I’m moving into a new apartment soon and trying to plan the Wi-Fi before I buy the APs.
The place isn’t huge, but the walls are thick concrete. Cell reception is also terrible inside, so I really want the Wi-Fi to be solid everywhere.
My idea was to use 3 wired APs and keep everything mostly on 5 GHz. I don’t really need 2.4 GHz right now because I don’t have IoT devices, and we rarely have guests. I can always create a 2.4 GHz SSID later if needed.
The basic coverage map looks good with 3 APs, but I’m wondering if that’s overkill for an apartment this size. Could 3 APs make things worse, or is it fine since the walls are concrete?
I’d be careful about looking only at the one heatmap. Good signal everywhere doesn’t automatically mean the design is good.
My opinion - Start with 2.
I wouldn’t judge this only by the Signal Level heatmap. A good coverage map doesn’t automatically mean the design is optimal. Open NetSpot and check the other heatmaps too — especially Signal-to-interference ratio, Low secondary signal level, and anything related to AP overlap if you have it. In a small apartment, 3 APs can work, especially with concrete walls, but they can also create too much overlap if power and channels are not tuned.
Three APs in a small apartment sounds spicy. Not impossible, but if you leave everything on auto and full power, your devices may have no idea which AP to stick to.
@SilverFox I checked a couple more NetSpot heatmaps.
Yep, that basically answers your question about whether 3 APs may be excessive. I’d test 2 APs first. If 2 gives you stable 5 GHz where you actually need it, stop there. If you need all 3, lower transmit power and plan channels manually instead of letting all three blast on auto.
