New Router...N replacing G and less coverage?

[MovingtotheCove]

Today I hooked up and began using a new N Wifi Router with 300 Mbps and what was supposed to be an improvement in coverage to all floors of home and porch area, etc. I replace a G WiFI Router with 125 Mbps that is at least 7 or 8 years old. It turned out to be more of a job than anticipated and the results are such we now have less coverage than with the old unit. The old unit had one 2dBi antenna and the new unit has two 5dBi antennas. It has the same DSL modem and sits in exactly the same place on the top floor of a 3 story home....one story down is ok yet but two stories down is very week or dropping....?

Why in the heck is the new unit doing worse than the old one? Any insight or tips are welcome.

Maybe I'll just hook up the old unit again!

[Ready]

Do the devices you are connecting to the router (laptops, phones) have support for N wireless routing? If not, they will drop down to G anyway. That still wouldn't explain why it would be worse, but it may explain why it won't be much better.

[MovingtotheCove]

Thanks for quick reply...interesting thought. I have checked and the one device with the largest issue not dropping is an ASUS Netbook my wife uses each day. Looking over its specs it does support "N" protocol. Will check further on other devices but as you said hard to understand how my old little US Robotics G router has so much more range than this new "N" router with all else being the same

[Ready]

I replaced all of my G routers with N routers a few years ago and have good success, but I found that I needed five of them to get complete coverage within my house. If you have lots of concrete, metal, or other obstacles that make it difficult for the frequencies to penetrate, your coverage will be limited.

If the router works great when you are right next to it, but drops when you move away, that is probably a sign that all is working fine and you just may need another one or two to get complete coverage. If it doesn't work well within a few feet of the router, you most likely have a configuration issue, or possibly a bad router.

[MovingtotheCove]

Thanks! Yes, all doing very well right next to it but seems to be an issue as we move away. Still odd that the old G got to the points this one fails?Guess perhaps newer is always better

[REWahoo]

To get good wi-fi coverage I added one of these on the opposite side of our (single-story) house from the router. Works really well and we now have a strong signal throughout the house.

Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-WA850RE 300Mbps Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender

[Ready]

Check to see if the router has a firmware upgrade that needs to be performed. Most routers ship with outdated firmware. That often fixes the problem.

[target2019]

If you are connecting to a 5GHz signal, the coverage is not as good as 2.5GHz. Is it a dual band router?

[Pleeplus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 If you are connecting to a 5GHz signal, the coverage is not as good as 2.5GHz. Is it a dual band router?

I have found this to be the case as well. I have a dual band router in the basement of my 3 story house. The 5GHZ is faster as long as I am on the 1st two floors but if I move up to the 3rd floor the 2.5GHz is significantly faster due to the better coverage.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pleeplus I have found this to be the case as well. I have a dual band router in the basement of my 3 story house. The 5GHZ is faster as long as I am on the 1st two floors but if I move up to the 3rd floor the 2.5GHz is significantly faster due to the better coverage.

Same situation. I always had the cable modem and router in the basement. The location is middle of basement, but not middle of house, as there is a portion of house on slab. If you look down at your house, it is easier to imagine what happens to the signal. Or even better, get a wireless signal app like WiFi Analyzer. Then you can move throughout your location and see what happens to the signal as it encounters various obstructions in your floors and walls.

With wireless G, I had good reception on first floor, spotty on 2nd. Also, we couldn't get very good reception in the backyard.

I have wired connections on 1st and 2nd floor, which pre-date wireless. These wired connections make other solutions possible. After I put in the wireless N, I had fantastic results with streaming laptop/TV combo maybe 6 feet above the router on 1st floor. But the signal drops off very quickly as you move away from the wireless N. So I solved my streaming problem (don't laugh at that), but still had coverage issues throughout the house.

I took the old wireless G modem, and re-configured it as a WAP. It sits on the 2nd floor, near the middle of the house, in a bedroom that has the wired connection. It solved all problems. Get a nice 2GHz signal in the backyard, 2nd floor, and at most locations in the house.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo To get good wi-fi coverage I added one of these on the opposite side of our (single-story) house from the router. Works really well and we now have a strong signal throughout the house. Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-WA850RE 300Mbps Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender

This looks interesting, I may give it a try. Nothing worked for us, dealing with concrete walls, an unusual floor plan and metallic film window covering, so I wired the house. We still have one dead area (patio) and this looks promising, although I'd still need to find a spot where DW can't see it.

Specs are sort of less meaningful in this area. Wireless performance is affected by many factors that are not present in the lab environment. When changing routers my suggestion is always to buy with return privileges. Higher frequencies travel longer distances but don't penetrate dense materials as well, and other signals may interfere.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB ... this looks promising, although I'd still need to find a spot where DW can't see it.

It's designed to go into a wall plug but there is no reason you couldn't plug it into an extension cord and hang it on the wall behind a piece of furniture.

The little blue circle has a number of blue LED lights that glow and blink constantly. Not anything you'd want to have in your bedroom but it makes for a great nightlight in the hallway where I located mine.

[rbmrtn]

range extenders have some issues. They will have about a 50% throughputl loss from the start. Also they need a clear path to send and receive. So if something is attenuating the original signal, the repeater behind the obstruction will still be getting a very weak signal, and with the repeater in front of the obstruction the signal it sends out will be cut off. Here's a couple of links

The Best Way To Get Whole House Wireless Coverage - SmallNetBuilder

The Best Wi-Fi Extender (If You're Out of Options) - Tested

As mentioned N has 2 bands 2.4 and 5 ghz, the 5 is much better load wise but it has much shorter range and easily cut off. N usually works better when everything is N, mixed mode can cut performance. N works better with WPA2 encryption instead WEP ( outdated anyway ), The wireless on the clients may be the problem, they may be having trouble receiving the signal. You can try changing the channel the router is operating on, sometimes that helps.

Sounds more like bad antenna on the router ( more is not always better ). Some just have poor designed, underpowered antenna.

Another option is the power line ethernet devices, it uses existing electrical wiring for ethernet and allows you to extend into other parts of the house from the router.

inssider is a great tool for troubleshooting wifi, latest version is pay. The older version 2.1 is freeware and still be found for downloading.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbmrtn range extenders have some issues.

+1

My experience is that almost all wi-fi related equipment can be hit and miss in how well they work in any individual environment. I've learned it is best to purchase from someone like Amazon who has a good return policy since some things sound far better than they really are once you plug them in and turn them on.

I was fortunate that the range extender I purchased is doing the job, allowing DW to stream Netflix to the TV located in her crap craft room. She's happy and life is good.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbmrtn range extenders have some issues. They will have about a 50% throughputl loss from the start. Also they need a clear path to send and receive. So if something is attenuating the original signal, the repeater behind the obstruction will still be getting a very weak signal, and with the repeater in front of the obstruction the signal it sends out will be cut off. Here's a couple of links The Best Way To Get Whole House Wireless Coverage - SmallNetBuilder The Best Wi-Fi Extender (If You're Out of Options) - Tested As mentioned N has 2 bands 2.4 and 5 ghz, the 5 is much better load wise but it has much shorter range and easily cut off. N usually works better when everything is N, mixed mode can cut performance. N works better with WPA2 encryption instead WEP ( outdated anyway ), The wireless on the clients may be the problem, they may be having trouble receiving the signal. You can try changing the channel the router is operating on, sometimes that helps. Sounds more like bad antenna on the router ( more is not always better ). Some just have poor designed, underpowered antenna. Another option is the power line ethernet devices, it uses existing electrical wiring for ethernet and allows you to extend into other parts of the house from the router. inssider is a great tool for troubleshooting wifi, latest version is pay. The older version 2.1 is freeware and still be found for downloading.

inssider on the PC, yeah, I was trying to remember that one. Without running an app on a connected device you can move around, any changes made are just a suspicion.

Moving the router or changing its direction can also change performance.

[MasterBlaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovingtotheCove I replace a G WiFI Router with 125 Mbps that is at least 7 or 8 years old.

Just out of curiosity, Do you have an internet connection that is faster than 125 Mbps ?

What advantage did you perceive you would get by upgrading ? And if so please explain what the salesman told you?

[MovingtotheCove]

Thanks for all the input. Great discussion. I have learned a lot. The goal of the upgrade was to have a main network and a guest network. In the end the new ASUS "N" router is now nicely back in its box with Amazon Prime picking it up tomorrow and the old outdated 2.5 gHz Max G US Robotics workhorse is back in its usual home and all in the house are again at peace. No, the upgrade really did not anticiapte a gain in spead but I thought it would be nice to have 2 log-ins and also actually have even better coverage. As it is -12 F here today I have not tested on the back deck and porch yet but I even had coverage there in the past as well as all 3 floors. Again, thanks for all the input!!

[LastOfTheBoomers]

I have to admit I did not read all the posts - but with 2.4ghz you should make sure you are using a channel that is unused - most APs are on channel 6 by default use 1 or 11 5ghz gives you more channels to pick from

If you have an Android phone - download wifi analyzer - or inSSIDer for windows to do a scan of your house

If you are a super geek - look at dd-wrt or tomato

[Lsbcal]

I read this thread thinking there might be some ideas for my problem with the Sony DVD not getting a really good signal from my Netgear router. This slows the streaming down. They are separated by some rooms and walls in our house.

Then I read reviews for some things like internet adapters, repeaters, and such. Seems there are lots of 5 star reviews but too many 1 star reviews. This stuff is very specific to one's home situation plus the more complexity in a network the more it is vulnerable to failure of components (and the consequent debugging hassles).

Anyway, now I'm thinking of replacing my Sony DVD with a Roku 3 box for the streaming function. I hoping the Roku 3 box has a better wifi pickup for remote rooms. Anybody here have such a situation?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Anyway, now I'm thinking of replacing my Sony DVD with a Roku 3 box for the streaming function. I hoping the Roku 3 box has a better wifi pickup for remote rooms. Anybody here have such a situation?

<Hand goes up>

When I cut the satellite I had to find a way for the grandkids to be able to stream their shows to the TV in the playroom. I set up their Wii to stream Netflix but with two walls and 40 feet separating the router and the Wii, the signal is marginal. It worked only intermittently.

I replaced the Wii with a Roku 2 - problem solved. The Roku handles the weak signal without a blip.