More powerful router?

[FF]

In our place in FL the wi fi stinks,,, its slow and stops in fog or rain, but we can live with it.

Our router is slowly crapping out and requires a booster to make the signal reach the bed room , wi fi radio .About 35ft.

Are there routers with MUCH more output than our Linksys hot spot?


Thanks ,

 

[Wood]

Good morning FF. Do you mean the cellular signal received by the hotspot is weak? It would be unusual for WiFi to have a problem with 35 feet.



https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WRT54G-TM-T-Mobile-Hotspot-Wireless/dp/B001LYHB38


If it's the celluar side minor location changes of the router location could make a big difference in signal strength.

 

[Aquafarm]

I dumped linksys for TPlink ( my model is a few years old already AC3200). Much better, reaches our den which was a dead spot with linksys since it was an addition and had the exterior walls etc to go through. Plus it has been extremely reliable. My cost was about $120. But looks like the comparable model, now, will be a bit higher https://www.techspot.com/products/r...3200-wireless-tri-band-gigabit-router.124563/

 

[Lou_tribal]

You can install repeaters anywhere to beef up your signal along the way.

L

 

[tiltrider1]

What do you really know about routers. Most of us only know what is written on the side of the box at Best Buy. I was un happy with my router. My neighbor who works for amazon mentioned that I bought the bayliner of routers. Great, where do I get the Norhaven of routers. He brought me a commercial grade router. Speed and distance are a non issue for me now. Wish I could tell you the brand but it has absolutely no name anywhere on the router. The router can be bought from Bluespan out of Phoenix Arizona.

 

[FF]

We got an ORBI , seems to work OK , but was difficult to set up , as the simple setup requires a cellphone to take a picture of a spot on the instructions , which then turns the cell phone into an installing device.

So far this is using our old router to feed it with the Wi Fi signal from the local provider.

Will hope on Monday we can talk to a human to get rid of the old router unit still in the circuit.

 

[SeaMoose]

More powerfull router?

Are you guys running external WiFi antennas? At WiFi wavelengths even a small antenna will get you a 7db gain. If you want more transmit power, get your ham license and you are legally allowed to run higher power...

 

[Padeen]

Have learned a lot on smallnetbuilder.

Here is a good starting point:
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/view

 

[warfdog]

Try eliminating interference or get a better router...

More power is often not the issue in WiFi but rather interference in dense environments and also the quality of the router antenna system and software. Newer routers with more antennas are generally better than old WiFi routers with fewer antennas - which although a huge generalization is not obvious because often the antennas are internal to the unit.

The reason this can make such a difference is that all WiFi devices now use a technique called MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) to optimize the performance of send/receive on the radio which uses multiple antennas a short distance from each other. More modern WiFi routers have better MIMO and avoid interference better.

You can also configure the router to use different channels to get on "clear" air. One way to do this is to use an app on your phone or computer to scan the channels that are in use nearby and pick one that is not in use. Marinas can be noisy places with so many boats near each other. Here is an example of the display of an app called WiFi scanner on a MacBook. You want to look for a WiFi scanner app, not a WiFi finder app (the latter will look for hotspots near you).

In this example...I'm at a hotel in Las Vegas...there are not many good clear channels. You may have a more clear spectrum. Alternately you could just try different channel numbers and see what works.

Changing this worked well for me at home. Alternatively, the idea of getting a WiFi repeater "range extender" like this can make a big difference for not much $$.

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-range-extenders/EX6120.aspx

 

[sbu22]

A little more expensive (+- $350) than many, but the AmpliFi HD with 2 repeaters cured our problems. I'm not a computer type. The setup occurs off a cell phone app and took 5 minutes. Has performed flawlessly and fast.