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How to improve Wi-Fi and TV coverage?

MonkeyRPN
Organizer
I just got the 300/300 Purefibre with OptikTV installed a few days ago in my home. The Actiontec is installed on the main floor right where 4 of my Cat6 cables converge. I have Cat6 cables going to my main floor bedroom, main floor living room, main floor family room, and basement bedroom. At this moment the technician connected my living room TV box via Cat6, and connected an extender (is this a gateway?) in my basement bedroom to boost signals to my wireless PVR boxes in the basement. He said this only extends the signal for the TV, not the internet Wi-Fi. At this time, 2 out of 4 of my LAN ports on the Actiontec.

I went around the house to test the Wi-Fi speed, the speed is pretty consistent throughout the main floor, hitting 300Mbps download and upload. When I’m outside the house (both front and back yard) it drops down to 150Mbps. What concerns me most is the speed drops down to average of 70Mbps in the basement. Even when I’m right under the Actiontec. I presume this is because of all the soundproofing we added to the basement ceiling during the renovation.

Anyway, I need some advice figuring out the best option to boost up my Wi-Fi speed in the basement.

1. Should I set up an access point with my old Asus rt-ac3100 in the downstairs bedroom? I’m hoping this will boost the Wi-Fi range throughout the basement.
2. Is there any way I can get rid of that TV signal extender? Can I make use of the access point to boost the TV signals? Or are these 2 completely different things?
3. I need to extend Wi-Fi to the garage, would it help to hard wire a mesh system to the access point, then put it near the back of my house as close to the garage as possible, and put a mesh node inside the garage? I have a subpanel in the garage, so would another option be to use a Powerline adapter?

Thanks for any advice about this.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Chicnstu
Leader

1. Should I set up an access point with my old Asus rt-ac3100 in the downstairs bedroom? I’m hoping this will boost the Wi-Fi range throughout the basement.

 

If you do use the WiFi fairly regularly in the basement then the best approach would be to install a WiFi booster or mesh network. Based on what you have described the Telus Boost WiFi would be a great solution. If one of the cat6 lines going to the basement is on the same side of the home as your garage you could use that line to hard wire the main Boost pod and place the other in the garage working on wireless tether. The speeds on the wireless pod wouldn't be the full 300 but depending on proximity to the other one they could still be pretty good. I have 4 Boosts in my home and the coverage and speed is incredible. Using your own router in the basement may work ok but you would either run in to a situation where you need to have a different SSID network name broadcasting on that router so you'd have to manage your portable devices back and forth or you could mimic the name of the network coming off the modem but it might not be a smooth transition mesh network like the Boost pods would deliver.


2. Is there any way I can get rid of that TV signal extender? Can I make use of the access point to boost the TV signals? Or are these 2 completely different things?

 

This depends if the device is an extender or a wireless access point (WAP). If your wireless boxes are all 4k then they need to be connected to a WAP and the tech better not have connected them to a wifi extender. You can tell which device it is by looking at the front. A wireless set top box access point will say Cisco on the front. The wireless extender should have the modem Q6000. If the cat6 line that is feeder that booser/WAP is in the same room as the set top box the best method would just be to hard wire it directly using that line and keep it off wireless.


3. I need to extend Wi-Fi to the garage, would it help to hard wire a mesh system to the access point, then put it near the back of my house as close to the garage as possible, and put a mesh node inside the garage? I have a subpanel in the garage, so would another option be to use a Powerline adapter?

 

See above description of Boost WiFii mesh network. You could use third party mesh network hardware if you don't want to go with Boost. Do not use Powerline adapters. This technology is spotty at best and you will most likely see significant speed decreases when you're trying to get the most bang out of your 300/300 fibre connection especially since the sub panel in the garage is probably not working on the same circuit as any of the rooms in the home. It may not even work at all if that is the case.

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1

Chicnstu
Leader

1. Should I set up an access point with my old Asus rt-ac3100 in the downstairs bedroom? I’m hoping this will boost the Wi-Fi range throughout the basement.

 

If you do use the WiFi fairly regularly in the basement then the best approach would be to install a WiFi booster or mesh network. Based on what you have described the Telus Boost WiFi would be a great solution. If one of the cat6 lines going to the basement is on the same side of the home as your garage you could use that line to hard wire the main Boost pod and place the other in the garage working on wireless tether. The speeds on the wireless pod wouldn't be the full 300 but depending on proximity to the other one they could still be pretty good. I have 4 Boosts in my home and the coverage and speed is incredible. Using your own router in the basement may work ok but you would either run in to a situation where you need to have a different SSID network name broadcasting on that router so you'd have to manage your portable devices back and forth or you could mimic the name of the network coming off the modem but it might not be a smooth transition mesh network like the Boost pods would deliver.


2. Is there any way I can get rid of that TV signal extender? Can I make use of the access point to boost the TV signals? Or are these 2 completely different things?

 

This depends if the device is an extender or a wireless access point (WAP). If your wireless boxes are all 4k then they need to be connected to a WAP and the tech better not have connected them to a wifi extender. You can tell which device it is by looking at the front. A wireless set top box access point will say Cisco on the front. The wireless extender should have the modem Q6000. If the cat6 line that is feeder that booser/WAP is in the same room as the set top box the best method would just be to hard wire it directly using that line and keep it off wireless.


3. I need to extend Wi-Fi to the garage, would it help to hard wire a mesh system to the access point, then put it near the back of my house as close to the garage as possible, and put a mesh node inside the garage? I have a subpanel in the garage, so would another option be to use a Powerline adapter?

 

See above description of Boost WiFii mesh network. You could use third party mesh network hardware if you don't want to go with Boost. Do not use Powerline adapters. This technology is spotty at best and you will most likely see significant speed decreases when you're trying to get the most bang out of your 300/300 fibre connection especially since the sub panel in the garage is probably not working on the same circuit as any of the rooms in the home. It may not even work at all if that is the case.