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2 Routers, Range Extender, or WAP?

2 Routers, Range Extender, or WAP?

Old May 14, 2016, 9:05 am
  #1  
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2 Routers, Range Extender, or WAP?

I've posted before about the difficulties I'm having with only my phone when on wifi at home and we all determined the equipment should be replaced.

Now we have to decide what to replace it with.

Current set up:
Combo router in basement in a corner close to the cable entry point
Range extender on 1st floor near door to basement

Future usage
We need good coverage on the first floor PLUS my husband is moving his office from the basement to the second floor. We don't have a cat-5 cable up there, though we probably could run one. As such, if we don't, he will be using the wifi in his new office.

Should we just put the router on the first floor? Downside is that all the hard wiring is located at the corners of the house, so the wifi signal might not be that strong going upstairs

Should we also buy a WAP to put on the first floor? It may be less obtrusive than a full router/wifi set up and we could more likely put it in the center of the house on top of a curio

Should we buy a new range extender instead of the WAP? I was told they can be very flaky. Ours worked fine for years and now it intermittently stops allowing connections just to my phone unless I restart it.

It was also suggested we just buy a second router to put on the first floor so the wifi is one floor closer to my husbands new office.

Will be going out shortly, but really look forward to all your opinions - the collective knowledge here is outstanding. ^
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Old May 14, 2016, 10:20 am
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I recommend you look at powerline network adapters, with which I've had good success. You deploy powerline network adapters in pairs or larger groups. Once you sync the adapters you want to use together, you plug them directly into whatever AC power outlets are the most convenient. They use your house's AC power lines to connect between themselves, works great as long as there are no high frequency filters in the way. (So for example a good quality surge/noise suppressor power strip might block the powerline networking signal from getting through.) Each powerline network adapter has an Ethernet port; devices that are plugged into those Ethernet ports act like they are plugged into the same Ethernet hub.

So you might, for example, use three adapters:

(1) Adapter near the combo router in the basement near cable entry. Connect your combo router to the adapter. Now devices plugged into other adapters will act like they're plugged into your combo router.

(2) Adapter on the 1st floor, doesn't have to be near basement door. So you can position this where your extender can deliver the best signal to the 1st floor. Or you can install a new WAP.

(3) Adapter on the 2nd floor. You can either install a new WAP, or perhaps your husband can plug in his laptop or desktop directly into the adapter.

It's very hard for us to determine how many access points (or extenders) you need to get a good chance of getting strong coverage throughout your house. Construction materials matter a lot; and of course there's also just raw size. But with powerline adapters you gain a LOT of flexibility about where to put your wireless equipment. You might, for example, be able to put equipment on the actual stairs to give it a better chance of propagating signal both on the 1st floor and on the 2nd floor.
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Old May 14, 2016, 11:24 am
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I agree with the poster above's comments regarding powerline adapters and the flexibility they provide.

I think avoiding the added complexity and cost of a second router or WAP if you can make it work without them is good.

I would try using a pair of powerline adapters to connect from the basement cable entry point, which is where I assume the cable modem will be located, up to the location where you have to have a hardwired connection, and placing the wireless access point and router (if that's not built into the cable modem) there.

If you don't require a hardwired connection on the first or second floor, then I would experiment with placing the wireless access point in various locations using the powerline adapters until you find the place that offers the best coverage or come to the conclusion that a second WAP is required.
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Old May 14, 2016, 12:32 pm
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Originally Posted by Mary2e
Future usage
We need good coverage on the first floor PLUS my husband is moving his office from the basement to the second floor. We don't have a cat-5 cable up there, though we probably could run one. As such, if we don't, he will be using the wifi in his new office.
Consider using DLAN (powerline). Before moving (where Cat 6 was in the walls), I used a solution by Devolo. The adaptors were really reliable. Speed was good (they have even faster ones). The receiving adaptor acted as WAP too (It was a kit similar to this one).
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Old May 14, 2016, 2:18 pm
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I've had pretty good luck with a couple of Powerline kits where one adapter also includes a WAP/Extender. I've used both the Netgear XWNB5221-100PAS and also the TP-Link WPA4220KIT. They're both more reliable in a WAP setup as opposed to a Extender/Repeater since the auto hand-off seems to hold on at too low of a signal going in both directions. That said, even in WAP mode the DHCP and routing is still handled by the router, so there's no subnet segregation.
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Old May 14, 2016, 3:29 pm
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Wow. Thank you so much. It looks like power line it will be.

We already have a signal booster used by our X-10 system, and a TiVo mini, which uses MOCA. I hope they all play nice together 😀
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Old May 14, 2016, 4:22 pm
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I have X10 all over the house and, for the most part, it plays nice. I do have some minor issues from time to time, but I'm relatively certain it has more to do with poor wiring than X10 and HomePlug interacting (mainly since I had issues with X10 alone prior to HomePlug being added). The MOCA side shouldn't be affected at all (also have a Bolt and 2 x Minis) since MOCA operates over Coax cable.
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Old May 14, 2016, 8:31 pm
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alternatively ...

since you're already running a moca network, you can extend that with additional moca adapters instead of powerline adapters for places where wifi won't reach, if that's still a problem ... additional moca adapters will do almost the same thing that the powerline adapter will do, give you an RJ45 jack/connection where none currently exist without needing to run additional wire provided there's a cable outlet nearby. And since you are already creating the moca network with your tivo, you won't need a pair of moca adapters, you should only need one where you need the extra connection because (if?) the wifi won't reach it.

What type of router are you running? If you are using a modern one with multiple antennas, radios, etc, have you tried just relocating the router to a central place on the first floor in the center of the house? If you do that, it might just cover the entire house.

-David

Last edited by LIH Prem; May 14, 2016 at 8:45 pm
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Old May 15, 2016, 9:01 am
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If you go the MOCA route, make sure you get a MOCA 1.1 or higher adapter... MOCA 1.0 adapters will interfere with the network setup by your Tivo & Minis.
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Old May 15, 2016, 10:13 am
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Thanks. I'll investigate further, but the MOCA option does sound much easier and cheaper - of course, we still have to buy a new router. Our cable router is separate and the router plugs into it.
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Old May 15, 2016, 10:15 am
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Actually, a Powerline Kit with Wifi WAP built-in would probably be cheaper than a single MOCA-to-Ethernet adapter, but if your existing MOCA network is solid then it would probably have higher likelihood of working without a hitch too.
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Old May 15, 2016, 10:16 am
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Originally Posted by LIH Prem
alternatively ...

since you're already running a moca network, you can extend that with additional moca adapters instead of powerline adapters for places where wifi won't reach, if that's still a problem ... additional moca adapters will do almost the same thing that the powerline adapter will do, give you an RJ45 jack/connection where none currently exist without needing to run additional wire provided there's a cable outlet nearby. And since you are already creating the moca network with your tivo, you won't need a pair of moca adapters, you should only need one where you need the extra connection because (if?) the wifi won't reach it.

What type of router are you running? If you are using a modern one with multiple antennas, radios, etc, have you tried just relocating the router to a central place on the first floor in the center of the house? If you do that, it might just cover the entire house.

-David
Thanks!!!!!! We'll definitely be looking into MOCA.

We have a router with a wifi antenna. Our cable modem is separate.

We thought about moving the router to the first floor, but all the cat-5 cabling is in corners and we'd have to run another wire to the center of the house AND then have to look at it We have a media closet that contains all the other equipment and though we might be able to put it in there - but it would be behind a door.
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Old May 16, 2016, 2:38 am
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I have the actiontec 1.1 moca adaptor connected to one of my minis that acts as the gateway to my router in my office. Works great with my roamio pro creating the moca network in another room. Just plugged the adaptor in and it worked fine with no setup required.

http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B008C1JC4...ing=UTF8&psc=1

Tivo seems to be selling their own branded model now. When I set up my moca network they were reselling the actiontec moca adapter.


Which router do you have? Is it really a current model? The most current models support multiple radios and antennas for better throughput and signal strength.

-David

Last edited by LIH Prem; May 16, 2016 at 2:44 am
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Old May 16, 2016, 4:57 am
  #14  
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Thanks so much!!!!

The router we have is pretty old... I would say around 7 or 8 years old and is a cisco. The cable modem is about 5 years old.

I'm not sure what moca adapter I have. The mini itself just says mini on it, and I check, it does have an ethernet port. We got the mini when we replaced for a Roamio about 1.5 years ago.

Will be shopping later ^^
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Old May 16, 2016, 7:45 am
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there are now
Moca 2.0 Moca 2.0
extenders out.. should get you much higher speeds than 1.1. I'ld make sure all your routers/extender have gigabit ethernet to support the higher speeds though.. while your internet might only max at much lower speeds, having a gigabit network at the house is quite useful- we use a NAS for music/photo/video storage and went to a gigabit network last year and I have been really happy with the uptick in performance...

FDW
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