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Help...need to expand wireless coverage to basement

Bucklion

Throwback
Staff member
Former Premier League Champ
So I just got a great smart tv for my basement, but my modem and wireless router are on the other side of the house in family room. I currently rent my modem and router from TWC. What I need to do is expand my coverage to the basement somehow. My question is how best to do that. Does buying a better router help? I've always been under the impression that it helped with speed, but not necessarily coverage. What about a network expander? I see those for sale and wonder if they work, or how well they work. I could move what I have more centrally, but then I'm afraid it will just send weak signal everywhere.

Anyone have this come up? Any advice is appreciated.
 
So I just got a great smart tv for my basement, but my modem and wireless router are on the other side of the house in family room. I currently rent my modem and router from TWC. What I need to do is expand my coverage to the basement somehow. My question is how best to do that. Does buying a better router help? I've always been under the impression that it helped with speed, but not necessarily coverage. What about a network expander? I see those for sale and wonder if they work, or how well they work. I could move what I have more centrally, but then I'm afraid it will just send weak signal everywhere.

Anyone have this come up? Any advice is appreciated.

If you can get a wire from your router down to the basement (through floor/wall) you can set up a second router as an access point. Pretty sure most routers (even the cheap ones) have an 'access point' mode now-a-days. Very simple to set up if you can get the wire to the basement.

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Realistic options are: Pull a wired LAN line from the current installation across the house and place a second WAP on the other side, move the current hardware to the center of the home if possible to more evenly distribute the coverage, purchase a WiFi repeater/amplifier, or check with TWC and see if a newer model WiFi router has become available since you received yours.

Newer WiFi WAPs with n/ac generally demonstrate better usable range and support beamforming, which boosts signal strength. While a/b/g signals have better theoretical range, they're more quickly degraded by physical obstructions. If you've had the same hardware for more than 4 or 5 years from your provider there is almost certainly an upgrade/exchange available.

In practice though, the best option is almost always figuring a way to get the WAP in the middle of the home so the signal is equal in every direction while passing through a minimum number of walls/floors.
 
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I currently rent my modem and router from TWC.
How much do you pay for this per month? Then multiply that by at least two years and figure out how much money you can spend without adding any expenses over that span.
What I need to do is expand my coverage to the basement somehow. My question is how best to do that. Does buying a better router help? I've always been under the impression that it helped with speed, but not necessarily coverage.
A better router can help with speed and coverage but can only do so much, which dryden touched upon. Better routers can also be more stable and give you more control over your bandwidth. My wife doesn't need maximum bandwidth to stream TV shows from Hulu or Netflix but those will impact my ability to game without lag/stutter if I do not place limitations on the wife's streaming box.

I second his notion about installing a central signal. The location and signal proximity would be improved regardless of the hardware, which could be swapped out upon completion if necessary.
 
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The other thing to consider is where your streaming needs are headed. Wireless is not ideal for streaming HD (let alone 4K) content, especially if there are other devices splitting up that wireless bandwidth. If you expect to have multiple devices streaming HD using that same wireless signal, your available bandwidth and quality may suffer, and you may want to consider running ethernet lines to certain areas.

For me, I have this setup:

Cable line to Modem to Router (4 ports)

Ethernet line from Router to Office SWITCH, split between Desktop, Tablo (OTA DVR), File Server

Ethernet line from Router to Living Rm SWITCH, split between Xbox, Roku, PS3, Receiver

Ethernet line from Router to Basement SWITCH, split between line up to my bedroom, and later some devices in basement (unfinished for now) and maybe other bedrooms.

Meanwhile any handheld devices (2 laptops, 2 tablets, 2 phone) are fine using wireless. That might change if we have kids and they start hogging streaming bandwidth too.


Obviously that may be a bit of overkill for your needs. Where it is similar is that I have a roku in my bedroom for streaming netflix or watching my PLEX server. Even with top flight routers (retail $200+), I still had buffering on my SD TV when streaming movies even though it was on the same floor and only separated by two walls and one decent sized family room (maybe 30' as the ghost flies?). Rather than buy a repeater, I ran an ethernet line down through the floor, across the basement ceiling and up to my bedroom and now the signal is perfect. The cost was $10-15 for the cable and my time to drill holes, run cable. Now it streams beautifully and more importantly is future proofed when I feel like putting an HDTV in my bedroom (for now I'm quite content to fall asleep with a 27" SDTV, which makes my older movies look better)

Regarding proximity, my guest bedroom roku that is only about 20' away from the router (with 2 doors and 2 walls inbetween) works great on wireless. This is used rarely for guests so I'm not going to run a line until necessary (ie 10+ years from now when a teenager needs a steady signal)

I'd move the WAP to the middle of the house first. After that, consider whether running a line to the basement would be feasible (and more affordable)
 
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I had various experiences with basement coverage... mostly bad... couldn't get past 2-3 bars... with vaiorus routers & modems... and heaven forbid, the man-cave and the video-addict cave dweller son couldn't accept that
so I drilled a hole in the floor.. ran a line down from main modem to another router and he can happily kill and blow everything up... the world is safer
 
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Thanks, I haven't yet, so yeah let me know


Damnit. Sorry guys.
So, we're in a ranch-style, ~1850 sq ft home. The Modem is at one end, and I put this item in the hallway that's a little more than halfway.
I'm not the most tech savvy; therefore, I had to call the technical team to help me get it acknowledging the WiFi modem.
But moving it afterwards and getting a signal has been a cake walk. Entire house has service without interference.
 
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