Looking to upgrade my dumb ap Linksys 1900ACS with another router with better wifi coverage and probably speed. I will keep the 1900ACS as backup for my router.
Located in Europe so Asus, Netgear, TP-Link etc. is good and available brands. Maybe AX device?
Price: not looking to rob my bank account, so below 100£. Willing to buy used and will of course look at new/used prices before buying anyhting
I'm only paying for 100/100mbit at the moment, it's working just fine
Thanks!
In Europe radiation from antennas is regulated, so you will not get much better coverage with legitimate antenna setup or builtin antennas. AX would extend range due to 2-way beamforming to multi-antenna clients, like modern laptops and phones, older tv-s or dektop clients.
https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi
7621 is too slow for qos above 100Mbps, typically forwarding at 300-400Mbps without offloads, qualcommax needs proprietary drivers for offloads, unlike filogic which can do 500-900Mbps vpn encryption and forward at 2x2.5Gbps. Check what you got in the store, there will be something.
Generically a newer radio will (probably) have better sensitivity. So AX or AC over 802.11n is in. But if you're talking better wifi coverage you can't beat physics. Farther away is farther away. I'd recommend get more AP's rather than adding more / better radios on a single AP.
Similarly you could have a look at directional antennas or your antenna placement.
Going from my 802.11n 2x2 AP to 802.11n 4x4 AP's on 2.4ghz got me maybe 3-5M more usable range (in a residential location). Similar on going from 2x2 N to 4x4 AC/AX in 5ghz.
So if you only care about wifi coverage and not speed my recommendation is more cheaper AP's plus cables =P
As brada4 mentioned, the total maximum range is effectively capped. Modern 802.11ax chipsets however do roughly double the throughput though.
The best strategy to increase range, would be placing another AP towards the weaker areas of your house, ideally with a wired backhaul (but even a wireless one would improve the situation, if you place it in the middle). Two or three cheap (wired-) APs may very well improve the overall situation more than one single high-end wireless router in many circumstances.
Thank you all!
I've heard that the 1900ACS isn't the best router regarding wifi, so that's why I would like to upgrade it. But if it's not the case that the wifi coverage will get better then it's not the solution.
Regarding placement, I have a 2 stories house with my router in the 1st floor and my dumb ap in a attic on the attic (3rd floor, it's cold / ventilated there).
Both router and dump ap antennas is positioned upwards.
Can a third dumb ap be wired to my main dumb ap?
Or should I move the dumb ap from my attic to my office and put a switch where I have the dump ap today? This will move my dumb ap from a central position in the house all the way to the north side. All south side devices will have to connect to the router then. Sorry, it's probably not easy to know if this will solve it, maybe best to test and see how it works.
yes.
What's better, depends on the footprint, building materials - and testing
You are permitted to use old APs in dumb mode to cover less needy areas
Try this, the fancy AR mapper, to identify obstacles for signal and optimize AP placement to avoid those (apple version available too)
Thanks for your answers, I learned something new today.
Regarding wifiman on iPhone, must have a unify gateway to use some of the functions, can't find AR mapper for instance. But thanks!
From apk shop
In android breadcrumbs go like
Signal strength -> then above shows signal graph and above that you can add floor plan.
Need a unify gateway it says.. Maybe I should get an android
Some friend of yours may have one.
Yes, but no unfortunately not.
There might be software for windows I could use?
If you have an iPhone download the Apple Airport Utility.
When you open the app it will try to find a non-existent AirPort base station, but in the upper right is a blue link Wi-fi Scan. Click that, then in the next window, Scan. It will give you a list of APs, mac and signal strength (RSSI in -db)
I also have Wifi-Analyzer on an old Android tablet. It has mo' features, but both will give you a db measurement which is pretty much all you really need.
Draw you floor plan. chart it out.
Understand the -db values are all relative to the tools used for testing. My old android does not have as good a kit inside so it does not read the same as my newer iPhone.
First try to determine the -db value that is the lowest acceptable to you for performance (probably in the -55 to -65 db). Then attempt to find a location for your APs that is balanced -db wise. Center of building is a good starting point, but walls etc will impact things so if your bedrooms are at one end and living area at the other, you may need to move the AP down the hall a bit towards the bedrooms to up the bedroom coverage. If you can not maintain your acceptable db value then you need another AP. Test in the actual location you will use the device as opposed to the farthest corner of the room.
Keep your APs away from any forced hot air ducts that are metal or have foil wrappings. They kill signals..
Sorry for not replying. I tried your tips but I couldn’t get the app to do what you described..