My house is a 2-story frame structure with my Version I router installed on the 2nd floor. Using the Ookla SpeedTest app on my Nexus5 phone my WiFi download/upload speeds were about 42/36 Mbps when the phone was in the same room as the router.
But when I took the phone downstairs to the first floor the speeds dropped to about 11/14 Mbps. I have the 35/35 FIOS plan (which I think is no longer avaialable) and my hard-wired speeds are around 43/37 Mbps.
So I ordered the WCB3000N bridge from Verizon (less expensive than Amazon) and installed it on the 1st floor right next to my DVR. Now when my phone is in the same room it gets download/upload speeds of about 41/34 Mbps. So the bridge really works well.
Installation was simple - plug & play with no configuration required. The bridge picks up its SSID name from the router and adds -5G to the end of the name. I can see the bridge in the router's network device listing, and on the list of wireless networks on my phone.
A couple of questions though:
1. When a WiFi device comes into my house (or when I turn my phone on), which physical device (router or bridge) will it connect to?
2, If a device is connected to the router - becuase it got started on the 2nd floor - will it switch to the bridge when it gets to the 1st floor? Are WiFi devices (or Android) smart enough to automatically switch to the best source when they fond one?
3. Does it make sense to manually switch between the router & bridge when I take my phone up or down stairs?
4. Does the bridge have a configuration page (I think it does) and is there anything useful to be done with it?
A couple of answers:
1) A device may connect to the first recognized SSID it sees unless that device allows you to set the priority of remembered networks. In that case, it will connect to the SSID you set as first priority.
2) and 3) There's a difference of opinion that has been expressed here on the forum. My thought is it's better to have multiple WiFi access points configured to different SSIDs so you can easily see which one your connected to. I also configure multiple access points to different channels so they don't interfere with each other.
Although a WiFi device may automatically switch to the strongest network available, I've found that it's more reliable to manually change to the SSID/network that I know has the best coverage for my current location.
4) The WCB3000N does have a configuration page. You can see how to use it here:
http://support.actiontec.com/doc_files/WCB3000N_Wireless_Settings_Guide.pdf
Good luck.
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