WiFi in a Plaster House
April 15, 2011 11:03 AM Subscribe
I just purchased a home that is all plaster and wire-mesh. Apparently, the place is one huge WiFi deadzone. What are some options for getting the house WiFi enabled?
The main office will be in the basement where the cable comes in. There is already an ethernet cable running between the basement and the den, so I could go modem -> router -> router. What is the best way to set up an inexpensive system with a few other routers or something? I've done this type of things with the little Airport Express, but am not sure how I set up other routers to be extenders.
I've searched online but I'm not quite sure what I need to be looking for, range extenders, access points, plain old routers?
We primarily use MacBooks, iPhones, iPad so just plugging in isn't the best option.
The main office will be in the basement where the cable comes in. There is already an ethernet cable running between the basement and the den, so I could go modem -> router -> router. What is the best way to set up an inexpensive system with a few other routers or something? I've done this type of things with the little Airport Express, but am not sure how I set up other routers to be extenders.
I've searched online but I'm not quite sure what I need to be looking for, range extenders, access points, plain old routers?
We primarily use MacBooks, iPhones, iPad so just plugging in isn't the best option.
You could try some of the powerline wireless extender. IP goes through your electrical wiring to wireless adaptors in rooms that you want.
posted by procrastination at 11:22 AM on April 15, 2011
posted by procrastination at 11:22 AM on April 15, 2011
Here are a handful of posts on the ever-helpful Lifehacker that address problems of the nature you describe.
How To Go Completely Wireless In Your Home (Oct. 4th, 2010)
Lifehacker Readers Solutions for Your Home's Bad Wifi Coverage (Oct. 5th, 2010)
Turn Your Old Router Into a Range Boosting Wireless Repeater (June, 2010)
Extend Your Wireless Network With an Old Router and Powerline Adapters (May, 2010)
Wire Your House with Ethernet Cable
posted by patnasty at 11:24 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
How To Go Completely Wireless In Your Home (Oct. 4th, 2010)
Lifehacker Readers Solutions for Your Home's Bad Wifi Coverage (Oct. 5th, 2010)
Turn Your Old Router Into a Range Boosting Wireless Repeater (June, 2010)
Extend Your Wireless Network With an Old Router and Powerline Adapters (May, 2010)
Wire Your House with Ethernet Cable
posted by patnasty at 11:24 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
What you'll want to do is only use the wireless router connected to your cable modem as an actual router. Any other routers hooked up to the wired network should be set up as dumb access points (no DHCP, no NAT). Use the exact same SSID and and authentication settings (but not channel) on all your access points. This should make it so that any wifi equipment you have will seamlessly migrate between access points as they move through the house.
If you don't disable NAT/DHCP on the secondary access points, a lot of things will still work but computers connected to different access points won't be able to see each other and you may have problems using some applications due to double NAT issues.
I would avoid pure wireless extenders (they never seem to work that well). If you can't get ethernet to certain dead zones in your house, I've had good luck with this powerline 802.11n extender from Netgear, although it seems to expose some weird wifi bug in both Android and iOS that wasn't fixed until Android 2.2 and yesterday's iOS 4.3.2 release.
posted by strangecargo at 11:26 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you don't disable NAT/DHCP on the secondary access points, a lot of things will still work but computers connected to different access points won't be able to see each other and you may have problems using some applications due to double NAT issues.
I would avoid pure wireless extenders (they never seem to work that well). If you can't get ethernet to certain dead zones in your house, I've had good luck with this powerline 802.11n extender from Netgear, although it seems to expose some weird wifi bug in both Android and iOS that wasn't fixed until Android 2.2 and yesterday's iOS 4.3.2 release.
posted by strangecargo at 11:26 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: No, if you have an old enough house that it's plaster-and-mesh, you do not want to use powerline networking. Your power lines will be flaky too.
Odinsdream has it: place three or four small wifi routers as needed to give you a good signal everywhere you need one, hard-wire them with ethernet and then configure them to present as one big wireless network. Your devices won't hiccup even as you move between them, they'll just switch to the nearest/best signal as needed.
Apple's AirPort Express is ideal for this, not only because it comes with one-click "extend this network by connecting with a hardline cable" feature, but because it gives you remote controlled speakers for music everywhere you place one.
posted by rokusan at 11:47 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
Odinsdream has it: place three or four small wifi routers as needed to give you a good signal everywhere you need one, hard-wire them with ethernet and then configure them to present as one big wireless network. Your devices won't hiccup even as you move between them, they'll just switch to the nearest/best signal as needed.
Apple's AirPort Express is ideal for this, not only because it comes with one-click "extend this network by connecting with a hardline cable" feature, but because it gives you remote controlled speakers for music everywhere you place one.
posted by rokusan at 11:47 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks all! I was looking at just using AirPort Expresses also for the audio advantage and with Macs that seems like the simplest collection. The home is a mid-century from '57 but built like a tank. I'm not actually moved in yet so no time for experimenting until the tube to the internet gets hooked up.
posted by misterpatrick at 12:47 PM on April 15, 2011
posted by misterpatrick at 12:47 PM on April 15, 2011
My home sounds similar. Had some issues when the router was in one of the bedrooms, but I haven't had much trouble after I put the router in the middle of the basement. Wifi signal penetrates the wood floors just fine. YMMV; my place is a single-story with an unfinished, wide-open basement.
Coincidentally, running the microwave will cause some major signal loss, but that's about it.
posted by bhayes82 at 12:55 PM on April 15, 2011
Coincidentally, running the microwave will cause some major signal loss, but that's about it.
posted by bhayes82 at 12:55 PM on April 15, 2011
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Get a couple powerline adaptors, scattered throughout the house, connecting back to the central router, and then plug some sort of small wireless access point (like an airport express) into each.
posted by kickingtheground at 11:21 AM on April 15, 2011