WIFI Access Points

[LarryHoward]

My 64 YO house has metal lath and plaster interior and exterior walls so it's a lot like a Faraday cage for both Cell and WIFI. To date I've lived with the cell limits but am looking at adding a high gain antenna/retransmitter inside to fix that now that I'm at home more. Understand the tech and just need to decide it's worth it. For WIFI, commercial wireless access points (WAPs) are overkill so I've been reconfiguring Linksys wireless routers as WAPs, hard running CAT6 to them and have 3 in the house (office/modem location) public areas and my bedroom) which gives me decent wireless coverage with a few drop outs. Wireless to wireless extenders are not really an option as it limits severely location of access points.

Saw an ad for Google WIFI, a set of 3 WAPS that can be used as wireless extenders or can be wired with Cat (after initial configuration) for a seamless wireless environment. Self configuring, etc. Cheaper than 3 GB wireless routers but with a catch. Google pushes upgrades and the Q&As seem to imply that they frequently break stuff when they do. In addition, they push them when they want to and you can't schedule them. Also have to wonder what data collection google is doing behind the scenes (for quality assurance and to provide a better user experience, I'm sure....).

Any thoughts? Inviting big Alphabet into the house or with GMail, Chrome, search, Maps, has that ship sailed?

[TheOffice]

Larry,

I've never used PowerLine extenders, but they are worth exploring. They use the electric wires to push the data to small repeaters.

Joel

[Jamie]

My 64 YO house has metal lath and plaster interior and exterior walls so it's a lot like a Faraday cage for both Cell and WIFI. To date I've lived with the cell limits but am looking at adding a high gain antenna/retransmitter inside to fix that now that I'm at home more. Understand the tech and just need to decide it's worth it. For WIFI, commercial wireless access points (WAPs) are overkill so I've been reconfiguring Linksys wireless routers as WAPs, hard running CAT6 to them and have 3 in the house (office/modem location) public areas and my bedroom) which gives me decent wireless coverage with a few drop outs. Wireless to wireless extenders are not really an option as it limits severely location of access points.

Saw an ad for Google WIFI, a set of 3 WAPS that can be used as wireless extenders or can be wired with Cat (after initial configuration) for a seamless wireless environment. Self configuring, etc. Cheaper than 3 GB wireless routers but with a catch. Google pushes upgrades and the Q&As seem to imply that they frequently break stuff when they do. In addition, they push them when they want to and you can't schedule them. Also have to wonder what data collection google is doing behind the scenes (for quality assurance and to provide a better user experience, I'm sure....).

Any thoughts? Inviting big Alphabet into the house or with GMail, Chrome, search, Maps, has that ship sailed?

I went with Orbi and they work really well - so glad to get away from being my own tech. Buffalo routers are good, but Japanese documentation and DDW bridges will drive you mad.

[LarryHoward]

Larry,

I've never used PowerLine extenders, but they are worth exploring. They use the electric wires to push the data to small repeaters.

Joel

Power line networks work - sorta - until they don't. I've used them. Biggest issue is when somewhere, someone plugs a noise maker into the circuit. Even than, you have to pump out a wireless signal and pay attention to co-channel interference, gaps, handovers between routers, etc. I've got that covered with my existing config but the newer "self configuring" stuff intrigues me as right now i'm my own tech and if it dies, only I can make it work again. Trying to move to P&P when its available and inexpensive.

[BeauV]

Larry,

I've never used PowerLine extenders, but they are worth exploring. They use the electric wires to push the data to small repeaters.

Joel

Power line networks work - sorta - until they don't. I've used them. Biggest issue is when somewhere, someone plugs a noise maker into the circuit. Even than, you have to pump out a wireless signal and pay attention to co-channel interference, gaps, handovers between routers, etc. I've got that covered with my existing config but the newer "self configuring" stuff intrigues me as right now i'm my own tech and if it dies, only I can make it work again. Trying to move to P&P when its available and inexpensive.

In addition to noisy neighbors on the power line, there's something else to consider. Almost all largeish homes have 240v delivered to them. Often, one half of the house loads are on one side of the 240v and the other half on the other half of the 240v, with the Ground being shared. This means that if you plugged your power-line modem into one half, you can talk to any other powerline modem on that 120v side of the house, but you can't get to the other half. Do check to see if your house is wired up this way, it's not easy to fix.

What we did was buy Apple AirPort Extreme boxes. LINK They are trivial to install, run fast and have yet to ever given me any trouble at all. They can easily be configured to provide on SSID for the entire network, which is really handy for most folks as they don't have three or four or five SSIDs for the same house. You do need to have Cat-5 or 6 cable to each location, which you seem to already have. I love this product because 15 minutes after setting it up I was done and have not had to touch it again in the four years we've lived here. (Why isn't more tech like this?) In the event you want to screw with them, like change passwords etc..., you can do it from a computer, your phone, etc.... trivial.

[BeauV]

Forgot one thing. Consider an outside WiFi antenna that transmits into the house through the windows. I did this with the staff at the Rustler Hotel at Alta and it helped them avoid drilling holes in all the concrete and steel walls. Outdoor antenna are cheap now.

[LarryHoward]

Forgot one thing. Consider an outside WiFi antenna that transmits into the house through the windows. I did this with the staff at the Rustler Hotel at Alta and it helped them avoid drilling holes in all the concrete and steel walls. Outdoor antenna are cheap now.

I'll look at the airport extremes. Outside antennas would need to surround the house to get full coverage. Means trenching and I already don't know where stuff buried in the yard (see 64 YO house) is.

[BeauV]

Forgot one thing. Consider an outside WiFi antenna that transmits into the house through the windows. I did this with the staff at the Rustler Hotel at Alta and it helped them avoid drilling holes in all the concrete and steel walls. Outdoor antenna are cheap now.

I'll look at the airport extremes. Outside antennas would need to surround the house to get full coverage. Means trenching and I already don't know where stuff buried in the yard (see 64 YO house) is.

I hear you on the trenching! Our house was built in 1929. Doing the landscaping thus far we have:
- cut the main irrigation line (we have separate meters for irrigation and domestic, an artifact of this having been a ranch in 1929)
- cut the control lines for the irrigation three times. (I'm starting to call it the irritation system)
- uncovered half a dozen pipes which we can't figure out what they do...
- uncovered and septic tank that was supposed to be filled in, but wasn't.

Who knows what I'll hit next!

[kdh]

I have a router and two Apple Airport Express boxes set up as access points. Single SSID, handoffs from one to the other happen flawlessly.

I just turned off the radios in the router, which is goofy. Separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. All kinds of stoopid configuration options.