Am I getting good advice from my installer?

[cronshd]

Hi (this is my first post)

We are about to complete renovation of our house - and one sub-contractor is doing the TV-internet cabling.

We have internet and TV supplied by a national cable company and it has worked fine in the past before the renovation - except signal strength falls to about 15% on some parts of the house.

The set up is that the cable comes into the house at one side and from there, the modem feeds to a Linksys Wireless Router.

Our expert is recommending that we fit a (very expensive) business class NetGear Wireless Access Point in the center of the house to maximize performance.

This piece of kit (he has not yet told me the model) - might cost >$400. He says it has a lifetime guarantee and never goes wrong. I am not convinced by this - and wonder if there are other cheaper/more effective options (to maximize signal strength).

I am guessing (to be confirmed) that he is recommending the NetGear WNDAP350 ProSafe.

He also says this requires specialist installation (extra cost).

Is this appropriate for a domestic installation? Is it overkill?

What are the other/better(?) options?

Many thanks, D.

 

[thiggins]

The good part of the installer's recommendation is locating the access point centrally. I suspect you may find that just moving the current wireless router / AP to a central location solves your coverage issue.

If you are rewiring the house, you should have an Ethernet drop in each room anyway. You can then always add another access point if you have signal coverage problems.

No need to install a "business class" AP.

 

[cronshd]

The good part of the installer's recommendation is locating the access point centrally. I suspect you may find that just moving the current wireless router / AP to a central location solves your coverage issue.

If you are rewiring the house, you should have an Ethernet drop in each room anyway. You can then always add another access point if you have signal coverage problems.

No need to install a "business class" AP.

Thanks very much - yes, there are ethernet drops for TVs in different rooms.

What would a suitable AP be - assuming the current Linksys Wireless router remains where it is? What type of equipment am I looking for?> Is it just another Wireless Router which is connected by ehternet from the current one? Or something else?

Thanks, D

 

[thiggins]

With plenty of Ethernet drops to choose from, you can use most anything for an AP. You'll have more choices by converting an inexpensive router to an AP. See
How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point
How To Add an Access Point to a Wireless Router

 

[cronshd]

With plenty of Ethernet drops to choose from, you can use most anything for an AP. You'll have more choices by converting an inexpensive router to an AP. See
How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point
How To Add an Access Point to a Wireless Router

Many thanks Tim, and that first link is the kind of detail I need to set up the AP.

Much appreciated!

 

[claykin]

Thanks very much - yes, there are ethernet drops for TVs in different rooms.

Lets clarify this.

Ethernet is twisted pair Cat5e or Cat6 cable terminated to an RJ45 jack (8 pin telco type jack). Cable TV is normally run over RG6 coax (which is a round cable with pin center conductor).

What would a suitable AP be - assuming the current Linksys Wireless router remains where it is? What type of equipment am I looking for?> Is it just another Wireless Router which is connected by ehternet from the current one? Or something else?

Thanks, D

What model Linksys router do you currently have in your home?

Your installer recommending a Netgear Business class model is likely overkill. The wifi radios in the Netgear business products is NO better than their consumer gear (i.e. WNDR3700 or WNDR4000).

If you need a more powerful radio to cover your house (even with it centrally located) you may need to look at a higher powered solution such as Engenius and/or Ruckus wireless.

Keep in mind that even with a higher powered router/access point if your laptop/notebook Wifi card is standard power there likely won't be enough transmit power from the laptop to reach back to the router/AP. Ruckus has a proprietary antenna design which has proven to work great over longer distances.

I bet your "professional" never even heard of Ruckus.

 

[Internetraver]

Lets clarify this.

Ethernet is twisted pair Cat5e or Cat6 cable terminated to an RJ45 jack (8 pin telco type jack). Cable TV is normally run over RG6 coax (which is a round cable with pin center conductor).



What model Linksys router do you currently have in your home?

Your installer recommending a Netgear Business class model is likely overkill. The wifi radios in the Netgear business products is NO better than their consumer gear (i.e. WNDR3700 or WNDR4000).

If you need a more powerful radio to cover your house (even with it centrally located) you may need to look at a higher powered solution such as Engenius and/or Ruckus wireless.

Keep in mind that even with a higher powered router/access point if your laptop/notebook Wifi card is standard power there likely won't be enough transmit power from the laptop to reach back to the router/AP. Ruckus has a proprietary antenna design which has proven to work great over longer distances.

I bet your "professional" never even heard of Ruckus.

First off, most AV equipment today has the ability to hook to the internet. Bluray's, TV's, AV receivers, video games and so on. So running a network cable in addition to coax to your TV locations is a great idea.

Second, how can you tell him that a business class Netgear is overkill and then go an recommend a Ruckus which will most likely cost more than $400.

My guess is the "professional" is quoting you a product that he knows works. Ask yourself if you'd rather pay a little more now to have great Wifi throughout you house, or spend less and have spotty Wifi that will most likely have to be upgraded in the future anyway.

 

[stevech]

IMO: spending a lot on a residential WiFi router or access point (meaning more than $75) is imprudent. If the coverage is inadequate, money doesn't cure the downlink AND uplink weak signal situation. It's simply physics. It's not a "high power router", because of the uplink (from client) situation.

The cure is adding one or more access points, and these can be re-purposed $40 WiFi routers. Connect each to the router via cat5 cable or use HomePlug AV or MoCA in lieu of running cat5 cable.