WiFi range (not penis) extenders

[Homercles 10206]

This is timely.  I have a 3600ft house, two stories and the ATT router tucked into a corner in my closet.  It reaches most of the house ok, except for the office and a few other far locations...I’ve used a powerline adapter to get passable Ethernet in the office, but now the Peloton in there sometimes buffers as well.  In addition we are making the switch to YouTubeTV soon.  
 

Do you guys using wireless back haul in a Triband setup have any issues?  I’m assuming they use that backhaul band more effectively than a simple range extender would...my powerline adapter sometimes drops randomly and I’m concerned peppering my house with those would lead to problems.  

[Hate 20146]

I had the tri-band nighthawk (I think) and it just wasn’t very good. I have a house pretty much exactly how you described and the performance outside sucked. That’s why I went to the Eero mesh.

[Homercles 10206]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

I had the tri-band nighthawk (I think) and it just wasn’t very good. I have a house pretty much exactly how you described and the performance outside sucked. That’s why I went to the Eero mesh.

Did you get the pro?  If I was reading it right on amazon the base one doesn’t have a back haul / tri band setup.  

[Hate 20146]

I had this (I think).

 

 

It required a booster downstairs to get a decent signal outside, but it still wasn’t very good. It would also cause issues because I would have to switch back and forth manually from the extended to the router since it didn’t support mesh. I’ve had zero issues since I’ve switched to the eero pro. I have 3 AP’s with it and I’ve posted the signal strength I get over my house and yard somewhere in this thread. It works great.

[Homercles 10206]

Ok so the Eero pro is like $350 or so...was hoping to spend about $250 max for an AP and 2 extenders.  Do you Ethernet your back haul line or just use the dedicated wireless one?

[Hate 20146]

I daisy chain them off of the main node that is connected to the router.

 

And don’t do the extenders. You will be much happier with the mesh systems whether you choose the eero or not.

 

 

Edit: this is off of a daisy chained AP that is the farthest away from the original AP. I’m connected with my iPhone Xmax and through 2 brick walls and 2 hardy plank walls. I’m about 70ft away from it and it also has 5 other devices connected to it.

 

[Homercles 10206]

I ordered the TPLink Deco M9 Plus which was $200 on Costco.  Even the shitty ATT router does a decent job, but I’ve got some gaps and we are moving to cut the cord so I’ll need better throughput.  
 

Wanted one with a dedicated wireless backhaul, 2 additional units to spread around the house, and something under $300.  The google four pack was awesome but on backlog, and in my experience that can mean it’s never coming back.  
 

I’m assuming you want to place the satellites approximately halfway between the drop/router and the farthest outreaches if using non-wired backhaul...right?  My office and back yard are concern spots as they each have an exterior wall of stone/brick that really kills the signal...am guessing I will have to experiment a bit.  

[Hate 20146]

Does the management app not tell you where to place them?  That's one reason I always recommend the Eero.  The app walks you through where to place them to get the best signal from the "primary" node. 

I know nothing about the TPlink you mentioned, but if you are "daisy chaining" them I would place the "satellites" in as clear a oath as possible the the "primary node".  Sheetrock doesn't do too much to block the signal, so you should be able to get good speeds inside.  If you want to blast it outside, I would recommend putting one "satellite" beneath the window closest to the area outside you want covered. 

[Homercles 10206]

It hasn’t arrived yet, but reviews noted the app is reasonably good so when I set it up I’ll see.  Thanks for the info.  

[Dbeasy 15094]

Just to reiterate, I fought bad Wi-Fi service on AT&T uverse for three years, evaluating and changing out every component along the way: fiber to the house, AT&T network routers, the ONT on the side of the house, Ethernet cabling into the router, Wi-Fi extenders, the router inside the house. Nothing fixed the service. I finally shut down the wireless on the AT&T router and put in Orbi mesh Wi-Fi. Haven’t had one issue since and have full coverage across a 3500 sq foot two story house with no issues whatsoever. The AT&T problems everyone complains about are clearly bad Wi-Fi components on their cheap ass routers.

[Homercles 10206]

Time honored tradition of posting here while shitting...now I’m running speedtest and posting while shitting...this is right next to the office that wasn’t usable via WiFi before.  Walking around the house getting 200-300Mbps was awesome after having issues with my sons teacher meet/greet yesterday due to shit ATT router.  
 

So yeah, thanks for the advice y’all, I’m sold...not bad for $200, probably didn’t need all 3 but now I have one dedicated for the office/kids room above it and another for the 3 TVs spaced closely in the master/living/outdoor kitchen areas.  One will mount on the wall and another is tucked behind a dresser.  
 

Next gonna call ATT and tell them to fuck off, gonna go YTtv.  

Edited August 21, 2020 by Homercles

[Gale Snoats 243]

We got google mesh and it’s night and day. Super fast everywhere in house with fiber router and the 3 pucks. Not my strength and I set it up in 10 minutes.

[Homercles 10206]

I wanted google but it was $100 off on Costco but with a 2-4 week back order, and often that can mean it ain’t ever going to be filled.  My budget was $150-200

[C-Man 27280]

On 8/20/2020 at 9:13 PM, Gale Snoats said:

We got google mesh and it’s night and day. Super fast everywhere in house with fiber router and the 3 pucks. Not my strength and I set it up in 10 minutes.

I'm thinking about doing this with me working at home and both kids online all day for school. I have AT&T -- do the Google Mesh WiFi and extenders get rid of my current router/modem or do they work in conjunction with it? Just asking as it seems there's contradictory info out there.

[Skipper 6207]

16 minutes ago, C-Man said:

I'm thinking about doing this with me working at home and both kids online all day for school. I have AT&T -- do the Google Mesh WiFi and extenders get rid of my current router/modem or do they work in conjunction with it? Just asking as it seems there's contradictory info out there.

Mine works through it.  Although it's been 2+ years since I set it up so I don't recall the details. I had to do quite a bit of googling to figure out how to connect it through the ATT router but once I finally did all my shitty wifi problems were solved.   I think the newest version is supposed to work even better than the O.G. I have.  I've considered upgrading as I have a large spread out house so there are still a couple of pockets where I don't get great coverage as the furthest points from the pucks.

[Hate 20146]

It won’t replace it, but you should learn how to put the modem into “bridge mode” so all it is doing is handing off the internet to your new mesh router. You will plug one AP directly into the router your ISP gave you. If you are wired throughout your house, you can connect your other AP’s to the Ethernet as well. If you aren’t wired the light, the AP’s will daisy chain off of each other just fine.

[Jerry Callo 8732]

1 hour ago, C-Man said:

I'm thinking about doing this with me working at home and both kids online all day for school. I have AT&T -- do the Google Mesh WiFi and extenders get rid of my current router/modem or do they work in conjunction with it? Just asking as it seems there's contradictory info out there.

If you have a combination gateway/router from AT&T, you have to put it in bridge mode and then it should work.  If you have an older system with a separate gateway and router, then you will replace the AT&T router with Google Mesh.

I did it a couple weeks ago with the combination.  Googled around to figure out how to bridge it and then it set up easily.

[C-Man 27280]

On 8/26/2020 at 2:17 PM, Jerry Callo said:

If you have a combination gateway/router from AT&T, you have to put it in bridge mode and then it should work.  If you have an older system with a separate gateway and router, then you will replace the AT&T router with Google Mesh.

I did it a couple weeks ago with the combination.  Googled around to figure out how to bridge it and then it set up easily.

So I'd kind of given up getting this anytime soon once the $100 off batch ($299 after rebate gave you the Google Nest WiFi router and three access points) was gone from Costco online. My in-laws were at the Plano store today and asked about them. They didn't have any but were told they had some at the Duncanville store. I hopped in the car and ran down there, bought it and set it up this evening. I found a video on YouTube that walked through setting up through the Uverse router -- plug the ethernet cable into the AT&T router and then go through the online settings of the router to make sure the Nest WiFi was handled correctly (it was). Once that was done, downloaded the Google Home app and set it up from there. Pretty simple.

Placed one access point in the front room and the other in our master bedroom at the back of the house. The main unit is upstairs in the game/media room. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the third one -- house is 4500 sf so I'm kind of on the fence about whether I need it. If I don't think I need it, I could probably sell it separately to somebody.

 

[Both Tacos 1806]

I wanted google but it was $100 off on Costco but with a 2-4 week back order, and often that can mean it ain’t ever going to be filled.  My budget was $150-200

Bought the Netgear Nighthawk Wifi 6 mesh this weekend at Costco for $199 ($50 off). It comes with the router and 2 "satellites". I have a one story, 3,000 sq/ft house that use to have slow speeds or dead zones with just a router. I did have an extender in my garage so I could reach out to my metal shop but you would have to tag into that specific extender when out there.
Now, no slower speeds in any part of the house. I still have the extender but I could replace it with another satellite.
With the nighthawk app, it takes 5 minutes to set up.
Still trying to work on getting Circle (parental control) to set up but no support on the weekends so hopefully I get that resolved this week.
Overall, very happy with it.