Hey all — hoping this is the right place to ask.
I moved into an apartment with this layout, and the internet comes into the technical room on the right side of the apartment, so that’s where the router currently has to live.
The problem is that Wi‑Fi drops off hard once you get toward the living/dining room on the left side. The kitchen/hall area is kind of “okay,” but in the living room it gets spotty enough that my laptop struggles on calls and my phone keeps bouncing back to mobile data.
I attached the floor plan because I figured the layout probably matters here. I’m trying to improve coverage without drilling or running obvious Ethernet through the apartment if possible.
Budget-wise I’d like to stay somewhere around $300 or less.
Would you go with:
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a better router,
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a mesh system,
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a repeater/extender,
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powerline,
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or something else?
Honestly the first issue is that your router is in the technical room. That’s basically networking jail. Small room, extra walls, utility stuff around it, then the signal still has to cross the hall and kitchen before it even gets to the living/dining area. Before buying anything, do one dumb-but-useful test: temporarily move the router just outside that room or closer to the hall and see what happens. Ugly test, valuable info.
@Dr.RichardBurke You can make this simpler and use a Wi-Fi planning app before buying anything. Way less annoying than dragging the router around the apartment and guessing.
@frozen_shift_X What app would you use for that? I honestly didn’t even know planning apps were a thing.
NetSpot is a good option. It’s pretty convenient and easy to understand, even if you’re not super technical. The planning feature is paid, yeah, but in this case it can actually save you money. You’ll be able to choose the right equipment and the best placement before spending $500 on some random mesh/extender setup that may not work well in your layout.Basically, better to pay a bit for planning than waste money on gear and still have dead zones.
If you want the best real-world fix without opening walls, I’d seriously consider the compromise option: flat Ethernet cable along the baseboard from the technical room toward the hall / kitchen area, then put an AP or mesh node there. This is probably the best middle ground tbh.
