into the mesh system (on the google wifi pod). Bedroom, is wireless till I stop being lazy and hardwire it, but honestly it doesn't matter for the bedrooms. My phone and Roku work perfectly fine on the wireless network. You can hardwire any of the google fiber "pods" if you want to, or you can run them on wireless mesh.
Click to expand...

In that case, it's not a bad setup for the price. A 3-wap Unifi setup is going to run you like $350, including the POE switch, but it all has to be hardwired. I like that better because it gives me the ability to segregate misbehaving IOT devices (fucking smart TV) away from the trusted devices on the network... but that all comes with a lot of extra headache and nerd shit. I imagine the Google stuff is plug-and-play.

DSM Turbos said:
And you just spent probably 750 on wifi, ha.
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Nah, $100 for the POE switch, $80 for each WAP. Then once you've got all that, you've gotta buy the router, too, (because don't you want all that stuff in the same control panel?). I think that was another $150.
 
shawn said:
In that case, it's not a bad setup for the price. A 3-wap Unifi setup is going to run you like $350, including the POE switch, but it all has to be hardwired. I like that better because it gives me the ability to segregate misbehaving IOT devices (fucking smart TV) away from the trusted devices on the network... but that all comes with a lot of extra headache and nerd shit. I imagine the Google stuff is plug-and-play.
Click to expand...

Google wifi should be plug and play, but due to how I have some stuff set up it was kind of a bitch. Part of it is the router/modem combo that AT&T gives, part of it is my own setup that is a slight mess. 3 switches, probably 15-20 things hardwired in, and some old static IPs that started to fight with each other, and 2 of my switches starting to die I found. Things are working good now though, and it is pretty solid. Good app to manage everything too.

That is cheaper than I thought for Unifi. Google wifi was 250+ tax.
 
DSM Turbos said:
That is cheaper than I thought for Unifi.
Click to expand...

You can spend a small fortune, if you want to.
obullfish said:
Told ya once before to clean that shit up before posting and bragging.
Click to expand...

I couldn't remember if I posted that before or not. But fun fact: it was 104F in that closet, in spite of the louvered door. Last weekend, I cut a 12x4" vent through the wall above the door, and that dropped the temp down to the low-80s.
 
To OP (@BigClay). Make sure you don't have a wireless phone immediately next to the wireless router. I did and then moved the phone across the room, immediately improving the router coverage. I don't know the technologically-correct term for it, but the phone wireless signal was interfering with the router wireless signal. :lol:
 
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So I sit here wondering what some of you have for wifi speeds...does what you're looking for pop up on google before you even know you were looking for it??? I have the 'second highest' internet package from Spectrum. I think it's like 200mbps, and unless I'm hard wired it's actually around 75mbps. I have no idea what that means, but I'm told it matters for speed. I have a 3500 sq/ft house, my spectrum stuff is set up pretty centrally located to the first floor. Regardless of where I've been in the house/attic/crawl space, I google something...it pops up like it would anywhere, I hop on NC4x4...I can't tell a difference in load speed from anywhere else I surf the net from. This is with a couple phones, an ipad, a smart watch and a couple laptops rolling at the same time.

So being completely ignorant to the technologies/on the line stuff, and preferring to diagnose a problem than tossing parts at something...if I took my spectrum equipment (that I'm perfectly happy with) and put it in someone else's house, wouldn't the expectation be that it performed the same (assuming partitions in the house are similar)??? If so...then aren't all these other showcases of networks just arbitrary noise that wouldn't perform any better or at best band-aid the OP's problem??? If it wouldn't perform the same, I'm sure someone could tell me, but I probably wouldn't understand it anyway.
 
UTfball68 said:
So I sit here wondering what some of you have for wifi speeds...does what you're looking for pop up on google before you even know you were looking for it??? I have the 'second highest' internet package from Spectrum. I think it's like 200mbps, and unless I'm hard wired it's actually around 75mbps. I have no idea what that means, but I'm told it matters for speed. I have a 3500 sq/ft house, my spectrum stuff is set up pretty centrally located to the first floor. Regardless of where I've been in the house/attic/crawl space, I google something...it pops up like it would anywhere, I hop on NC4x4...I can't tell a difference in load speed from anywhere else I surf the net from. This is with a couple phones, an ipad, a smart watch and a couple laptops rolling at the same time.

So being completely ignorant to the technologies/on the line stuff, and preferring to diagnose a problem than tossing parts at something...if I took my spectrum equipment (that I'm perfectly happy with) and put it in someone else's house, wouldn't the expectation be that it performed the same (assuming partitions in the house are similar)??? If so...then aren't all these other showcases of networks just arbitrary noise that wouldn't perform any better or at best band-aid the OP's problem??? If it wouldn't perform the same, I'm sure someone could tell me, but I probably wouldn't understand it anyway.
Click to expand...


Search the net...no big deal.
Get 3 TVs all streaming netflix, while you stream pornhub on your laptop and your kids are facetiming and now you start to clog.

Doesnt make a damn to me, I have dial up level speed as the best available.
I survive.
 
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