WiFi - Apartment

BBC

BBC

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Hi Guys

Please advise on what would be the best solution in this case.

The green dot is where the Fibre ONT is located and where the modem / router will be (No option to change this).

What are the options for full home WiFi coverage as we cannot mount UniFi APs - (there is no ceiling void and the cable would be visible if mounted to the slab.)

Would 1 x AC-LR work if placed on the TV unit?

Apartment Area 79.48m2
Covered Balcony 18.88m2

It is the middle floor unit in an apartment block of 3 units

Cost effective as possible please - first home and all that :sneaky:
 

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Yup, It is a case of try and see what the coverage is before making things complicated.. I would place the Wi-Fi router on an elevated shelf close to the ceiling. What is the ceiling? Concrete or normal
?
 
Geoff.D said:
Yup, It is a case of try and see what the coverage is before making things complicated.. I would place the Wi-Fi router on an elevated shelf close to the ceiling. What is the ceiling? Concrete or normal
?
Click to expand...

Concrete slab (unit above us) which is painted and made to look like a fake ceiling
 

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Bedroom 2 on the far end might have an issue pending placement, same with en-suite. guess depends on walls
 
Reinforced concrete ceiling creates a sort of Faraday cage, which is an advantage in this case. Assume internal walls are just single course brick walls?
I would not expect much benefit from moving the router away from the fibre point.
Stick to 2.4 GHz band if at all possible - better penetration through brick walls.

Area to be covered is small enough not to get worried until you find a coverage problem. At worst you may have to consider moving the router to the middle wall in the unit, but that comes with a cabling/connections issue.
 
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If you can afford it, the best thing to do is have multiple AP's, one for each room or living area, and then wire them all back to the router via ethernet. Put them all on the same SSID including the 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ radios, but on different non-overlapping channels. Turn down the power of the 5GHZ radios to 50%, and the 2.4Ghz radios down to 25%. Do it this way and you will easily get good coverage and pretty good handover between the different APs as you move through the house.
 
deweyzeph said:
If you can afford it, the best thing to do is have multiple AP's, one for each room or living area, and then wire them all back to the router via ethernet. Put them all on the same SSID including the 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ radios, but on different non-overlapping channels. Turn down the power of the 5GHZ radios to 50%, and the 2.4Ghz radios down to 25%. Do it this way and you will easily get good coverage and pretty good handover between the different APs as you move through the house.
Click to expand...
All good if the area is large. This is a small place, with the law of diminishing returns well and truly at play.

Turning down the power levels is something one can do afterwards if you find the coverage is good enough.
I have turned down the power levels (has security advantages as well) and disabled 5 GHz because I do not need it and for health reasons already.

The cabling will be the issue, especially if it is rented accommodation with all sorts of rules.
 
Your master bedroom has too many places for a random kid to to enter while you and your wife/gf has sexy time.
 
Geoff.D said:
All good if the area is large. This is a small place, with the law of diminishing returns well and truly at play.

Turning down the power levels is something one can do afterwards if you find the coverage is good enough.
I have turned down the power levels (has security advantages as well) and disabled 5 GHz because I do not need it and for health reasons already.

The cabling will be the issue, especially if it is rented accommodation with all sorts of rules.
Click to expand...

The reason I suggest turning down the power levels is so that the footprint of each AP would be as small as possible with little overlap between the other APs. This will encourage devices to roam more aggressively as you move through the apartment. Cabling can be made to look neat even in a rented property. I would suggest using some trunking with double-sided tape to run the cables around the house. That trunking can easily be removed if you leave the property and want to restore it back to the way it was before you moved in.

There's a lot of interference from neighbours in the 2.4Ghz spectrum, especially in an apartment setting, so if you have devices that can use 5Ghz I would suggest leaving it on. Depending on the AP's you have you can also enable band steering which will force 5Ghz capable devices onto the 5Ghz radios if they try to connect to the 2.4Ghz radios.
 
Geoff.D said:
All good if the area is large. This is a small place, with the law of diminishing returns well and truly at play.

Turning down the power levels is something one can do afterwards if you find the coverage is good enough.
I have turned down the power levels (has security advantages as well) and disabled 5 GHz because I do not need it and for health reasons already.

The cabling will be the issue, especially if it is rented accommodation with all sorts of rules.
Click to expand...
Just no. There are no negative health repercussions of having 5GHz enabled, and you do want to keep it on as it's faster, has lower latency, and usually less jitter. 5GHz can usually go through at least one wall, in my house it manages near two cement walls, and the fall-off is a lot less per wall, so you'll basically either get full signal or no signal. In apartments, 5GHz is basically mandatory as 2.4GHz is crowded.

@OP you'll be fine setting it up in the middle of the house, your apartment isn't large, feel free to use full power as well, security wise doesn't really matter.
 
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deweyzeph said:
If you can afford it, the best thing to do is have multiple AP's, one for each room or living area, and then wire them all back to the router via ethernet. Put them all on the same SSID including the 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ radios, but on different non-overlapping channels. Turn down the power of the 5GHZ radios to 50%, and the 2.4Ghz radios down to 25%. Do it this way and you will easily get good coverage and pretty good handover between the different APs as you move through the house.
Click to expand...
Don't think you've read the initial post fully. I cannot run any cables as it will all be visible because there is no ceiling void to run them in. Trunking also looks quite ugly



Moosedrool said:
Your master bedroom has too many places for a random kid to to enter while you and your wife/gf has sexy time.
Click to expand...
No kids, so most likely will be used as the dog box when I'm in shyte
 
Johnatan56 said:
@OP you'll be fine setting it up in the middle of the house, your apartment isn't large, feel free to use full power as well, security wise doesn't really matter.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, can't really move the modem / router around
 
BBC said:
As mentioned, can't really move the modem / router around
Click to expand...
It should be fine where it is, have you tested it? Only the bedroom on the bottom left could be questionable, but if you have a router with beam forming it should be fine.
 
deweyzeph said:
The reason I suggest turning down the power levels is so that the footprint of each AP would be as small as possible with little overlap between the other APs. This will encourage devices to roam more aggressively as you move through the apartment. Cabling can be made to look neat even in a rented property. I would suggest using some trunking with double-sided tape to run the cables around the house. That trunking can easily be removed if you leave the property and want to restore it back to the way it was before you moved in.

There's a lot of interference from neighbours in the 2.4Ghz spectrum, especially in an apartment setting, so if you have devices that can use 5Ghz I would suggest leaving it on. Depending on the AP's you have you can also enable band steering which will force 5Ghz capable devices onto the 5Ghz radios if they try to connect to the 2.4Ghz radios.
Click to expand...
All good arguments that can be considered when nec. and if found to be valid. Network complexity, however, is the trade-off
 
Def get a 5ghz one. Esp in apartment blocks there is a real risk of 2.4 spectrum being a shitshow
 
Johnatan56 said:
Just no. There are no negative health repercussions of having 5GHz enabled, and you do want to keep it on as it's faster, has lower latency, and usually less jitter. 5GHz can usually go through at least one wall, in my house it manages near two cement walls, and the fall-off is a lot less per wall, so you'll basically either get full signal or no signal. In apartments, 5GHz is basically mandatory as 2.4GHz is crowded.

@OP you'll be fine setting it up in the middle of the house, your apartment isn't large, feel free to use full power as well, security wise doesn't really matter.
Click to expand...
Not correct. There is another thread where I have already stated why 5GHz is a problem for me personally.
I don't have to argue with anyone about it, just accept it, as I have proved the effects on me, and that is the prime reason why I have turned down the power levels on 2,4GHz as well.

I don't have issues with interference and I do not have any jitter issues at 2.4 GHz. In fact, the 5G threads posted so far are horrible compared to my jitter measurements.

But each to his own, OP use the info provided by everyone or lose it, your choice.
Simplicity is always better than unnecessary complications with extra equipment if not needed.
 
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Johnatan56 said:
It should be fine where it is, have you tested it? Only the bedroom on the bottom left could be questionable, but if you have a router with beam forming it should be fine.
Click to expand...

The place will only be ready on the 31st of Aug so cannot test anything currently
 
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