Best option for extending wifi

Mesh! Mesh! Mesh!

Sometimes all you need is a better router/access point. I use the Asus AX-86U and the range is insane, I get my full internet service speeds on the other side of the house.

If you have fiber and your ISP forces you to use their gateway, look up a guide on how to put the gateway into passthrough so you can use your own router/wireless.

Mesh systems can solve a lot of problems too but you can easily waste your money if you don't know what you're looking for. If you have the ability to run Ethernet lines to all the satellite nodes, you can but almost whatever you want and it will work. If you aren't going to be able to do that and the satellite nodes are going to be wireless, make sure you get a setup marketed as tri band as it has an additional wireless band that handles communication between nodes.

Hey, it’s the daily Wi-Fi extender thread.

Mesh.

If you're going to stay in the house more than 2 years, pull Cat-5/6 to an unused phone jack at the other end of the house, and plug extender/mesh into it. It'll cost you $150 and will reduce the need to complain about your wifi speeds for five years.

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Hey, it’s the daily Wi-Fi extender thread.

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I'll start working on a comprehensive wifi thread. I'll give a rundown of the best options and rough costs. Might try to include some graphics. Maybe we can get it stickied.

No, I don't think that's overkill for 4k sqft. It's 3 units and it claims "up to 7,500 sqft". That is 2,500 sqft per unit, or in other words a 28 foot radius from each unit. Put that way, I bet you can see why you might need 3 units.

If you can visualize, in order to get the full 7,500 sqft of quality coverage, the signals can't overlap much. Any overlap of coverage is sort of "wasted". But not really, because if you don't overlap then you end up with dead zones and slow handoffs. Also, if you don't hardwire the units, they have to communicate wirelessly, which means the units should be within 30' of each other so you're basically overlapping half the coverage. And that's fine, or actually good (to an extent), because as the signal from one unit fades you want a strong signal from the next for your device to grab.

So 2 units would probably cover the 4k sqft, but the signal at the corners might be weak and it may not reach far outside. Also, if the network "closet" is near the center of the house, it's easiest to put a unit there and then you'd want two more for each end/side of the house. So 3 units is probably just about right for that footage.

That is before we get into whether anything about the house is unusual, like maybe there's an oddball concrete wall in the interior, or an L-shaped layout or something, so you might find you want a 4th unit later on. The Orbi's are pretty strong from my experience though, I think you'll be good.

If I'm picturing it correctly, would it make sense to put the second unit in the middle of the house probably on the 2nd floor, and the third unit on the far-ish end bottom floor to cover the rec room?

I believe the Orbi app helps with satellite placement.

Hey no that's perfect. Your main unit will go right where your hub is labeled, the 2nd unit somewhere on the right side of the original 3 floors, and the 3rd unit will probably go on the right side of the right addition (assuming it's ~25-30') and that should cover the rec room. The first two units should reach far enough up and down to cover floors 1 and 3. Being long and skinny like that it will probably be your call whether to get a 4th unit eventually or stick with 3. My gut tells me 3 will give you more than adequate coverage for streaming video at every corner of the house as well as out into the yard, and adding a 4th and re-spacing them will be the difference in a faster speedtest result in the furthest reaches. That may or may not matter to you.