Help me extend my network?

[jrm27]

Hello all,

I've recently put together an in-home office in a back bedroom far away from my Airport Extreme. My wifi is great in the front portion of my house, and terrible back in the office. I know Apple has discontinued the Aiport line... what would I need to extend my network reliably throughout the house? There's no ethernet in the walls, so wireless options will probably be the best! Thanks all!


-jon

 

[ezylstra]

Eero is super easy, really good, and will solve all your problems. Aside from Google having its tendrils in your home network, it is a great solution.

 

[Stephen.R]

will solve all your problems

Famous last words

Aside from Google having its tendrils in your home network

That’s a heck of a caveat.

 

[Tekguy0]

Eero is good, but they are owned by Amazon now, so maybe look for other mesh systems...

 

[techwarrior]

Airport products are still available on eBay. Airport tends to work best with "its own kind", I have had a few hiccups using a mixed setup. Airports do not work really well as wireless extenders (they split the radio for client and uplink tasks, cutting bandwidth in half at least. But, using Ethernet to link them, you can get decent performance from the second usit.

Powerline adapters like this can get Ethernet to the center of the dead zones. These are sold at Best Buy, Fry's, etc so if Amazon delays delivery, look elsewhere. The idea is, plug one into the Extreme and then one into the second WiFi device in the remote area. Don't plug into power strips, must be directly plugged into the wall. It should give you over 1Gbps over the power lines.

Then, get an Airport Express like this. If you have a lot of devices, or need faster uplinks, a used AP Extreme like this in the back area would give you 1Gbps uplinks over power lines. Remember, your ISP service may be the slowest link in the network, so if you have <100Mbps, the Express with its 100Mbps ethernet may be enough. But if your ISP > 100Mbps, go with the Extreme as the second device to get max speed for wireless devices in the back of the house.

Using Airport Utility, setup the second Airport in Bridged mode (network tab), and then setup WiFi like you did on the router. A few tips, you can use a different network name (SSID) for each device if you want to make sure devices connect to one or the other, if there is overlap, they may pick a WiFi device that has intermittent performance and cling to it. But with different SSID, you can setup devices to only connect to the one that gives consistent good results in the area. iPhones, iPads, etc will easily switch between networks if there is a clear advantage. Also, when possible, use Wired connections to leave more bandwidth available to wireless devices. Finally, like with different SSID for the two routers, different SSID for 2.4 and 5Ghz can help prioritize which signal devices connect to.

If you are not tied to keeping your current router, there are some good Mesh solutions. I use Synology RT2600AC + RT2200, the signal in the rear of the home would need to be strong enough to reach the second device unless you want to use power line ethernet to connect them. Other Mesh systems include Netgear Orbi, Eero, TP Link Deco... I am not as familiar with these, but in your situation, wirelessly connecting the second (or third) mesh access points might be a problem if the signal is that weak in the back of the house, so make sure they can work with Ethernet uplinks to the router.

 

[jrm27]

Thanks all. This is really good info!

Tech Warrior, I appreciate the thorough information here. Very clear and helpful. Still, I have a few questions below because I am dense.

Airport products are still available on eBay. Airport tends to work best with "its own kind", I have had a few hiccups using a mixed setup. Airports do not work really well as wireless extenders (they split the radio for client and uplink tasks, cutting bandwidth in half at least. But, using Ethernet to link them, you can get decent performance from the second usit.

Powerline adapters like this can get Ethernet to the center of the dead zones. These are sold at Best Buy, Fry's, etc so if Amazon delays delivery, look elsewhere. The idea is, plug one into the Extreme and then one into the second WiFi device in the remote area. Don't plug into power strips, must be directly plugged into the wall. It should give you over 1Gbps over the power lines.

Then, get an Airport Express like this. If you have a lot of devices, or need faster uplinks, a used AP Extreme like this in the back area would give you 1Gbps uplinks over power lines. Remember, your ISP service may be the slowest link in the network, so if you have <100Mbps, the Express with its 100Mbps ethernet may be enough. But if your ISP > 100Mbps, go with the Extreme as the second device to get max speed for wireless devices in the back of the house.

Using Airport Utility, setup the second Airport in Bridged mode (network tab), and then setup WiFi like you did on the router. A few tips, you can use a different network name (SSID) for each device if you want to make sure devices connect to one or the other, if there is overlap, they may pick a WiFi device that has intermittent performance and cling to it. But with different SSID, you can setup devices to only connect to the one that gives consistent good results in the area. iPhones, iPads, etc will easily switch between networks if there is a clear advantage. Also, when possible, use Wired connections to leave more bandwidth available to wireless devices. Finally, like with different SSID for the two routers, different SSID for 2.4 and 5Ghz can help prioritize which signal devices connect to.

If you are not tied to keeping your current router, there are some good Mesh solutions. I use Synology RT2600AC + RT2200, the signal in the rear of the home would need to be strong enough to reach the second device unless you want to use power line ethernet to connect them. Other Mesh systems include Netgear Orbi, Eero, TP Link Deco... I am not as familiar with these, but in your situation, wirelessly connecting the second (or third) mesh access points might be a problem if the signal is that weak in the back of the house, so make sure they can work with Ethernet uplinks to the router.

After reading this, I went digging through an old box in the garage that I had forgotten about where I found another airport extreme (that I forgot we bought before moving into this new home and buying a new one), and some old powerline adapters. I took a line out of the main Airport extreme in the living room, passed it into the powerline adapter, and then went back to my office where I plugged in the second adapter and the older airport extreme.

It is working... kind of. In my living room, I am pulling down 200+mb per second. In my office, I am pulling down 30.

So... have I messed something up? Any tips on how to make this better?

 

[techwarrior]

Early power line adapters were pretty slow. Here is a good idea of what current generation power line adapters are capable of. These are carried in a lot of tech stores, Best Buy, Frys, etc, so with Amazon delaying non-essentials, look around for something like this. TP Link has a utility that can tell you the link speed of their power line adapters, if yours are a different brand, see if they have a utility for the adapters, my guess is, you are only getting along the lines of 30Mbps over power line.

With power line adapters, it is important to not plug them into power strips, they must go directly into a wall socket. They tend to work best when both plugs are on the same circuit, but with the newer models, they should still be adequately fast enough.

 

[jrm27]

Early power line adapters were pretty slow. Here is a good idea of what current generation power line adapters are capable of. These are carried in a lot of tech stores, Best Buy, Frys, etc, so with Amazon delaying non-essentials, look around for something like this. TP Link has a utility that can tell you the link speed of their power line adapters, if yours are a different brand, see if they have a utility for the adapters, my guess is, you are only getting along the lines of 30Mbps over power line.

With power line adapters, it is important to not plug them into power strips, they must go directly into a wall socket. They tend to work best when both plugs are on the same circuit, but with the newer models, they should still be adequately fast enough.

Thanks man! I'll loom for that utility, as I am using TP Liink stuff. These are the ones I'm using (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWRUICG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). They're probably 5 years old, so I'm sure that's the case. Nothing is on power strips and I think they are on the same circuit, but I'll need to check that out.

 

[techwarrior]

Thanks man! I'll loom for that utility, as I am using TP Liink stuff. These are the ones I'm using (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWRUICG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). They're probably 5 years old, so I'm sure that's the case. Nothing is on power strips and I think they are on the same circuit, but I'll need to check that out.

So those are rated for up to 600Mbps, but mine are 1 generation newer and I typically see 50-80Mbps. The utility is called tpPLC (download here), but it doesn't seem to be compatible with Catalina (the site says up to 10.12) and the iOS version doesn't see my devices.

Here is another test. Use a Mac or PC to connect via ethernet to the Extreme in the remote part of the house (connected via power line adapters to the router). Now run speed test. If the wired connection speed is ok, then I would take a closer look at WiFi, maybe change channels to avoid conflicts with neighbors. Also, test WiFi speeds while within a few feet of the remote Extreme.

 

[ErkSmeijer]

Well @techwarrior , one part of your trouble can be solved: there is a Beta-version of the tpPLC utility which works on Catalina (patched or unpatched ) :
On this page at TP-Link community you will find this download of the Beta-version.

 

[jrm27]

So those are rated for up to 600Mbps, but mine are 1 generation newer and I typically see 50-80Mbps. The utility is called tpPLC (download here), but it doesn't seem to be compatible with Catalina (the site says up to 10.12) and the iOS version doesn't see my devices.

Here is another test. Use a Mac or PC to connect via ethernet to the Extreme in the remote part of the house (connected via power line adapters to the router). Now run speed test. If the wired connection speed is ok, then I would take a closer look at WiFi, maybe change channels to avoid conflicts with neighbors. Also, test WiFi speeds while within a few feet of the remote Extreme.

Thanks buddy... unfortunately, I don't have anything else with a physical ethernet port. I'll look into how I would go about changing the channels. maybe that'll help. I'm currently about 2 feet from the remote Extreme..