Best WiFi extender?

Define “forced”

Going to piggy back off this thread a bit. I have 2 access points set up in my house, hardwired. I get great coverage throughout the house with this set up.

However, we recently built an outdoor patio and would like to stream TV to the TV out there. Attempted it with the current Wifi and it's just not strong enough to reach.

Any recs for some type of booster that doesn't require it to be hardwired, yet won't degrade the bandwidth like many extenders ultimately do?

What’s the issues you’ve heard about eero?

UI seems nice, but I’m just starting to notice my phone isn’t connecting to to the WiFi when I get to my bedroom. I thought it was supposed to pass between the different eeros as I get closer to each.

Just started out of the blue yesterday. Been in the house for a few weeks. System came installed with the new construction.

Got them a few years ago and have worked great ever since

I have the Netgear Orbi Wifi 6 Tri-band mesh system. I have had it for several months now, after a fiasco with a TP-Link Deco X20 system. I have 4 satellites In a 3000 sq/ft house with a large back patio. I get my 400 Mbps speed on wireless everywhere. I have not tested it to the property limits, or at a neighbor's house. I'm very happy with the system so far, especially compared to the TP-Link system. It is pricey, but I decided to use the "You get what you pay for" philosophy.

I also believe if you get a DOCSIS 3.1 modem there is nothing Cox can do to stop you from using your own modem and router.

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What kind of access points do you have?

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So I should correct myself: I actually have 1 modem (Aris Surfboard SBG10) and then 1 router on the other side of my house that serves as a 2nd AP that’s connected via Ethernet (TP-Link AC1750). The TP Link is the one closest to the outdoor patio and while the signal reaches (the Chromecast device can connect to it), it’s just not strong enough to stream live TV.

I think my options are:
- Try to find a repeater/extender that I could possibly hardwire into the TP Link AP inside and position as close as possible to the outer wall, facing the porch, and hope that does the trick
- Buy an extender that I can plug into an outdoor outlet

The 3rd option is to buy an outdoor extender and run an Ethernet cord through the house to it and set it up outdoors by the patio somewhere. But I’m trying to avoid that route.

So it sounds like you currently only have Wi-Fi in your house from your TPLink AC1750 router and it is inadequate. I had a similar situation with my crappy Uverse router.

In my case I purchased a new 3 node mesh router system with 3 identical mesh routers (specifically the $90 RockSpace 3 node system on Amazon) and tied it to my existing Uverse Wi-Fi router. You could do the exact same thing by connecting the RockSpace Wi-Fi to your TP Link router such that both your existing Wi-Fi and your new RockSpace WiFi run simultaneously and you can decide which devices use either Wi-Fi. You would use the same unique new SSID and password for the new RockSpace WiFi and when using it, it just uses the closest node and will automatically switch from one router to another.

Note: You can pay more for a more secure mesh system with more features if you desire that as I'll explain later and it should connect just as easy. You're just paying more to be more secure and perhaps with functionally that is beyond what you really want but this is not an issue for me as I explain below. If it's an issue for you then just pay more and don't use RockSpace.

The 3 RockSpace routers are identical and are already paired to each other out of the box. I would run an Ethernet cable from one of your 4 LAN ports from your TP Link AC1750 to 1 of the three RockSpace routers which could be in the same room as the TPLink or run to another location anywhere in your house via an Ethernet cable. This would be your "main" node which you turn up first using the RockSpace smartphone app entering your TP Link Wi-Fi SSID and password to connect to your existing Wi-Fi. At that point both your existing TPLink and RockSpace Wi-Fi is available in your house.

Then you place the other two RockSpace routers/nodes anywhere you want in your house with a close-by AC outlet. You simply plug them into AC power and they automatically connect to each other via Wi-Fi. It's a super easy installation and you can easily move the nodes (ie routers) later if you needed to or just purchase & install more nodes later if needed (in groups of 3). This system covers about 5000 sq ft with 3 nodes. You can spend another $90 and get 3 more nodes. Then you would have 6 nodes covering up to a 10,000 sq ft house. I think you can install up to 32 nodes. 3 nodes works perfectly in my 5,000 sq ft house.

Generally you would create a "triangle" where the 3 RockSpace routers are no more than 25' from each other (limits per the manufacturer). Mine are more like 30' apart through floors and walls but they all have a really strong signal and could be further apart. In the questions & answers in Amazon one user said he has a long skinny one story house and their 3 routers were each spaced about 50' apart from the adjacent router (in a straight line and not a triangle) and they get strong Wi-Fi fine anywhere in their home and outside up to 75' from any node. I would agree with that assessment.

I have a 2 story with basement that is about 5000 sq ft total including covered decks and porches) and I get 5 bars on my Wi-Fi anywhere inside the house, garage, basement and around the whole perimeter of the house. I have 11 Wi-Fi cameras around the outside perimeter including 1 that is about 75' away from the back of the house at our creek and they all connect perfectly. So the coverage from this system is fantastic. It also connects much faster than my Uverse Wi-Fi. When testing, I turned Wi-Fi on, on my phone and it instantly connects to the RockSpace Wi-Fi anywhere inside my house, garage, decks or anywhere walking around the perimeter of my house. The crappy Uverse WiFi takes a good bit longer to connect and experiences drops at different locations in and outside of the house perimeter plus it has no coverage in some locations.

The main issue with this system is it uses WPA2 TKIP which recently is now deemed unsecure. WPA2 AES is still considered secure and even better is WPA3 using a WiFi 6 system. Using WPA2 with TKIP is not an issue to me, as we use a Chromebook connected via an Ethernet cable and use VPN for all of our bank and other accounts.

Even then if you use your existing computers and phones to transact with bank accounts over Wi-Fi, you can still use your TPLink Wi-Fi system using WPA2 AES for more secure Wifi.

In order for a hacker to hack into the oldest WEP Wi-Fi, it would take an FBI agent about 15 minutes if they are in range of your Wi-Fi. It takes about 4 hours to hack into WPA2 with TKIP and that is just to get an authentication code (not an encryption key). So 4 hours worth of work just to access one time into your Wi-Fi. It takes another 4 hours for each time they access. Once in, all the hacker can do is collect active packets that are being transmitted while they are connected. They would have to unencrypt each packet one at a time. That takes 15 minutes per packet and packets are not transmitted in order. I invite 1000 Chinese, Russian and FBI agents to move into my neighbors houses and hack away at my WPA2 TKIP RockSpace system. They can spend the rest of their lives decrypting my packets and trying to arrange them. They will eventually piece together my outdoor security camera videos, YouTube videos, and TigerDroppings text, etc.

So you just have to make up your mind on security vs cost. Also the RockSpace Wi-Fi has 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands but they automatically assign to your devices. You can't choose which band. So if that is an issue again you would need to spend more for a better mesh system. Not an issue for me. My cameras and most other devices are 2.4Ghz only. Everything dependably works great simultaneously on my RockSpace Wi-Fi and that's all I care about.

The absolute best system is Unify/Ubiquity and it uses access point routers instead of a mesh and you can manage your devices and networks to the nth degree. It's access points are faster and it's the most secure. For me, security is not an issue, I don't want all of that network management capability and I don't need any more bandwidth or speed. I can stream a 4K movie while all my security cameras and other WiFi devices including other TVs run simultaneously on Wi-Fi with no issues.

The RockSpace system literally takes 15 minutes to install and get running assuming you do not have to run an Ethernet cable through walls. It also only costs $90 and performs better than most people would need. It has a nice app where I can see every device that is actively connected, or when it last disconnected, I can blacklist devices, put parental controls on devices, I can create permanent or temporary Guest access with or without a password and limit their access. I can run upload and download speed tests. I don't desire any more features than those.

In comparison you can spend more and possibly run Ethernet cables to get more features, more bandwith, more capabilities, a little faster and better security if you need that. If I had the ultimate system I wouldn't even notice the difference since I would not use the extra features and everything I use on Wi-Fi works perfectly now with the RockSpace system.

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I think you know this would be the most solid option.

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I know . Was just trying to avoid running more ethernet through the house and outside. But yes, your suggestion about the outdoor AP is definitely the best approach. Was hoping to try something simpler (inside AP) to see if it reaches and solves the problem before going that route. Thanks for the feedback!

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98eagle

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Great write-up and appreciate the recommendations. That could also be a solution to try, see if it reaches where I need it to on the backporch, and if not, then go the route of the outside AP.

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I also believe if you get a DOCSIS 3.1 modem there is nothing Cox can do to stop you from using your own modem and router.

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Is this true? Because cox told me I have to use their piece of shite panoramic all in one router modem combo thing. I’d love to go back to my own set up with a nighthawk