Poor Connection - Do I Need a New Router or an Extender? (Solved)

Saul Goodman on 10/10/2023 - 10:02
Last edited 12/10/2023 - 08:28 by 1 other user

I'm in a new house - it's just a 3 bedroom single story but a long hallway. There is terrible connectivity from the back living room to the front bedroom. We also sometimes have problems from just the bedrooms next to the living room when the doors are closed. Like half the time the TV just buffers and our phones won't connect to the wifi at all. We have a Netcomm NF18ACV which is a number of years old. I'm just confused do we need to upgrade the router or buy an extender (would be Eero) or both?

Walls are drywall and with Future Broadband on 50-20M - Performance NBN 2000GB. Can't change router location.

UPDATE —————————————————

I pulled the plug and got the Eero 6.

I really thought I could connect the Eero directly into the NBN box but it does not connect to the internet.

I then used the Netcomm NF18ACV. NBN box to the Netcomm and Eero to the Netcomm. The Eero connected directly into the Netcomm works but the other 2 do not work and say out of range (even from 5 meters away).

Does this help identify the problem?

Internet Modem Router NetComm Wireless Router

Comments

  • jugsy on 10/10/2023 - 10:05

    What type of connection do you have at the new house, and is it the same provider? Moving the router to the center of the house will probably fix it

  • coffeeinmyveins on 10/10/2023 - 10:08
    +2

    What are the walls made of? Brick? Brick tends to kill wifi signals especially if there are several walls over a long distance.

    If you tether off your phone does the same thing happen? That will help identify if it's the device or the walls.

    Don't buy wifi extenders/repeaters, opt instead for a wifi mesh network and you'll be very happy.

    Might also be worth diagnosing that it's not the actual connection itself if you can test an ethernet device too.

  • ginormousgiraffe on 10/10/2023 - 10:17

    Better off moving your router to the centre of your house if possible.

  • Cheaplikethebird on 10/10/2023 - 10:25

    It's possible to get creative with ethernet. If you've got carpet you can usually hide the cable by pressing it into the corner where the carpet and wall joins. You've also got flat lay ethernet which can be run along skirting boards while keeping things looking clean. I've done this and have router and WAP at the front of the house and another WAP at the back of the house all connected by ethernet.

  • Twix on 10/10/2023 - 10:26
    +1

    @Saul Goodman — what is the nbn connection type? Check here.

    • Saul Goodman on 10/10/2023 - 10:58

      Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) has been used in your connection to the nbn network.

      • Twix on 10/10/2023 - 11:06
        +1

        Replace the NetComm NF18ACV router as it has known Wi-Fi problems. Purchase a two or three pack mesh system like the eero 6 or TP-Link Deco X20.

  • MS Paint on 10/10/2023 - 10:26
    +2

    One word - mesh

    • avoidfullprice on 10/10/2023 - 10:42
      +1

      Agree. This is one scenario where mesh helps

  • bdl on 10/10/2023 - 10:33
    +1

    deco m5

  • GordonD on 10/10/2023 - 10:43

    Mesh would require the signal to be first sent to a second wifi unit at the other end of the house then retransmitted on another band from there. If the signal directly from the main wifi device isn't making it to the other end of the house through all the intervening walls how on earth is a mesh system going to work any better? Now if you could connect the main wifi and the meshed one by wired ethernet, or over power cabling, or something other than by a high frequency wifi signal that by definition can't punch through walls, that might work.

    • Twix on 10/10/2023 - 11:34

      A batch of NetComm NF18ACV has known Wi-Fi signal problems and sometimes even 2 rooms away in an ideal environment. Many have replaced the NetComm NF18ACV with a new router or mesh setup to fix the problem.

    • avoidfullprice on 10/10/2023 - 21:37

      how on earth is a mesh system going to work any better?

      Thats where you use multiple mesh nodes in between. Using a single mesh router aint going to solve the problem (which you know, but pointing out for OP)

      something other than by a high frequency wifi signal that by definition can't punch through walls

      5GHz is fine going through wooden walls, just not concrete walls.

      Besides, OPs observation that his TV buffers over wifi suggests he is using 2.4GHz for range and not for capacity. But i can only guess when OP doesn’t put all relevant information here.

  • awdavgds on 11/10/2023 - 19:30

    Would like to run something by people if I may. Had a customer today on iinet cable in geelong. When I connected to their iinet 5Ghz wifi and did a speed test at speedtest.net app. The result returned that my ISP was Digicel+ and not iinet. This was after I had trouble getting any connection to the internet at all on wifi despite me being right next to the router and on the routers factory SSID it comes shipped with.

    When I did a whatismyip - it came back as iinet. But every time I did a speedtest - the ISP shows as Digicel+. I asked client if they have had anyone play around with the router (thinking it was set up with some weird DNS) - but they claim not.

    However after leaving I began to wonder if the previous guy who put 2 "access points in" had set those access points up right. He's used 2 routers at each end of the house as APs. My thought is, if he hasn't done any setup with them then they are possibly still acting as routers. One of the routers is from a previous ISP. Perhaps this is :

    1. the cause of bad wifi I experienced (i.e. no internet connection when I first connected their IINET SSID)
    2. the cause of the rogue ISP listing coming back

    I suspect the client has 3 routers routing right now.

    I am scheduled to go back and strip this all back and put in Unifi APs but want to ensure I don't have a dud iinet router before I start.

    Any thoughts, things I might be missing and need to look at ? Aside from factory reset the iinet cable router before I deploy the APs.

    edit ** the previous installer has also set each router up with a different SSID so that just causes chaos for the client. Also when I am looking at who the ISP is in spedtest I am not confusing this with the server that the speed test is using at that time.

  • Saul Goodman on 11/10/2023 - 20:19

    UPDATE —————————————————

    I pulled the plug and got the Eero 6.

    I really thought I could connect the Eero directly into the NBN box but it does not connect to the internet.

    I then used the Netcomm NF18ACV. NBN box to the Netcomm and Eero to the Netcomm. The Eero connected directly into the Netcomm works but the other 2 do not work and say out of range (even from 5 meters away).

    Does this help identify the problem?

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