Help to setup a WiFi for large home and a bridge

[amberti]

Dear all,
i have a 3 floors home, each floor is 80 s.m. or 850 s.f.
I have a NETGEAR DGND3700 ADSL modem (N600), the router at the ground floor is connected with ethernet to a smart TV.

I want a good coverage on 2.4 and 5 Ghz (standard N) on the three floors, the opposite corners of upper and lower floor now have some lacks of connectivity; the overall situation is good, on these I'm looking just for a marginal improvement and the possibility to connect a second Smart TV.
I have to connect my father's home (2.4 Ghz only) that is 50 meters from my home, direct view from one side of the upper floor; I do expect to be able to have a video call from there.
I attach a schema with the white boxes that I have to cover with WiFi.
Basically I'm looking for products with a good throughput at high attenuation levels.



Additional information:
* I already tried a standard WDS (54Mbps/G) trough DGND3700 at the upper floor and a NETGEAR DGN2200 (N300), the WDS is working but with low throughput and high latency.
* Budget is important, (I plan to spend less than 100 Euros) that's the reason why I was looking at:
- TRENDnet TEW-737HRE
- NETGEAR WNR2500
- TP LINK TL-WPA4220
all have very good rewievs; I was also thinking at using a power line adapter as suggested on SNB.
* Products have to be available also in Europe (Italy)
* I can use the NETGEAR DGND3700 and the DGN2200 (the latest as an AP?)
* I do prefer standard firmware without custom ROM
* I have a preference for NETGEAR because I always found It with a nice GUI and reliable over time.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions

 

[thiggins]

For the building to building bridge, you need at least N300 class. Use at least powerline, preferably Ethernet to get a connection upstairs.

I suggest using dual-band for the bridge. That way you can use 5 GHz for the
building-to-building link and 2.4 GHz to connect to devices. You won't get the 50% throughput loss that way.

 

[amberti]

Thanks for your reply.

I will connect on the ground floor my DGND3700 to a TP-LINK TL-PA6010;
On the first floor another TP-LINK TL-PA6010 to a NETGEAR R6250 that based on your tests has an high throughtput at high attenuation levels on the 5Ghz band. I will setup the R6250 as an Access Point. Is this a correct configuration?

On the other side (my father's home) I need something like NETGEAR Fast Lane to use the 5Ghz band as a bridge and 2.4 Ghz to connect devices.
Here I'm thinking at another R6250 (but can It be configured this way?) or a NETGEAR EX6100; about the latter I have doubts about the distance range It can cover.

Optionally I can use another TL-PA6010 downstairs and DGN2200 as an accesspoint on the 2.4 Ghz band.

To setup this I will spend a little more than expected (about 250 Euros) so I need to be confident on the result. A router with detachable antennas would it be better (e.g. Asus RT-N66U or TP-LINK Archer C7)?

Thanks in advance

 

[thiggins]

If you are going to buy something, get a pair of outdoor bridges. EnGenius makes a bunch and they are not that much.

Then in your father's home, connect either an AP to the bridge if you are ok with having your father on your LAN or a router to keep him in a separate LAN. This provides best performance because you are not losing 50% due to repeating with one radio.

 

[amberti]

I found TP-LINK TL-WA7510N at 50 Euros.
I can use one of them Without problems but at my father's place It would be difficult to place this outside; can I use there a normal 5Ghz AP or It is important to have two AP with directional antennas?

If I have at my father place a router like the NETGEAR R6250 can I setup It to use 5Ghz for the bridge and to repeat the signal on the 2.4 Ghz for the devices?

Thanks in advance

 

[thiggins]

You can try the bridge on one end. But using 5 GHz will be difficult to penetrate walls.

I don't think the NETGEAR will allow simultaneous use of bridge and router/AP.

I found TP-LINK TL-WA7510N at 50 Euros.
I can use one of them Without problems but at my father's place It would be difficult to place this outside; can I use there a normal 5Ghz AP or It is important to have two AP with directional antennas?

If I have at my father place a router like the NETGEAR R6250 can I setup It to use 5Ghz for the bridge and to repeat the signal on the 2.4 Ghz for the devices?

Thanks in advance

 

[amberti]

The schema seems to be clear now.

I have still one question: what if I buy a router with external antennas like the TP-LINK Archer C5 (from Its specifications: 3 * 5GHz 5dBi detachable antennas RP-SMA, transmission power <23dBm on the 5GHz band) and I use it as an AP on the upper floor connecting just one antenna to an extension cable and then to an external directional antenna (like a TP-Link ANT5823B - 23Dbi)? Theoretically I get a 150 Mbps connection like the one of a TL-WA7510N plus I have an AP on 2.4 and 5 Ghz on the upper floor. Is it correct? Should be better to use a TL-WA7510N (transmission power <20dBm)?

At my father place I will use a TL-WA7510N as a bridge connected to my old DGN2200 as a router.

Thanks thiggins for your very professional support!

 

[thiggins]

Putting an antenna on a long cable is usually not recommended unless the cable is short (< 1m) or you use very low-loss cable, which is very stiff and thick.

The other problem is that a two antenna router "advertises", i.e. tells clients that are going to connect to it, that it supports the higher link rates made possible by its two radios. If you use one antenna as you propose, the router will keep switching link rates because it doesn't know that you have essentially made it a one-antenna router.

You would be better to use an N150 or AC433 router, i.e. single antenna if you are going to try this.

Before you go to all that trouble, I would first try putting the router near a window that has line-of-sight to the bridge at your father's house.