Just moved into my first house and I’m trying to fix the WiFi upstairs.
Router is on the first floor. My gaming setup is on the third.
Signal up there exists, technically, but it’s not great. Downloads are slow and gaming gets random latency spikes.
I was looking at WiFi boosters/extenders because that seems like the easiest option, but every thread I read has someone saying extenders are useless and someone else saying theirs works perfectly.
Running Ethernet all the way upstairs would be difficult.
What’s the least stupid way to improve this?
Everyone is going to tell you Ethernet because Ethernet is the answer nobody wants to hear. If you genuinely can’t run it, I’d look at a proper mesh system before a cheap extender.
@Silent_Pulse What actually makes mesh better than an extender? Aren’t they basically both repeating WiFi?
Sometimes the underlying idea is similar, but decent mesh systems are designed around multiple APs working together. Tri-band systems can also have a separate radio for backhaul instead of making the client and mesh traffic fight over the same radio.
The biggest mistake people make is putting the extender/mesh node in the room where the WiFi already sucks. Don’t do that. It needs a decent signal from the main router first.
Measure it instead of guessing. If you have a laptop, NetSpot’s analyzer is enough for this. Start near the router and walk toward the third floor watching the actual RSSI. You’re looking for somewhere the main WiFi is still reasonably strong before it falls apart. That’s where I’d try the mesh point first.
Do you have coax in the house?
If you own the house, why not just run Ethernet?
@Night_Owl Actually yes. There’s coax downstairs and another jack pretty close to my gaming room. I was looking at MoCA too but assumed mesh would be easier.
If the coax layout works for MoCA, I’d take that over wireless backhaul for gaming all day. You could use MoCA to get a wired connection upstairs, or feed an AP from it.