Re: [tlug] Recommendation for router with range

[Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick@example.com>]

2013/5/24 Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick@example.com>:
> 2013/5/24 Jean-Christian Imbeault <jc.imbeault@example.com>:
>> I have a cable Internet connection and use my computer as a wi-fi base
>> station to provide a home network. This has worked well for me but I've just
>> moved into a new place and the signal doesn't cover the whole house.
>>
>> The house is two stories with a half-basement, the PC (acting as the base
>> station) is on the second floor and the wi-fi signal doesn't quite make it
>> into the basement. Unfortunately the Internet connection is on the second
>> floor and can't be moved.
>>
>> I'm hoping that by using a wi-fi router as the base station I will get a
>> stronger signal than my PC provides and the signal will reach into our
>> basement.
>>
>> Can anyone recommend a wi-fi router with a strong signal/range?
>
> I can recommend the one I use, unfortunately I'm away from home at the moment
> and can't even remember what brand it is (probably Buffalo) so if you can
> wait a couple of days I can post the relevant details. I don't have a basement,
> but it's placed on the 2nd floor at one end of the house where the intertube
> comes through the wall. Signal is fine, even on the 1st floor at the other
> end of the house, and it's even stable / fast enough for the media centre
> box on the first floor to use my server box upstairs as a fileserver.

For historical reference the router in question is a WarpStar Aterm WR4500N
(which someone gave me and I was going to use to experiment with, but it
turned out to be better than my existing router).

According to "Wifi Analyzer" running on a Nexus 7, outside the room where it's
located, the signal is between  -50 and -60 Dbm throughout most of the house
including the loft spcae, with no rival signals of anything like
similar strength to
contend with. The only place where it goes below -70 Dbm is the ground floor
bathroom, which is physically farthest away, but even there I didn't
experience any
noticeable lag accessing various  websites (not that I plan to do that much
from the bathroom anyway).

Outside it is the strongest signal even 2~3 houses in either
direction, though that's
probably due the way the houses are wired, as the telephone socket is
well inside on the
ground floor which is where most people will put their routers I
guess. Whereas I
got NTT to put the cable into my study on the upper storey, which
means the router
ended up at the front near a window.

Ian Barwick