want to increase wifi coverage...access points?? relays??

jinx_uk_98

hi all,

am soon to embark on a major house refurb and my thoughts are currently on tech.

One of the problem I'm going to face is wifi coverage throughout the whole property. It's a reasonable sized place but my belkin wifi router wont cut it. I want 100% strength certainly through the ground floor and maybe upstairs also.

The whole house is being re-wired so it would be a good opportunity to get something like



installed. I've never used these before, has anyone? I'm thinking 2 for downstairs and 2 for up. Will I have to go:

Virgin Box - Switch - (split signal into 4) - cat5 to each of the antennas

any better ideas?

fwor

It depends a bit on the construction of the property. If it's modern, the internal walls will mainly be stud partitions so there is very little to get in the way of wifi signals.

Unless the house is huge, one wifi router high up will probably cover the whole property just fine. If you put one modern one with MIMO type antennas in the loft I doubt you'll have much of a problem.

Cat695

if your doing a major refurb then why not think about getting CAT5/6 cabling installed into every room where the internet is needed....damn faster than Wifi...far safer...less hassle

scottishblondie

If you're rewiring anyway get the whole place cabled with CAT 6, put ethernet ports in every room and have them all fed from a central router. I might even got so far as having multiple ports on each socket plate.

Then you can place wi-fi access points as and where you need them for complete coverage. I wouldn't expect you to need more than 2, and having wired connections available would be great (for me anyway!!) and will provide more speed and reliability especially if you do any media streaming.

Of course you could have the antennas too, but wireless access points are probably cheaper and easier to move/replace if needed.

TimothyEBaldwin

jinx_uk_98 wrote: »

Virgin Box - Switch - (split signal into 4) - cat5 to each of the antennas

No, antennas should be connected to an access point, either directly, or with a short length of coaxial cable, or intergrated into the access point. They should not be connected by cat5 cable, or to a switch. An access point may be connected to a switch with cat5.

Consider using Cat6a cable to allow the use of 10 gigabit Ethernet in future. 100 gigabit Ethernet requires fibre optic cable and is not worth bothering about, other than ensuring it's easy to add cables in future.

Eric_Pisch

I put a network wifi access point (30db) on my system and turned off the one in my router (6db), i can access my WiFi about 300 feet down the road

If your going to have multiple access points you are going to have to set them up so that they do not interfere with each other and your going to have to set up roaming WiFi so that you can seamlessly walk from one AP to another.

Unless you have 20+ bedrooms a single higher powered access point is more than enough, forget the 100% everywhere nonsense as well, you don't need it, anything over 80% will be fine, in fact its near impossible to do even with a managed WiFi system.

jinx_uk_98

fwor wrote: »

It depends a bit on the construction of the property. If it's modern, the internal walls will mainly be stud partitions so there is very little to get in the way of wifi signals.

Unless the house is huge, one wifi router high up will probably cover the whole property just fine. If you put one modern one with MIMO type antennas in the loft I doubt you'll have much of a problem.

we're not living in the property yet but I do have access. I took my belkin round and it only just managed to cover half the ground floor, it's a 1850's large brick built property. I've not heard of MIMO so will look into it. Cheers.

Cat695 wrote: »

if your doing a major refurb then why not think about getting CAT5/6 cabling installed into every room where the internet is needed....damn faster than Wifi...far safer...less hassle

am toying with this idea but we all work of laptops and other mobile devices so having wired points kind of defeats the point.

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

I put a network wifi access point (30db) on my system and turned off the one in my router (6db), i can access my WiFi about 300 feet down the road

If your going to have multiple access points you are going to have to set them up so that they do not interfere with each other and your going to have to set up roaming WiFi so that you can seamlessly walk from one AP to another.

Unless you have 20+ bedrooms a single higher powered access point is more than enough, forget the 100% everywhere nonsense as well, you don't need it, anything over 80% will be fine, in fact its near impossible to do even with a managed WiFi system.

this sounds ideal. what access point did you use?

m_13

Be particularly careful if foil backed plasterboard or foiled insulation is going to be used in the refurbishment. Our extension was lined with it and it acted like a faraday cage and we could get no wifi or DECT 'phone signal in there!

I've recently been having this very discussion with my brother-in-law who couldn't understand why the wifi signal wouldn't go through the open door into his office instead of trying to go in a straight line through the external wall between his house and extension (and failing).

He's now bought a Netgear Rangemax. I'm setting it up today and hopefully it's going to fix his problem. It's a smart MIMO router with 7 internal antennas. WPN824 is the cable version (no modem) and DG834PN is the ADSL gateway with modem.

John_Gray

This sounds like an ideal application for homeplugs - perhaps even with one acting as a wireless access point. You need one homeplug connected to the router, and one homeplug in each room you want to use an ethernet-connected PC or laptop. You can conveniently put a WAP homeplug in the room where you want to use a laptop wirelessly (at work we just move the WAP homeplug to wherever it's needed, and I've even removed the aerial because you get excellent signal strength without it, and saves it being broken by ham-fisted staff!).

Some information about this mechanism here by clicking on the diagrams.

The only downside is the total cost, and if you have the option, I'd lay Cat5e/6 'everywhere', connected to a gigabit hub/switch, if you have the option.

mrBishi

I'd definitely go for the CAT5e/6 cabling throughout the house in combination with wireless access points for laptop and mobile roaming through the house over the homeplugs option, especially in an older property with their less than great electrical wiring!

ormus

id do both. wire the house for cat5 and get a decent router. ie netgear rangemax.
the belkin is pants.