How to get the best cverage? AP mode?

[Retired_Member]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some help in regards to my Orbi. I have a four story condo townhouse. Currently I only have an Orbi Router and one Orbi Satellite. The router is placed on the main level, and the satellite is on the upper floor. Currently I get terrible reception on the middle level. Likely due to HVAC and some other interferance. I was wondering if there was a way to use the wireless that is built into the modem from my ISP on the main floor, and then move the router to the second floor giving myself coverage across all the stories.

If anyone else has any other suggestions I am happy to look into them.

FYI, I did move the router to the second floor and I was getting terrible reception on the main floor.

[FURRYe38]

Any chance of moving the ISP modem/router to the bottom floor and keep the router on main and satellite on upper? I would not be good to have another wifi source in between the Orbi router and satellite if you placed the router farther away from the Satellite while using the ISP modem/router in between.

You could use the ISP modem/routers wifi in conjuction, however you would need to keep the channels for each radio as far appart as possibile. So, Orbi router you would need to use channel 11 on 2.Ghz and channel 1 on the ISP modem/router.

What is sq ft of this place?

Possible you may need one more satellite.

[Retired_Member]

I could do that but it wouldn't solve the issue on the second floor, which is where I get limited signal now.

The place is about 1500-2000 sqft but it's vertical and surrounded by neighbors on all sides. I was thinking I would need another satellite but was hoping to prevent that.

[FURRYe38]

well if you can place the isp modem at the lowest level, orbi router at the main level and a satellite at the upper, level, this should work to fix signal on the upper level.

[Retired_Member]

Would the plug in satellite be a better fix? I could add it to the second level to blanket the floor. I was thinking it was worth the small investment but I don't have any experience with the plug in satellite.

[st_shaw]

It is very difficult to achieve coverage vertically across many floors.  Your best coverage would be achieved with a couple wireless access points on each floor, but that requires that you have Ethernet wiring in place on each floor.

When you have two or more satellites, Orbi supports "daisy chain" topology, where a satellite connects through the nearest satellite instead of directly to the router.  You might have better results with this topology and additional satellites.  However, the Orbis decide on their own whether to connect using daisy chain and you have no control over it.

[Retired_Member]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will try the plug in orbi satellite for the second floor and see what kind of results I get. Worst case scenario I return it.

[FURRYe38]

I have one plug in extender, however works best for a stand alone non Orbi MESH system. Not sure about the plug in Satellite. Let us now how it goes...

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@Retired_Member wrote:

Would the plug in satellite be a better fix? I could add it to the second level to blanket the floor. I was thinking it was worth the small investment but I don't have any experience with the plug in satellite.

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