ToTo Man
the band not the dog
We have a Virgin SH2 in the upstairs landing that serves as our main router. It delivers satisfactory 5GHz and 2.4GHz wifi to all upstairs rooms but the 2.4GHz coverage downstairs is patchy and the 5GHz coverage virtually non-existent. We therefore added a 5th generation AirPort Extreme downstairs, connected to the SH2 by ethernet, and set to bridge mode. This delivers acceptable performance to most downstairs rooms, but not as good as the SH2 serves the upstairs rooms.
I recently added an AirPort Express to the front downstairs living room, connected to the Extreme by ethernet, and set to bridge mode, which has finally given us satisfactory coverage in that room. Coverage in the back of the house is still piss-poor, and on the back patio almost non-existent. When we're outside the only way to pick up a wifi signal from the upstairs SH2 is to hold our phones above our heads. The AirPort Extreme gives us nothing outside, despite being much closer to us (I suspect this is because it has more walls in its way). If I move the Extreme nearer the patio, the strength of the wifi in the kitchen and dining room suffers.
My parents think I'm crazy to consider adding a 4th router to our network to improve coverage in the back of the house. 5th and 6th generation AirPort extremes can be had for beer money now, but it's the inconvenience of tying up another power outlet and unsightliness of running yet another network cable that's the cause of their reluctance.
Is there a limit on the number of routers you can add to a network to extend wifi coverage before they start interfering with each other? I've never paid attention to the traffic channels before, I've always just used the router's Auto settings. However, as an experiment, I changed the SH2's 2.4GHz channel from Auto to 1 and the Extreme's 2.4GHz channel from Auto to 11 to see if that made any significant difference to the download speeds, but it didn't seem to (at least not according to Speedtest.net's test which IME can vary widely from one minute to the next regardless!).
We live in a 130-yr old detached property and our nearest neighbour is at least 10 metres away so interference from neighbouring networks is unlikely to be an issue.
The last thing that's worth mentioning is I've configured each router to have its own SSID, and this applies to both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels. Having a total of six SSIDs to choose from drives my parents nuts as their iPhones/iPads regularly fail to switch networks automatically when the signal becomes weak, meaning they must remember to do it manually as they move around the house. I set it up this way because I like to know what router I'm connected to and I don't trust my devices to automatically connect to the strongest signal. However, if I add a fourth router then I'll probably bite the bullet and simplify things down to two SSIDs - one for all the 2.4GHz networks and one for all the 5GHz networks - otherwise there will be eight individual SSIDs to choose from!
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I'd be grateful if any advice could be expressed in layman's speak please as my networking knowledge is embarrassingly scant.
I recently added an AirPort Express to the front downstairs living room, connected to the Extreme by ethernet, and set to bridge mode, which has finally given us satisfactory coverage in that room. Coverage in the back of the house is still piss-poor, and on the back patio almost non-existent. When we're outside the only way to pick up a wifi signal from the upstairs SH2 is to hold our phones above our heads. The AirPort Extreme gives us nothing outside, despite being much closer to us (I suspect this is because it has more walls in its way). If I move the Extreme nearer the patio, the strength of the wifi in the kitchen and dining room suffers.
My parents think I'm crazy to consider adding a 4th router to our network to improve coverage in the back of the house. 5th and 6th generation AirPort extremes can be had for beer money now, but it's the inconvenience of tying up another power outlet and unsightliness of running yet another network cable that's the cause of their reluctance.
Is there a limit on the number of routers you can add to a network to extend wifi coverage before they start interfering with each other? I've never paid attention to the traffic channels before, I've always just used the router's Auto settings. However, as an experiment, I changed the SH2's 2.4GHz channel from Auto to 1 and the Extreme's 2.4GHz channel from Auto to 11 to see if that made any significant difference to the download speeds, but it didn't seem to (at least not according to Speedtest.net's test which IME can vary widely from one minute to the next regardless!).
We live in a 130-yr old detached property and our nearest neighbour is at least 10 metres away so interference from neighbouring networks is unlikely to be an issue.
The last thing that's worth mentioning is I've configured each router to have its own SSID, and this applies to both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels. Having a total of six SSIDs to choose from drives my parents nuts as their iPhones/iPads regularly fail to switch networks automatically when the signal becomes weak, meaning they must remember to do it manually as they move around the house. I set it up this way because I like to know what router I'm connected to and I don't trust my devices to automatically connect to the strongest signal. However, if I add a fourth router then I'll probably bite the bullet and simplify things down to two SSIDs - one for all the 2.4GHz networks and one for all the 5GHz networks - otherwise there will be eight individual SSIDs to choose from!
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I'd be grateful if any advice could be expressed in layman's speak please as my networking knowledge is embarrassingly scant.