Weak WiFi signal in my home

[clammypollack]

My wireless devices connect well and with a strong WiFi signal when I am near the router but as we go to rooms further away from the router, the signal gets weaker until the point where we have no WiFi.

[gs0b]

WiFi uses radio signals.  The power of a received radio signal drops as the receiver is moved further from the transmitter.  This is physics, and can't be changed.

Do you have a question?

[clammypollack]

Considering the fact that we have wifi to gain wireless access to the internet from various places in our homes, the question is, how do we improve the signal?  With Optimum, we didn't have this problem but now with Verizon, we do.  Does anyone know if the Verizon has inferior equipment?

[eljefe2]

The current Actiontec router isn't famous for great wifi coverage.

My solution was to install a second router/wifi adapter in another part of our house.  I feed the second device via coax that was already running to the other room and a MoCA adapter.

If you have coax for a TV running to another part of your house, you could use an Actiontec ECB2500 to feed a second router or wireless-access-point, which should give you solid coverage at that part of the house.

[jumpin68ny]

You can always try a device like this: 

Belkin - N300 Dual-Band Wireless Range Extender

I placed this in our home on the other side of the house and now my daughter never complains about wifi problems.

It will extend the wifi with a different ssid for example I use home this device uses home_xt

It plugs into an outlet and requires no wires.  Works great for us, no issues  been using it for a month

[eljefe2]

That looks like an intersting gadget.

Did you place it in a location where the existing wifi signal is strong?  Maybe half way between your Actiontec router and the dead spot your daughter didn't like?

[jumpin68ny]

The router is located behind the garage in an office located on the right side of the house.

My daughters bedroom is located on the left side of the house, and upstairs.  

Both the router and my daughters bedroom are located at the back of the house.

The device is located in her room and works great.  

It could be located closer but wanted to try it out and it works fine.

Jim

[eljefe2]

Thanks for the info.

I've ordered one of those gizmos to give it a try.  With my two hard wired routers serving as WAPs, we have solid coverage throughout the house.  The deck in our backyard is another story though.  There's signal out there, from both routers, but neither signal is very strong.

I'm going to see if I can use the N300 to give me better coverage out back.

Maybe the OP will give your suggestion a try. It might work to solve his problem.

[eljefe2]

Update:

I ordered, received, and setup a Belkin N300 wifi range extender.  It didn't work well for me.

An issue seems to be that the input and out wifi channels are the same.  Thus I found that if I was located in some places between the native wifi adapter and the Belkin extender, wifi speeds on either network were extremely slow.  By extremely I mean ~0.15 mb/s as compared to the normal ~30 mb/s I get from that native wifi adapter.  I suspect the slowness was caused by the two wifi signals on the same channel interfering with each other.

It may be that the signal and speeds may have been better in areas I was trying to cover, our back deck, but I couldn't live with the degradation of performance in other areas of the house.

I sent the N300 back. 

[jumpin68ny]

Did you consider changing the channel on any of the devices to prevent the interference?  

What channel is set on our actiontex router today?  For me as an example it's set to automatic and the belkin is set to channel 1.  You should have devices on either channel 1,6, 11.  They are the three non-overlapping channels for use in 2.4 Ghz Space.