Home WiFi Solutions?

[Ian S]

I've had success with the latest Powerline variants for stationary items like TVs/Rokus and desktops. That's assuming your equipment has ethernet connections which most of ours does. (Ethernet to USB adapters are cheap.) Powerline generally much cheaper and likely more secure than WiFi. Still have wifi for phones and laptops but haven't needed expensive mesh setups for them. YMMV.

 

[imoldernu]

Most of the thread is over my head. Going back to my earlier post, my house is 1560 s.f. . Between my living room computer, and the modem/router, 35ft apart...there are 2 wood walls, one door, one brick wall, and a large sofa. Until I bought the aforementioned USB "antenna" , the speed was 25Mbps at most. Here is what I get now for under $25.
Am I missing something.

 

[RunningBum]

A mesh system doesn't require you to attach an antenna to your laptop. If you don't find it awkward, great. I probably would. Plus it doesn't help your smart TV or Firestick/Roku TV attachment, and you'd need one for each laptop you're having trouble with.

 

[euro]

I'm late to the discussion but since I didn't see MY system mentioned, I'll offer it up: I bought a Linksys Velop mesh system end of last year and I have been very pleased with its performance. I can't compare to anything else at all, but for me it does the job extremely well. It is a bit pricey though. Oh well, blow that dough......!

 

[imoldernu]

A mesh system doesn't require you to attach an antenna to your laptop. If you don't find it awkward, great. I probably would. Plus it doesn't help your smart TV or Firestick/Roku TV attachment, and you'd need one for each laptop you're having trouble with.

oops... I don't use a laptop...

A sign of the times... Everyone expects a laptop, a tablet, an Ipad and a smartphone...

I feel like I belong in the last century.

My TV's... Smart/Fire/Roku have no problem connecting.

 

[Jimmie]

exactly. mine covers my spread out ranch home and the entire basement underneath.

I just put in eero too. 4000sf, 3 story. amazing speeds. full signal everywhere, even back and front yards. Easiest install ever. Very happy with purchase.

 

[robnplunder]

I've just bought Orbi (1+2) system for $300 at Costco.



- It sucks to get old story:

I spent an hour trying to get Orbi wifi to work. At the end, it was b/c I misread the very small WIFI password written on the machine. I used a very large magnifier and still could not read letter 'e' from 's.' The fonts were just too damn small.

- Other than that, things went very smooth. Here are my findings.

I have Xfinity 60 mbps service. When connected to Orbi ethernet ports, I've got speeds up to 70 mbps, same as what I get from Xfinity router's ethernet ports.

When connected to Orbi WIFI, it gave me about 50% speed improvement in most cases. I get anywhere between 10 - 50 mbps using Xfinity wifi depending on various factors, time of the day, distance from router, .... With Orbi, I get 15 - 55 mbps.

Given the above, I've connected to Orbi ethernet ports wherever I can. Only a few devices are on Orbi wifi. Orbi also gave me 4 ethernet ports per sat. vs Google's 2. That's 1 + 13 ethernet ports vs Costco's Google WIFI which come with 1 + 7 port ('1' is used to connect to the internet modem). Costco's Google wifi comes with 1 + 3 sats for $280.

I am happy with the Orbi purchase vs Google WIFI. It'd given me one more sat. but may be slower than Orbi per all the reviews I've read.

 

[W2R]

- It sucks to get old story:

Believe me, I completely understand.

I spent an hour trying to get Orbi wifi to work. At the end, it was b/c I misread the very small WIFI password written on the machine. I used a very large magnifier and still could not read letter 'e' from 's.' The fonts were just too damn small.

Maybe you have already thought of this, but anyway I have the same problem once in a while and have found that a good approach for me is the following. I take a photo of the password with my cell phone, upload the photo to my laptop, and enlarge it until I can see it. Just thought I'd pass this idea on, since it has been helpful to me.

 

[robnplunder]

Maybe you have already thought of this, but anyway I have the same problem once in a while and have found that a good approach for me is the following. I take a photo of the password with my cell phone, upload the photo to my laptop, and enlarge it until I can see it. Just thought I'd pass this idea on, since it has been helpful to me.

I am a bit smartphone challenged . I will have to remember using it as an impromptu magnifier.

 

[target2019]

I am a bit smartphone challenged . I will have to remember using it as an impromptu magnifier.

Can place the password in a contact card or text message, too.

 

[skipro33]

I bought two of these 'extenders' and simply plugged them in. After booting up and LED's all green, I checked my laptop and I now had them as options for wifi. I now have coverage everywhere inside and outside the house. Cost under $30 each.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NR2VMNC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[FreeBear]

I bought two of these 'extenders' and simply plugged them in. After booting up and LED's all green, I checked my laptop and I now had them as options for wifi. I now have coverage everywhere inside and outside the house. Cost under $30 each.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NR2VMNC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I just bought a lower speed version of this! I use it not as an extender, but as a cheap ethernet connection to my ancient Ubuntu linux box. Linux doesn't play well with old wifi hardware, so I needed an ethernet hard line without running cable all the way to the router.


Unfortunately, the tplink model I bought failed in about 2 days. It kept on losing the programming at least daily. Sent it back, and got a netgear version. Seems like these are often poorly built. Lots of poor ratings and hardware failures in the reviews of most makes and models. They picked "cheaper" on the cheaper-faster-better triangle.


Good luck with yours!

 

[omni550]

I bought two of these 'extenders' and simply plugged them in. After booting up and LED's all green, I checked my laptop and I now had them as options for wifi. I now have coverage everywhere inside and outside the house. Cost under $30 each.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NR2VMNC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks. Looks like I could use one of these. Is there any reason you chose this one^^ (RE200) instead of the newer model (RE250) for a buck more? ( Not sure what the differences are.)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1WW638/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

omni

 

[skipro33]

Thanks. Looks like I could use one of these. Is there any reason you chose this one^^ (RE200) instead of the newer model (RE250) for a buck more? ( Not sure what the differences are.)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1WW638/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

omni

I bought the first one when the newer one wasn't yet listed, or I didn't see it anyways. Once it arrived and I set it up, realizing it worked and how easy it was to get working, I didn't want to take the chance on the 'newer' one. Newer ones of the same model usually means they cut corners and it's really not as good as the original. I can vouch the RE200 works as designed. It also has almost 8,000 reviews with an average 4 out of 5 stars.

I did log in with my laptop (instructions tell you how) and custom named it so I knew intuitively which extender I was logging into and if it was 2.5Ghz or 5Ghz. Here's a screen shot of my wifi choices now. HeitmanHome and HeitmanHome1 are 2.5Ghz and 5Ghz respectively. In addition are the two extenders; one named 'extender' the other SheShed (used for DW to use wifi in her sheshed)

I also use one of the extenders to connect my weather cam. First I just brought my weather cam close to the original router/wifi and configured it to work. Then I moved the camera to the field and plugged in the extender. The camera found the extender without any further drama. Here's a photo of the camera's view. You can see just how far I am from the house. The camera is powered with 12 volt battery that operates my driveway gate. The battery is solar charged. Enough to run the camera 24/7 and operate the gate several times a day.

****EDIT*****
That's a log house, so figure some pretty thick walls. The extender is plugged in to an outlet upstairs between the two gable end windows.