Wi-Fi repeater/access point coverage problems

[Fee]

Hi

I recently moved into a new double story house with a concrete deck between the two floors. My main router is downstairs in a room and I have an access point upstairs in the hall way connected with hard wire to my router. Both devices are running on different channels and different ssid's. Dhcp disabled on the access point.

My main bedroom door is about 5 meters from the access point and my bed is about 6 meters from the bedroom door with 2 walls between my bed and the access point outside the room. With this distance I get intermittent disconnections and a very unstable connection.

I could add another access point to my room but I am trying to avoid going that route as it becomes an inconvenience needing to switch between 3 networks all the time. I've heard about ubiquiti access points that are apparently really good. Can anyone confirm or have experience with them before I spend money on something that may not help.

Thanks

 

[HvRooyen]

Can vouch for Ubiquiti. I used to have 5 AP's (single SSID), replaced them with 4 Ubiquiti units running off a Raspberry Pi - major improvement.

 

[Fee]

How did you manage to run AP's using the same SSID as your router? I tried it but my devices seem to lock on to the router instead of AP unless the router is out of range. Therefore the easiest way for me was to have different SSID's.

 

[PsyWulf]

How did you manage to run AP's using the same SSID as your router? I tried it but my devices seem to lock on to the router instead of AP unless the router is out of range. Therefore the easiest way for me was to have different SSID's.

That's how it is - or rather the client device has its own set of rules(behaviours) in such a configuration. In general devices will only find a new AP when the current one's signal quality is too degraded
Running something like Unifi meshes you can configure "seamless" transitions where the APs will either pass you on to any of its partners with higher strength,or kick you off to force renegotiation based on signal strength (or lack thereof)

They've also just released a new Mesh AP product that is supposed to be a proper repeater for harder to reach areas that combines with the rest of their enterprise wifi network management

 

[AfricanTech]

Hi

I recently moved into a new double story house with a concrete deck between the two floors. My main router is downstairs in a room and I have an access point upstairs in the hall way connected with hard wire to my router. Both devices are running on different channels and different ssid's. Dhcp disabled on the access point.

My main bedroom door is about 5 meters from the access point and my bed is about 6 meters from the bedroom door with 2 walls between my bed and the access point outside the room. With this distance I get intermittent disconnections and a very unstable connection.

I could add another access point to my room but I am trying to avoid going that route as it becomes an inconvenience needing to switch between 3 networks all the time. I've heard about ubiquiti access points that are apparently really good. Can anyone confirm or have experience with them before I spend money on something that may not help.

Thanks

Can vouch for Ubiquiti as well. A quick search here on MyBB will show you many happy Ubitquiti users.

 

[Fee]

Thanks all. Ill be purchasing the Unify Long Range AP from takealot so Ill do testing over the weekend. SHould it not bring any joy I can always return to them Thanks for all the input.

 

[JohnSmith75]

The list of problems that affect the operation of a wireless network can be large enough to get rid of the need to check everything by yourself, I recommend to use a service that helped me to solve such problems more than a dozen times. Wifi signal strength meter https://www.netspotapp.com/wifi-signal-strength.html is a simple service with a user-friendly interface and a set of instructions for a beginner, easy to use so I think there will be no problems. I hope this helps, good luck.