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Forum Discussion
Condo/apartment blues
Hi team I am trying to determine what is the best solution. Should I replace my router or add an EX7300 extender in my apartment? It’s around 1000 sq feet, not overly large. I switched from an old Netgear WNDR4500 to the fiber supplier that is an actiontec t3200m. The challenge is that the new router is now at the opposite ends of all the apartment of all my streaming devices with a wall in between and a stove, microwave, fridge and electrical panel emitting EMI interference... please offer your opinions.
6 Replies
The t3200m has good wifi specs, so replacing the router probably won't help.
The extender could solve the problem, but you do need to place it so that it gets a good signal from the router and can also deliver a good signal to the dead spot.
Another option is to use flat ethernet cable to get past the wall. That ensures that there will be no issues with the wall blocking the signal. This would work if you can run the cable unobtrusively along the baseboard or perhaps ceiling molding or under carpeting. You can get various lengths (up to 100 feet) of flat white cat-6 inexpensively. Then you'd use an extender or a second router as an AP. Note you don't need to put the AP in the entertainment area, you just need to get it positioned on the right side of the kitchen wall.
Since you have the circuit breaker panel in the apartment, powerline is another way to extend ethernet past the problem wall. The PLP2000 would give the best performance, but would need to be paired with an extender or AP. The PLPW1000 includes a wifi extender, so that is more cost effective. https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/powerline/default.aspx
- Thanks Stephenb. Interesting that my old WNDR4500 router did not have the same issues as my new one. The signal was always clear with no lag in gaming or streaming. Would a crowded network be a compounded issue? Meaning I have lots of neighbors with their own Wi-Fi router fighting for the same channels on both 2.4 and 5ghz. Looking at a Wi-Fi discoverer, istumbler, it looks crowded while mine is sitting at the top 3-10 spots.
Thanks againIf you still have the WNDR4500 you could set it back up and use it as an access point. See page 113 here: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/WNDR4500v3/WNDR4500v3_UM_19Jan2015.pdf
5 Ghz Interference is a bigger issue with 802.11ac than 802.11n - because 802.11ac uses multiple 5 Ghz channels to get more speed.
