5Ghz channel help

[wsarahan]

Hi guys how are you?

I have a doubt and a problem with the 5Ghz channels and would like a little help

I had the 68U and some locations at my home the 5Ghz band did not achieve, so i had to use wifi repeater

Well i changed last week to the 87u thinking that i would solve the problem with the new router, but i can't achieve the same spots and the signal is the same as it was with the 68U

I don't wanna use repeaters any more, it lags the connection a lot is there a way to increase the 5ghz signal? I always used at auto channels the 5ghz band, is there a best channel os something like that?

I'll really be thankfull with any help

And sorry about my english, i'm from Brazil, one more reason to be worried, i imported the new router and i can't return the 87U


Thanks again

 

[RogerSC]

When you say repeater, that makes me think that you're losing about 50% of your bandwidth using the classic repeater configuration.

I suggest looking into using a wireless "Access Point" (AP) instead of a repeater, which is most commonly a wireless router re-purposed as an AP and wired to your main router. Then you have the full wireless speed that your AP will support, and you shouldn't notice any lag or loss of speed. Of course, if you want full wireless-AC out of your AP, you'll have to use a router that supports the wireless-AC speed that you need, and that can be expensive. But it will work well.

To be a little more specific, to configure a router as an AP, you can either use the router's AP mode (if it has that), or take just about any router and turn off DHCP and UPnP on it. There's a detailed article on this web site about how to configure a wireless router as a wireless AP, but the main thing is that you connect the AP to your main router with a cable. If you can't run a cable to the AP, there are other, less speedy choices, like powerline networking or MoCA, but even this will be better than using a repeater for things like streaming media.

 

[wsarahan]

When you say repeater, that makes me think that you're losing about 50% of your bandwidth using the classic repeater configuration.

I suggest looking into using a wireless "Access Point" (AP) instead of a repeater, which is most commonly a wireless router re-purposed as an AP and wired to your main router. Then you have the full wireless speed that your AP will support, and you shouldn't notice any lag or loss of speed. Of course, if you want full wireless-AC out of your AP, you'll have to use a router that supports the wireless-AC speed that you need, and that can be expensive. But it will work well.

To be a little more specific, to configure a router as an AP, you can either use the router's AP mode (if it has that), or take just about any router and turn off DHCP and UPnP on it. There's a detailed article on this web site about how to configure a wireless router as a wireless AP, but the main thing is that you connect the AP to your main router with a cable. If you can't run a cable to the AP, there are other, less speedy choices, like powerline networking or MoCA, but even this will be better than using a repeater for things like streaming media.

But is it normal that both routers do not achieve all the house size? It's not a huge one, 2 floors only


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[azazel1024]

5GHz has poor penetration compared to 2.4GHz. You say 2 floors, but how big and what construction? For a router centrally located, 5GHz might cover 1,500sq-ft on its own floor and 800sq-ft on the floors above and below it in a traditional sitck frame house (IE 2x4s and 1/2" sheetrock). Just an estimate of course.

With something like cinderblock or poured concrete, figure half those figures, maybe 800sq-ft on the same floor and 400sq-ft on the floors above and below.

Exact construction methods, the size of the rooms (number of walls matters!), etc will vary that one way or another. A very open floor plan will extend that significantly, small rooms, shrink it.

In general, switching between routers is unlikely to make any real difference in wireless coverage. In general, 802.11n routers do typically have a little better coverage than 802.11b/g routers because of multiple antennas (MIMO = signal gain), but it isn't hugely larger, especially indoors.

802.11ac routers aren't really going to have any better range than 802.11n routers, though especially in 5GHz, they are likely to have much better performance at the same distances. Just not likely to be any further.

What you really need are multiple routers/access points if you really want to cover a property with 5GHz. Even with my one access point better located now, I can't really cover my entire 2-story 2,500sq-ft house (main floor + basement) with 5GHz. It's somewhat offset from the center of my house by about 10ft, but in my basement in the furthest spots the signal strength is too low to even connect to it. If I could shift it 10ft over, I might be able to get a connection just about everywhere in my house, but it would be a very poor connection in places near the far corners, especially in the basement below it.

By contrast, switching over to 2.4GHz, centrally locating the AP would get fair to excellent coverage through almost the entire house (I have one spot behind my fireplace in another room that likely would get poor coverage, which is part of why I have an access point and a router. Better cover the house with 2.4GHz, but also so that there is universally good to excellent 5GHz coverage, instead of none/really bad up to excellent coverage.

 

[RogerSC]

Guess I'm lucky on that one, the R7000 covers my whole house on 5GHz. very well. There is no "normal" in this, your results will depend on a lot things. What the construction materials are in your house, how it's laid out, where your router is, how good your clients are, and so on.

For example, my living room is about 40' from my router, farthest point away from my router in the house), and there are several flimsy sheetrock walls between. If my house walls were lath and plaster, I'm sure the result would be different *smile*. And I can position the router and antennas to favor my living room, and still cover the rest of the house.

Anyways, you can experiment with router and AP placement (and antenna positioning) to optimize your results, sometimes changing things around can give surprising results.