FiOS Signal strength

[camgcn]

I have FiOS wireless router in the basement of the house.  The signal strength is poor on the 1st floor family room (side of main house).  I am looking for solutions to provide a better signal to that room?  I was thinking of placing a wireless router in this room then hard wire (cat5) to the Actiontec MI424WR. 

Can I do this?  What are the pros and cons? Is there a better solution?

[Anti-Phish1]

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@camgcn wrote:

 I was thinking of placing a wireless router in this room then hard wire (cat5) to the Actiontec MI424WR.  

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That is certainly one option.  You can also move the Actiontec to a more central location in your house.  You can connect it anywhere you have an active coax connection.  This might mean adding a 1Ghz 1x2 splitter if you have a STB/TV connected in the new location.

There are other options including MOCA networking and powerline ethernet extenders.

[smith6612]

If you insist on using Wireless, a high gain antenna or a relocation of the router as to what Anti-Phish suggested above would work. Powerline will work, but personally I would go with cAT5e runs if at all possible to connect any PCs and devices such as desktops and game consoles that do not necessarily need to be on Wi-Fi.

[Hubrisnxs]

A lot of common wireless signal strength issues can also be resolved by changing the wireless channel. 

you can do that in the router.   open a browser, and go to http://192.168.1.1

user name is admin.  and the password is most likely the serial number found on the service tag of your VZ router unless you changed it. Once you login succesfully, go to the top and hit wireless, then on the left basic security.   then go to option 3 which is channel  ---  1, 6 and 11 and are the only channels you should try.

 So it will likely be set to auto, change it to 11 and put the check for keep settings even after reboot (Directly under the channel) and then hit apply.,

after you hit apply,  test your connection out, if you notice a difference, leave it like that until the problem happens again, and if it happens again, go back into the router, and try channel 6,     test it out.  and then finally 1 if the first two don't work.

Also take a look at page 2 of Actiontec's Wireless PDF File.  It gives you some idea's with regards to position and orientation of where the router sits and how it can best be positioned for maximum coverage.

  http://support.actiontec.com/doc_files/MI424WR_Rev(all)_Wireless_Networking_Guide.pdf

I am not a fan of powerline ethernet - there are some interesting variables and plus verizon released something called MOCA bridges.  HME2200 and EB2200 they are a little bit cheaper   

basically - as long as you have a coax in the room, then you can use the above moca adapter.  it will give you a reliable hardline ethernet connection with the adapter.