Networking help & modem/router suggestion

[drthrd]

I want to increase the range and get better coverage for a house. Right now they are using a gateway provided by their ISP. Cable internet. Down the hall they are not getting bad to no coverage. I want to increase the range. I looked around and a lot of people suggest not to use a gateway. Is a gateway that bad? I was looking at the Motorola SBG6580 but when I did a search for it, all kind of stuff came up talking about problems with it with Comcast. And it is not suggested. If I did it separate, a modem and then a wireless router what would you suggest? I don't think they want to spend $200 for them though. How could I extend the range? Some say a Amped Wireless router would take care of everything. Some say a wireless access point. I am not sure lol. I want them to have a good stable connection and a good wireless signal.

 

[razel]

That is actually a dual band router. It's not terrible. There are FAR worse. It's shortcoming is the fact that since it's a combo cable modem/WiFi unit your placement of it is limited to where-ever you have your COAX running. The good news, COAX is pretty resilient compared to the DSL phone line, so you can freely run a longer cable to relocate the cable modem/WiFi.

Easiest thing to do is to elevate it. Treat WiFi signal like a light. 2.4Ghz wireless penetrates walls better. 5Ghz doesn't, which means better signal potential of 5Ghz in a room or indoors. Second thing is most of us have WiFi routers against an outside wall, so most of the signal gets wasted on the other side of that wall. You can use aluminum foil to reflect that signal back into the home. If that works out for you well, you can then ground that foil to the router to make it a more efficient active reflector.

After that you can also separate the 2.4/5 Ghz bands by giving each a different name. By default the combo cable modem/WiFi a family member had had the same name for both. Nothing wrong with that for devices that roam around the home, but in their situation, their devices stay in the name room nearly all the time. With that you can put your devices that roam in the 2.4G and leave the 5Ghz for devices that can get a good signal and stay put.

After all that you really are left to turn off the WiFi on the cable modem and buy a good WiFi router to use it as an access point. Setting that up sounds like it requires you to find a friend with knowledge. By the way if you plan on going that route, chances are they are leasing their modem. They can use that money saved leasing, by buying your own pure cable modem and separate WiFi router. There's plenty of good deals for Linksys routers on woot right now. The Linksys EA6200 is currently $29 and is a gigabit AC router that's DD-WRT compatible. However I recommend at least the EA6500 $50? (official DD-WRT build) since it's has power amplifiers for the antennas.

 

[drthrd]

Right now they are using Touchstone DG860. I was going to suggest Motorola SBG6580. Not sure now though. As far as needing a friend with knowledge, I think I can do it. I have been looking around and found pages like http://www.practicallynetworked.com/networking/convert_wifi_router_to_access_point.htm and http://www.tp-link.com/en/faq-417.html. Unless you mean something different or more complex? Would like to know more about using aluminum foil. It has no external antennas. Could I just set the back of it in a aluminum pan? lol.

 

[razel]

That may not be a bad idea. You can see if it has any effect by covering your cell phone with it and see if the WiFi signal drops. Mine does even when I put it in a coffee can. If the antenna is internal or PCB then you just need to find out where they put it and just tape strips of foil on the outside case closest to it.

Setting up the access point to add to an existing WiFi correctly via Ethernet LAN is what I was suggesting. But since you seem OK with buying them a new modem, so perhaps start there 1st. Best of luck.

 

[drthrd]

I am not sure about buying the Motorola SBG6580. How much better is the Motorola SBG6580 than the Touchstone DG860? If buying a modem and a router separate is better than a gateway, how much better would that be compared to the Motorola SBG6580? I was looking at some different routers. I looked at the one you said Linksys EA6500 and some others. Amped Wireless RTA1750 and the TP-LINK Archer C7 and Amazon best sellers. I looked around on the net and some people really liked Amped Wireless products and talked like they would solve range problems. They do look impressive, having amplifiers and 800 mW. But is all of that way better than others? Is the 800 mW the size of the amplifiers? What size amplifiers does other routers have and how many. Amped Wireless RTA1750 has 12. Does all that great sounding stuff make it have way better range? I haven't seen other routers state how many amplifiers they have and the wattage. Is that just hype?

 

[RLGL]

I want to increase the range and get better coverage for a house. Right now they are using a gateway provided by their ISP. Cable internet. Down the hall they are not getting bad to no coverage. I want to increase the range. I looked around and a lot of people suggest not to use a gateway. Is a gateway that bad? I was looking at the Motorola SBG6580 but when I did a search for it, all kind of stuff came up talking about problems with it with Comcast. And it is not suggested. If I did it separate, a modem and then a wireless router what would you suggest? I don't think they want to spend $200 for them though. How could I extend the range? Some say a Amped Wireless router would take care of everything. Some say a wireless access point. I am not sure lol. I want them to have a good stable connection and a good wireless signal.

Sounds like this is not your house, let the tenants figure it out on their own. This could be a big pail of worms, once you get involved, if things do not turn out for the better

 

[razel]

The EA6500 with DD-WRT installed can output up to 1000mw. The amplifiers amplify incoming signals. Yes, they also can be a single chip to power transmit, but you are limited to 1w... unless you get I think a certain HAM radio license which isn't a big deal.

As for finding out if a router has an amplifier I use a combo of searching smallnetbuilder and wikidev. I tend to trust smallnetbuilder more since they show their teardown. Wikidev is just a collection of data. They do often have references of where they got data.

By the way, I was disappointed with the range of the Archer C7. I bought one when newegg had it for ~$85. As I stated in another thread, I don't doubt smallnetbuilder and thewirecutters review of it, it just wasn't the right solution to extend range in my home. It wasn't any better than the $50 ASUS RT-AC56U. The C7 uses an early AC chipset that doesn't appear to support beamforming even with DD-WRT installed. Nothing wrong with that, but we are well into the 3rd/4th gen AC chipsets already.

 

[Slickone]

There's plenty of good deals for Linksys routers on woot right now. The Linksys EA6200 is currently $29 and is a gigabit AC router that's DD-WRT compatible. However I recommend at least the EA6500 $50? (official DD-WRT build) since it's has power amplifiers for the antennas.

How often does woot have the EA6500 for $50? Refurb, right?
Amazon has a refurb for $60:
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Version-Dual-Band-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B00LI9ML0E

What's the difference in these?
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Wireless-Dual-Band-Anywhere-EA6500/dp/B008I21EA2
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-EA6500-Dual-Band-Router-Gigabit/dp/B00AYM7LNI

Also is the Amped AC1750 any good?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/amped-w...lack/1836054.p?id=1219514011811&skuId=1836054

 

[razel]

There are two versions of EA6500. v1 and v2. No guarantee which one you'll get. The one I got from woot is v2 and am happy with it. It's range for my fringe 2.4G devices is slightly better than the ASUS RT-AC56 that I absolutely love at $50. What I don't like with the EA6500 is the heat. It's CPU averages 100C. It uses just a thin metal flat heat spreader. Reducing the CPU speed to 600mhz in DD-WRT doesn't help any, but it's been flawless for 3 weeks. Honestly though, I would just keep hunting for that ASUS. Mine was from Newegg just a few months ago. I keep coming back to it and this is just another reason.

I have no opinion on the Amped. I wouldn't get caught up by the name. All WiFi certified routers are legally limited to 1w. Nothing stops you from changing that though, but I also don't see Amped much or at all off DD-WRT so I don't pay attention.

 

[Slickone]

There are two versions of EA6500. v1 and v2. No guarantee which one you'll get. The one I got from woot is v2 and am happy with it. It's range for my fringe 2.4G devices is slightly better than the ASUS RT-AC56 that I absolutely love at $50. What I don't like with the EA6500 is the heat. It's CPU averages 100C. It uses just a thin metal flat heat spreader. Reducing the CPU speed to 600mhz in DD-WRT doesn't help any, but it's been flawless for 3 weeks. Honestly though, I would just keep hunting for that ASUS. Mine was from Newegg just a few months ago. I keep coming back to it and this is just another reason.

I have no opinion on the Amped. I wouldn't get caught up by the name. All WiFi certified routers are legally limited to 1w. Nothing stops you from changing that though, but I also don't see Amped much or at all off DD-WRT so I don't pay attention.

I didn't care about the Amped name. It just came up when searching for AC1750, and was marked down a lot. I have a BB GC.
Was the ASUS RT-AC56 a refurb at woot too?

Any idea about the TP LINK Archer C7?
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/

 

[razel]

Good lord... read the thread... actually the post just above yours.

 

[Slickone]

Aren't you nice. I had read the thread a day or two earlier, but forgot it was mentioned. It must be nice ot have a photographic memory.

BTW, there are a lot of bad reviews for the ASUS RT-AC56U. Yet the Archer C7 was voted best in a test of >20 routers.

 

[smitbret]

Aren't you nice. I had read the thread a day or two earlier, but forgot it was mentioned. It must be nice ot have a photographic memory.

BTW, there are a lot of bad reviews for the ASUS RT-AC56U. Yet the Archer C7 was voted best in a test of >20 routers.

Different strokes for different folks.

I can give you a first hand experience of an Asus RT-AC68U vs. Archer C7. I used the C7 (a v1) for about 2 years until I got a T-Mobile Cell Spot from T-Mobile. The Cell Spot is just an Asus RT-AC68U with T-Mobile's special firmware. I reflashed the firmware and turned it back into a stock AC68U and then loaded AsusWRT-Merlin firmware on it.

The only reason I even switched was because I can force the Asus to act as my SAMBA Master Browser with the Asus WRT Merlin firmware and it fixes browser election problems.

Anyway, I could never tell any difference in any speed tests, wired or wireless, with any devices except my Blackberry Z10. 2.4GHz and 5GHz all performed the same in every situation regardless of the router in use. I used WiFi Analyzer to measure the dBi at different locations through the house on my Z10 and on my Kindle Fire HD. The only difference was at the top of a stairwell in the back of my house where the Asus gave me -80dBi on the 5GHz band and the C7 gave me -82dBi. Either one is barely usable at that signal strength.

For some reason, my Z10 will not get more than about .7mbps when it is connected to the C7 on the 2.4GHz band. It has always been that way and it is very consistent. There were some reports that v1 of the C7 also had trouble with iPhones/iPads, too, but my daughter's iPad seems to work just fine. Anyway, they have since had 2 more revisions in the last 2 years and they newer versions don't seem to have any reports of these issues.

Despite the difference in class AC1750 vs. AC1900 there will be no discernible difference in speed between the two.

The Asus has a few more bells and whistles like a dual-core CPU, a better and easier GUI with more customizations and can be made to do a few more things. However, for the average user, the C7 is the most cost-effective choice.

Incidentally, I had to return the Cell Spot when I switched to AT&T last month so it's back to the C7. Chugging along just fine.

 

[jardows]

If they are just wanting to extend the wi-fi range, why not just get a range extender? Simpler, cheaper, and should do the trick!