It’s a story as old as time. I moved into a new place with great fiber internet - but the modem is in the garage, my desktop PC is not, and the place is a rental so I have limited options for making modifications. The signal is not bad, but I’m getting dropouts.
Since the PC and router are fixed in place I thought maybe a directional antenna or two would help? 5GHz directional antennae are kinda scarce which makes me wonder if I’m on the wrong track. Does this new “beamforming” thing supersede directional antennae?
I have 802.11ax (a.k.a. Wi-Fi 6) on both sides of the connection. Maybe I could upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E and give 6GHz a go? Maybe that would be worse due to the intervening wall…
If you are having dead spots do not use 5Ghz as it has less penetration than 2.4ghz.
One option could be a powerline adaptor to move the signal into the room with the pc.
And the sure-fire but ugly option is to use a cat5 cable from the modem to the PC.
You make a good point about 2.4GHz; that would probably be more reliable, but slower. It’s kinda disappointing to have a gigabit connection, but lose 70% of the speed at the last-meter connection. But 5GHz also loses most of the upstream speed.
Maybe rolling up my sleeves and putting in a cable is the way to go. I have a thought about going into the furnace closet, snuggling the cable alongside the insulation of a duct into the crawlspace, and coming up out the wall through a modified electrical outlet plate. I might be able to pull it off.
Thanks for the ideas!
Cable is always the best option for speed, thought it is a bit of a pain in the arse to set up.
The problem with things like power line extensions and wifi extenders is that you have no guarantee it will solve the problem as you may have a huge amount of noise in the power-lines that kills transmission bandwidth.
There are signal strength apps available that allow you to map the dead spots and try and fix the penetration issue.
A simple test is a steel wok, use it to focus the signal towards the pc (this will block the signal in the other direction) this will give you the highest penetration with the standard setup and it may solve the problem.
You’re taking me back to the days when cantennas were popular.
Test
Talk to your landlord and tell him you’d like to install a network socket so that the whole house gets better WiFi, and that you’ll leave it behind when you move so it won’t leave any mess and will benefit future tenants too. Most landlords I’ve tried this with have jumped at the chance.
Failing that, dropouts suggest interference rather than just signal problems. Try running a channel monitor on your phone and see if there’s anything using the same channels as your WiFi, try switching to another channel and look for anything happening that coincides with the drop-outs (microwave, certain lights, electric motors running, etc).
Lastly a better modem might just do the trick. I’ve found that anything running OpenWRT is ten times more reliable than most other options, particularly when placed under heavy load or difficult circumstances.
These are all great ideas, thanks!
5ghz and 6ghz can’t push through walls very well. Your best options are:
- relocate the router
- run a network cable for another router in a better spot
- use powerline adapters (turns your home wiring into a network)
If you can run some cat6 through an attic or drop ceiling, that’s the way I’d go.
Assuming there is a door between the house and the garage. There should be weather stripping under the door, there should be enough play in the rubber seal to run a flat cat6 cable under the door. Blue painters tape can help keep things in place and not be a trip hazard.
Get an access point with a healthy uplink. Mesh networks work too.
I wouldn’t recommend powerline unless it’s the last resort. It’s really hit or miss depending on your circuitry.
Thanks for the heads-up about powerline. My house is oldish, and the wiring might not be amazing. It’s good to be warned before I put money into that option.
I’m not sure what you mean by a healthy uplink? Like put a Wi-Fi device in a spot with a better signal, and run a cable there?
Power line adaptors aren’t bad, but they are hit or miss. If they hit, they’ll work well and solve all your problems for minimal cost and effort. If they miss you’ll probably never get them working properly. It’s a bit of a gamble, but I wouldn’t rule them out.
Wireless range extenders/access points/mesh networks are the reverse. They’ll almost always work, but they make the inherent problems with WiFi worse. More latency, more congestion, more interference. They’re not without downsides.
Running a cable so you can move your router to a better location would be my number 1 choice. Ideally somewhere where you can plug multiple devices (TV, consoles, pc, etc) into it so they aren’t competing with the devices that really need the WiFi.
Yea.
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Try to get the Wi-Fi node to a better place using Ethernet.
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Get a Wi-Fi “repeater” or better yet, a mesh network, where the second access point is placed in between your computer and the router to “rebroadcast” to the router.
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5G MIMO beamforming with a grid of 400 or more antennae, is great. WiFi “beamforming” with a dozen or fewer antennae, is only marginally better than none at all.
For LAN, the best would be a Cat6 cable. You could acquire or build a WiFi directional antenna or two, but that’s more of a DIY hack than a real solution (fun, but sub-optimal).
You could use an extender too. Or a mesh wifi system.
I actually use an extender. It would also be possible to hard wire from an extender too. My whole upstairs covered both by the extended wifi and hard wiring from a strategically placed extender.
