On 13 Oct 2023, MRO said the following...
MR> I have a router that is in the back of the house. there's clear line of
MR> sight to the front of the house, not that many feet to the front porch.

if your access point has removable antennas that are SMA you could maybe get
a directional antenna and point it at the front of the house. then you could probably get wifi in a car out on the street too..

i feel like a repeater might add latency vs just running some ethernet and putting another AP closer..

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-=> On Fri Oct 13 04:52:00 2023, fusion wrote to MRO <=-

> On 13 Oct 2023, MRO said the following...
>
> MR> I have a router that is in the back of the house. there's clear line of
> MR> sight to the front of the house, not that many feet to the front porch.
>
> if your access point has removable antennas that are SMA you could maybe get
> a directional antenna and point it at the front of the house. then you could probably get wifi in a car out on the street too..
That would work potentially.

another option would maybe see if you can get some of those powerline extenders. they use the mains wiring of the house to "extend" the cabling. you plug an ethernet cord in each side and then on the far end you could put an AP.

now the speeds won't be great, but short of running a cat6 line across it's not that big a deal. depending on the house of course.

but if you were going to go the cat6 route. PULL TWO at least, and then put a switch at the far end. that way you can have a load balance across the two switches which will help with bandwidth and you then have at least a backup just in case.

OR you could just run a fiber lol especially if you have a switch with SFP ports or just use media converters. That will deifnately help with the bandwidth. even at 1 gig

> i feel like a repeater might add latency vs just running some ethernet and putting another AP closer..

for a camera linke a ring or doorbell camera it's not that big a deal. I use one for the same reason and have no issues looking at all my outside cameras on the other side of the house

Charlie
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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: fusion to MRO on Fri Oct 13 2023 04:52 am

>
> if your access point has removable antennas that are SMA you could maybe get
> a directional antenna and point it at the front of the house. then you could
> probably get wifi in a car out on the street too..
>
> i feel like a repeater might add latency vs just running some ethernet and
> putting another AP closer..

yeah but i do have the ap pretty close. the freaking walls are just blocking everything. also the downstairs tv picks up the wifi fine and that's only a few feet from the porch. it also seems to vary with the weather.

perhaps a neighbor is on the same channel. i tried moving things around but i didn't notice anything. this is an intermittant issue.
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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: MRO to fusion on Fri Oct 13 2023 16:38:55

> Re: Re: old houses and wifi
> By: fusion to MRO on Fri Oct 13 2023 04:52 am
> > if your access point has removable antennas that are SMA you could maybe get a directional antenna and point it at the front of the house. then you could probably get wifi in a car out on the street too..
> > i feel like a repeater might add latency vs just running some ethernet and putting another AP closer..
> yeah but i do have the ap pretty close. the freaking walls are just blocking everything. also the downstairs tv picks up the wifi fine and that's only a few feet from the porch. it also seems to vary with
> the weather.
> perhaps a neighbor is on the same channel. i tried moving things around but i didn't notice anything. this is an intermittant issue.

this is going to sound stupid, but do you get much change in humidity inside? i say that because humidity can change properties ... usually outdoor links obviously are affected a lot, but if the walls are wet outside that can affect it too. especially if they're really thick or made up of something like coquina rock/sandstone type rock.

how thick are the walls? what are they made from? any way you can put some pics up that we can take a butchers at?

and you say the ap is pretty close... define.. close :D

charlie

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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: Charles Blackburn to MRO on Sat Oct 14 2023 10:47 am

> this is going to sound stupid, but do you get much change in humidity
> inside? i say that because humidity can change properties ... usually
> outdoor links obviously are affected a lot, but if the walls are wet outside

probably. it's an old house and we leave the windows open sometimes.

> how thick are the walls? what are they made from? any way you can put some
> pics up that we can take a butchers at?

I don't know i didn't drill a hole in a wall and i don't know what they are made from. i would assume thick plaster and lath. the house is like 1900's.
I have bent a nail trying to hammer in nails in some places.

if i took a picture of the wall it would look like a wall.

>
> and you say the ap is pretty close... define.. close :D
>

like 60-70 ft for downstairs.
upstairs one is directly above it and works the same sometimes.
it fluctuates.

in the back i have a camera even farther away that is on my garage pointed at the house. the signal is listed as best possible. it's even farther than the cameras in the front.

Also i have old aluminum siding.
so maybe the front wall of my house is super shielded.
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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Sat Oct 14 2023 16:55:49

> Re: Re: old houses and wifi
> By: Charles Blackburn to MRO on Sat Oct 14 2023 10:47 am
>
> > how thick are the walls? what are they made from? any way you can put some pics up that we can take a butchers at?
> I don't know i didn't drill a hole in a wall and i don't know what they are made from. i would assume thick plaster and lath. the house is like 1900's.
> I have bent a nail trying to hammer in nails in some places.

i've done that before now.

> > and you say the ap is pretty close... define.. close :D
> like 60-70 ft for downstairs.
> upstairs one is directly above it and works the same sometimes. it fluctuates.

60-70 feet should be ok. it's at the limit for sure though

> in the back i have a camera even farther away that is on my garage pointed at the house. the signal is listed as best possible. it's even farther than the cameras in the
> front. Also i have old aluminum siding. so maybe the front wall of my house is super shielded.

the siding could definately be the issue. I would try definately a repeater about halfway between the AP and the camera.

Charlie

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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Sat Oct 14 2023 04:55 pm

> like 60-70 ft for downstairs.
> upstairs one is directly above it and works the same sometimes.
> it fluctuates.

I have a similar set up and had similar issues. I literally ran a cat 5 upstairs and plugged in a ubiquity AP and never looked back. It's surprising how there seems to be a WIFI shield between upstairs and downstairs. It's unbelievable really so I feel for you.

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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: The Lizard Master to MRO on Mon Oct 16 2023 08:19 am

> Re: Re: old houses and wifi
> By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Sat Oct 14 2023 04:55 pm
>
> > like 60-70 ft for downstairs.
> > upstairs one is directly above it and works the same sometimes.
> > it fluctuates.
>
> I have a similar set up and had similar issues. I literally ran a cat 5
> upstairs and plugged in a ubiquity AP and never looked back. It's surprising
> how there seems to be a WIFI shield between upstairs and downstairs. It's
> unbelievable really so I feel for you.

yeah i ran one downstairs.
so i think i have a lot of factors here. tons of neighbors nearby with wifi, my own devices interfering, and old house with thick walls and siding.
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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Sat Oct 14 2023 04:55 pm

> at the house. the signal is listed as best possible. it's even farther than
> the cameras in the front.
>
> Also i have old aluminum siding.
> so maybe the front wall of my house is super shielded.

so i turned off the baby monitor and nothing helped.
then i'm out there running my wifi scanner app and i see how super saturated the area is due to the mini mansion next door that has a bunch of tenants.

so i'm going to go with having a repeater near my front door.

I didn't always have this issue but it appears that my neighbors are running a lot of wifi devices.
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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: The Lizard Master to MRO on Mon Oct 16 2023 08:19:03

> Re: Re: old houses and wifi

> I have a similar set up and had similar issues. I literally ran a cat 5 upstairs and plugged in a ubiquity AP and never looked back. It's surprising how there seems to be a WIFI shield between upstairs and downstairs.
> It's unbelievable really so I feel for you.

yea, You would be surprised how much a piece of AC ducting reflects the signal.

charlie

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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: MRO to all on Tue Oct 17 2023 02:27:56

> Re: Re: old houses and wifi
> By: MRO to Charles Blackburn on Sat Oct 14 2023 04:55 pm
>

<CUT>
> so i turned off the baby monitor and nothing helped.
> then i'm out there running my wifi scanner app and i see how super saturated the area is due to the mini mansion next door that has a bunch of tenants.
> so i'm going to go with having a repeater near my front door.
> I didn't always have this issue but it appears that my neighbors are running a lot of wifi devices.

yea plus probably runnin whatever devices/routers they have at full power, yet if they dropped the power down a little their wifi would run even better as the APs
aren't "Yelling" at each other.

Charlie

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-=> Charles Blackburn wrote to The Lizard Master <=-

CB> yea, You would be surprised how much a piece of AC ducting reflects the
CB> signal.

I have several layers of soundproofing between floors, and it kills of
wifi.

My kids' rooms are downstairs, not far from my router -- but there's a
breaker box between my son's room and the AP - one room gets 30 mbps,
his gets 3...

I'm in the "if possible, run ethernet any way possible between floors
and chuck a cheap router on the other end of the cable" non-mesh
network. :)

I tried mesh, I tried wireiess extenders, I tried powerline - each
worked to some extent - but being able to have a router for my home
office with VLANs and to extend wifi, and backhaul the connection over
gigabit ethernet is a godsend.

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Re: Re: old houses and wifi
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Charles Blackburn on Wed Oct 18 2023 08:29:00

> -=> Charles Blackburn wrote to The Lizard Master <=-
>
> CB> yea, You would be surprised how much a piece of AC ducting reflects the signal.
> I have several layers of soundproofing between floors, and it kills of
> wifi.

yea i know that feeling... i use RF all the time at work and many times i've been to a site that they've been sold something wireless i get there for a survey/install and im like, yea this ain't gunna work.

the usual issue is people having a building made from solid reinforced concrete aka Tilt Wall... or they have a steel roof and expect the low power signal to go through that and also down 3 floors as well.

> I tried mesh, I tried wireiess extenders, I tried powerline - each
> worked to some extent - but being able to have a router for my home
> office with VLANs and to extend wifi, and backhaul the connection over
> gigabit ethernet is a godsend.

yea VLANs are great for segregation, but the problem is if you have something that's multicast (eg HDHomerun in my case), they can't cross subnets which sucks lol

charlie

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-=> Charles Blackburn wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

CB> yea VLANs are great for segregation, but the problem is if you have
CB> something that's multicast (eg HDHomerun in my case), they can't cross
CB> subnets which sucks lol

I have a homelab that I want to segment out, and I've always wanted to
segment my IoT devices into their own network.

For most home uses, VLANs are probably overkill.

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