Poor wifi signal in bedroom. Opinions on best options? Prices

[jamst149]

I have verizon fios. Router is at the back of my apartment on the 2nd floor (living room). My bedroom (where the poor signal is) is at the front of the apartment on the first floor.

I spend a good amount of time in the bedroom watching videos and whatnot on my ipad and iphone. Trouble is I often get stuck using LTE due to poor wifi signals. Which then uses up unnecessary data on my mobile plans. Also extremely frustrating trying to watch something while the device toggles back and forth between wifi/LTE. Not a very good viewing experience. So I am trying to figure out the most affordable way to boost my wifi in my bedroom in order to cut down on my mobile data, thus saving me money.

As I have an old router laying around I would think my best option would be to run a ethernet cable from my router down to the old router (and turn it into a WAP). I'm not the most savvy but this as far as I can tell seems to make the most sense financially. As opposed to spending cash on a wifi extender, powerline adapters etc.

The other option would be to try and move the router. However as I rent this is not so simple without an ugly result (as far as I can tell). Since verizon fios uses an ONT, then a coax cable to connect to the router. And the coax runs outside my apartment then comes into the back of the apartment to the router. At which point sits with the rest of all my ugly cables neatly hidden behind my tv and entertainment center. To move my router it would seem I'd have to run coax through my living room to another area. Not a very elegant solution.

Anyway I use about 6gb's mobile data/month. If I drop down to 3gb thats about a $15 a month savings. So being fairly tech savvy (but not necessarily in networking) would it not seem to be the best bang for the buck to buy and ethernet cable and connect my fios router to and old router (WAP) to boost my signal?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks sooooo much!

 

[CaptainSTX]

I have verizon fios. Router is at the back of my apartment on the 2nd floor (living room). My bedroom (where the poor signal is) is at the front of the apartment on the first floor.

I spend a good amount of time in the bedroom watching videos and whatnot on my ipad and iphone. Trouble is I often get stuck using LTE due to poor wifi signals. Which then uses up unnecessary data on my mobile plans. Also extremely frustrating trying to watch something while the device toggles back and forth between wifi/LTE. Not a very good viewing experience. So I am trying to figure out the most affordable way to boost my wifi in my bedroom in order to cut down on my mobile data, thus saving me money.

As I have an old router laying around I would think my best option would be to run a ethernet cable from my router down to the old router (and turn it into a WAP). I'm not the most savvy but this as far as I can tell seems to make the most sense financially. As opposed to spending cash on a wifi extender, powerline adapters etc.

The other option would be to try and move the router. However as I rent this is not so simple without an ugly result (as far as I can tell). Since verizon fios uses an ONT, then a coax cable to connect to the router. And the coax runs outside my apartment then comes into the back of the apartment to the router. At which point sits with the rest of all my ugly cables neatly hidden behind my tv and entertainment center. To move my router it would seem I'd have to run coax through my living room to another area. Not a very elegant solution.

Anyway I use about 6gb's mobile data/month. If I drop down to 3gb thats about a $15 a month savings. So being fairly tech savvy (but not necessarily in networking) would it not seem to be the best bang for the buck to buy and ethernet cable and connect my fios router to and old router (WAP) to boost my signal?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks sooooo much!

If you are using a FIOS Actiontec router which includes built in MOCA (most do ) AND you have a coaxial outlet in the bedroom the simplest and most effective way to get WiFi to the bedroom is to purchase the dual band WiFi AP from FIOS that will link back to the router using MOCA when connected to the coaxial jack. Many people report that the setup and connection is truly plug and play.

 

[KenZ71]

Assuming you can run an ethernet cable from router to bedroom in a way that won't be an eyesore or tripping hazard I would go that way.

Google spare router model as wired access point i.e 3700v4 wired access point. If the router don't have built in code to run as an AP look into dd-wrt, tomato or openwrt.

 

[sfx2000]

At which point sits with the rest of all my ugly cables neatly hidden behind my tv and entertainment center. To move my router it would seem I'd have to run coax through my living room to another area. Not a very elegant solution.

Give the router some free space - don't hide it in the closet/entertainment center - let it breath...

 

[sfx2000]

If you are using a FIOS Actiontec router which includes built in MOCA (most do ) AND you have a coaxial outlet in the bedroom the simplest and most effective way to get WiFi to the bedroom is to purchase the dual band WiFi AP from FIOS that will link back to the router using MOCA when connected to the coaxial jack. Many people report that the setup and connection is truly plug and play.

True that many RG's (that's my term for the FIOS/UVerse/Triple Play things are) support MOCA, and some also support HPNA/HomePlug, it's basically for their sandboxed services... so jumping on them is very dependent on what the Telco/CableCO allows...

Their MOCA/HPNA is generally intended for their Video/VoIP services - broadband end-points are generally on their provided customer LAN ports and/or WiFi...

 

[jamst149]

OK so I actually ended up finding an old verizon router (MI424 Rev F). I was wondering what I have to do t reconfigure it to use as an extender? The bedroom does have a coax from the ONT if that matters.

Thanks

 

[CaptainSTX]

OK so I actually ended up finding an old verizon router (MI424 Rev F). I was wondering what I have to do t reconfigure it to use as an extender? The bedroom does have a coax from the ONT if that matters.

Thanks

What are you using for your primary router? If your primary router is connected to the ONT using coaxial the setup is more straight forward.

 

[jamst149]

OK so I sort of figured this out. However since my skills in tinkering with router setting aren't up to par I must have fudged something.

So I have the primary router that connect via coax (split with the cable box). The secondary router I would also like to just connect via coax. My understanding is that this is a MOCA bridge.

I tried to follow the following, http://www.dslreports.com/faq/16626 but something wasnt isn't quite right. I kept running in to problems at 2.3 and 2.4. Eventually after tinkering I sort of got it to work. But only sometimes. I kept getting DNS errors on the main router when trying to access the internet. Sometimes a reboot would help but eventually the errors kept coming back.

At this point I have reset both routers and am going to start from scratch and I will list the problems that come up.

 

[jamst149]

OK so first problem actually arises at step 2.1 with the following error after hitting apply. "The Device's IP address should not be in the range of the IP pool." This is after I tried inputting 192.168.1.10 as per the instructions.

 

[jamst149]

So as I can't figure out what wrong with that step I'll move on in the hopes that someone can chime in in the meantime.

So on step 2.3 (on the second router) I run in to the following errors after hitting apply.

DNS Servers: No DNS servers entered for this connection. This might cause name resolution problems.

and also

DHCP leases: There are dynamic DHCP leases outside the DHCP IP address range. All connected DHCP clients will need to request new IP addresses.

Again I followed the directions explicitly. Inputting 192.168.1.10 into the start IP address filed.

I hit apply anyway and the first error goes away bt the second is stilll there. Hit apply again and and the 2nd error dow not pop up this time.

 

[jamst149]

So on to step 2.4

At this point (and here shows my lack of networking experience) I am hung up on the phrase "On the IP ADDRESS line, enter an available IP address on the same subnet as your primary router (e.g. 192.168.1.2)."

I am not entirely sure what this means. As such I just follow the instructions and enter 192.168.1.2 and get the following errors.

Bridge IP changed: Please open a new browser with new address 192.168.1.2 to access GUI

DNS Servers: No DNS servers entered for this connection. This might cause name resolution problems.

DHCP leases: There are dynamic DHCP leases outside the DHCP IP address range. All connected DHCP clients will need to request new IP addresses.

Again I just hit apply hoping for the best.

At this point trying to access the router controls at 192.168.1.1 is a no go. I can access them via 192.168.1.2 though. I'll keep moving along as though this is how its supposed to go. Although the instructions don't make that explicit.

 

[jamst149]

So at this point I take the 2nd router and plug it into the coax at the other end of the house. Connect to its SSID from my iphone. No troubles. Try to pen a web page and speed test and it just hangs. Nothing works. On the physical 2nd router itself I see green lights for lan coax and lan wireless.

I then connect to the primary router via wireless and everything runs as usual.

Not sure if this matters but from the iphone when I click on the ino icon on the primary router I see
IP 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Router 192.168.1.1
DNS 192.168.1.1

And on the second router
IP 192.168.1.10
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Router 192.168.1.2
DNS 192.168.1.2

 

[CaptainSTX]

So at this point I take the 2nd router and plug it into the coax at the other end of the house. Connect to its SSID from my iphone. No troubles. Try to pen a web page and speed test and it just hangs. Nothing works. On the physical 2nd router itself I see green lights for lan coax and lan wireless.

I then connect to the primary router via wireless and everything runs as usual.

Not sure if this matters but from the iphone when I click on the ino icon on the primary router I see
IP 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Router 192.168.1.1
DNS 192.168.1.1

And on the second router
IP 192.168.1.10
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Router 192.168.1.2
DNS 192.168.1.2

To start let's keep the setup of the Actiontec that you want to use as an AP simple.

For the WAN connection set it to automatic so it gets an IP from your primary router.

For the LAN set its IP to static and assign it an IP. If your primary router is 192.168.1.1 then 192.168.1.2 would be a logical choice.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO is turn off the DHCP server on the Actiontec being used as an AP.

For WiFi performance assign the second APs radio to a different channel from the primary router's radio. Select from channels 1,6 or 11.

As for the APs SSID you can either assign a new and different SSID so people can easily tell what radio they are connected to. You can also use the same SSID. You will have to experiment with ALL you mobile devices to see what works in your home. Seamless roaming is not part of the current WiFi technology included in residential wireless routers.

 

[jamst149]

Could you elaborate on

"For the WAN connection set it to automatic so it gets an IP from your primary router.

For the LAN set its IP to static and assign it an IP. If your primary router is 192.168.1.1 then 192.168.1.2 would be a logical choice."

Not exactly sure where I set the WAN connecction to automatic. Also not entirely sure I have a LAN set to static. Again not too terribly savvy when it comes to router networking details.

And as far as i can tell I have the DHCP server off on the AP. Although one thing I just noticed...to disable this I have been going to IP address distribution on the AP and clicking disabled. Then apply. Then I try hooking up the AP to the coax and attempt to use my iphone to connect and the web pages fail to load. So I go back to the pc and log in to 192.168.1.2 to tinker with the router setting and it appears DHCP server is again selected/defaulted to. Am I doing something wrong here? Should I be putting no dns server under the dns server?

Also it looks as though the primary and secondary router are using different channels

 

[jamst149]

Well tried putting no dns server and again no luck.

Then when I went back in to the AP's router admin setting everything again defaulted back to "Use the following DNS server Addresses" and "DHCP server"

 

[jamst149]

Well for now...it's working!!! I didn't have the STP box checked off next to AP. After watching someone trying to do the same as me on a youtube video I noticed they had theirs checked. So checked mine and (for now at least) voila!

 

[jamst149]

So just so I can wrap my head around this a bit better I took my pc down to the AP and ran a speedtest. Once connected to the main router and once connected to the the AP. Speeds were much higher on the main router. If i understand right this is to be expected.

However in the attached screenshot you can see that the signal strength was much higher to the AP (98fyl). Which if I am understanding correctly is exactly what I was after as I was having trouble getting a solid connection from the iphone to the main router.

So if my logic is correct I am trading off a better and more consistent connection for overall speed? And even thoug the speed is downgraded I am still getting 15 down/14 up which should be more then enough for web browsing and watching vids.