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Forum Discussion
Wifi Help
I dont know if this is the right place to post but I'm out of ideas....
i live in an apartment block - around 40 floors with 8 units per floor. Wifi coverage is spotty at best and I'm hoping some experts can give me advice.
My place is around 1000sq ft as you can see in the picture below. I bought (and exchanged ) 3 routers before orbi and none would have coverage in the master bedroom. Currently I have spotty coverage in the house as i've tried to depict in the picture below. I've tried moving the satellite to various different positions but i get the best results with how it's set up here
- my hardware version is listed as RBR40 in the app. It doesnt appear in the drop down above however. the satellite is RBS40
- i find it really curious the signal in the bedroom right behind the router is terrible
- someone else suggested putting a repeater near the entrance (facing the hallway) for better results. i have an apple airport and tried repeating the signal but it hasn't helped
- is this normal? my place shouldn't require more than 1 satellite. the guy in the shop said I probably have thick walls and wanted to sell me another satellite. I'm naturally reluctant to do this as I'm not convinced it will fix it...
many thanks in advance for your help!
4 Replies
I suspect that you will find that there's some sort of metal mesh reinforcement or foil sheet insulation in the walls that will be attenuating the signal terribly. This is far more likely in a tower block. Can you find out from the building management how the walls are constructed? If this is the case then more satellites will help but from your diagram you'd almost be looking at one in every room where you want strong coverage. Probably a cheaper/neater solution would be the Orbi plug-in extenders.
- Hey thanks for the reply however it’s a bit confusing.
The reception in the bedrooms are already not very good - why would adding a satellite improve it - especially if there’s something in the walls interfering with the signal.
Also Ho w would buying a satellite for each room be cost effective?
Basic Orbi is meant to cover 1500 sqft - adding 2 extra satellites would be more than 2000sq ft (double the size of my apartment) but also wouldn’t necessarily work. It would also cost a lot as the satellites are not cheapI suspect you're struggling as you're building is, in effect, a series of Faraday cages that will hugely inhibit RF (WiFi) signals. This is somewhat borne out by the fact that you have already tried 3 routers prior to the Orbi, none of which provided satifactory coverage. You will need to link the router and satellite via wired backhaul (Powerline adapters would work well for this but ensure you use teh encryption and buy the pass-through type i.e. those with built-in plug sockets as they're better at filtering noise in the mains. I use Devolo dLAN 1200 for this purpose). Then purchase the Orbi extenders for each room where you want WiFi. If you confirm the construction then this will be the only way to get apartment wide coverage and will come at a cost. You can't beat the laws of Physics.
Whats the distance between the router and satellite? 30 feet should be starting distance for satellites. The router base can cover up to about 30 feet or a bit more depending upon building materials.
I have 5000sq ft home and use the router at one end of the house and 1 satellite at the opposite, 40 feet in between. GOOD singal at the satellite, both wired and wireless.
KC12 wrote:
I dont know if this is the right place to post but I'm out of ideas....
i live in an apartment block - around 40 floors with 8 units per floor. Wifi coverage is spotty at best and I'm hoping some experts can give me advice.
My place is around 1000sq ft as you can see in the picture below. I bought (and exchanged ) 3 routers before orbi and none would have coverage in the master bedroom. Currently I have spotty coverage in the house as i've tried to depict in the picture below. I've tried moving the satellite to various different positions but i get the best results with how it's set up here
- my hardware version is listed as RBR40 in the app. It doesnt appear in the drop down above however. the satellite is RBS40
- i find it really curious the signal in the bedroom right behind the router is terrible
- someone else suggested putting a repeater near the entrance (facing the hallway) for better results. i have an apple airport and tried repeating the signal but it hasn't helped
- is this normal? my place shouldn't require more than 1 satellite. the guy in the shop said I probably have thick walls and wanted to sell me another satellite. I'm naturally reluctant to do this as I'm not convinced it will fix it...
many thanks in advance for your help!
