Internet / cellular / signal / booster / extender options

[Spotlite]

So my office is on one of the house next to the carport, master bedroom is 70 foot away. We are in the middle of nowhere so we do t have but two options for internet and one us a satellite. Satellite doesn’t support a von connection so it’s out the window.

We recently decided to go to smart TVs and subscribe to Amazon, Netflix, etc. Right now we are using Amazon free trial with no buffering or freezing issues in the living room that’s 25 foot from the modem, is well there - problem in bedroom.

Another issue is the home phone is / was needed because of poor service on one end of the house.

1. Options are to move the modem to center of house and run wired connections to everything else. I dint really like this option as a first resort. My wife and I make our living in our home office - the closer we are to the modem the more secure I feel about a solid connection.

2. Order something similar to the attached and place in master bedroom. I’m good with WiFi in living room already. Run a cable from my primary modem to this modem? And, place a wifi booster on the bedroom modem for WiFi calling?

Am I looking at this right? WIFI just isn’t cutting it in the master bedroom under current conditions. I’m not an IT person so I don’t know how f I’m looking at the right equipment.

 

[Ruger#3]

For the phone you can get a cell booster. They are effective hundreds of feet. The booster sends cell signal to the nearest tower by internet then it enters the cell system from there. I used one several years when on an acreage.

I’ll leave it to others on the WiFi issue. I currently have a modem in the living room downstairs. It connects to a smart TV upstairs and the living room TV. I don’t get buffering on either TV with the same services. I work outside and connect to the router 50 ft from my house. This just seems odd.

 

[Jim Baker]

My desktop, moden and wifi router and a smart TV are located in my shed(man cave) a separate building. It is an 14 year old NetGear 21. It is 80 feet from the router to the furtherest smart tv. I have one netgear extender about half way. The signal has to travel through 2 exterior walls, 2 interior walls to extender. Then through the ceiling and 3 more walls to reach the furtherest TV upstairs. I can run the TV and my lap top in that bedroom. I have a TV in the den and in the Master bedroom and TV in kitchen. The router and extender will run all these at the same time plus wifi on smartphone.

The extenders are cheap.

Go to best buy and they can help you.

 

[jeg]

Multiple options for better wifi.
1) As Jim mentions, extenders work well and are relatively cheap.
2) A mesh wifi system is good and allows you to place nodes where you need them. Many options here with costs ranging from 130+. I personally use one of the cheaper TP-Link models with three nodes ($150ish) and this would be my personal recommendation.
3) If you only need connection in that one area, could also try a powerline adapter, leveraging your existing electrical wiring instead of running new CAT cables. I've had good and bad experience with this, when it works it works well, and when it doesn't it typically doesn't work at all. If it works, you could then add a small switch/hub to feed items from that powerline adapter in that single location.

If you get the wifi coverage in the area, most cell phones now allow wifi calling, and that might eliminate cell struggle.

 

[dwhee87]

I've tried the 'extender' route, and not had good luck. I changed to a 'mesh' system, and it works flawlessly. The extender halves the bandwidth/speed. The mesh system does not, and you can 'hop' the signal from a base unit (next to your modem), to one mesh unit, to another. I've been able to get a very strong signal up to 125 feet away from the modem, through two brick walls.

The one I have sounds like the same one @jeg mentions above. It's a Deco AX1800 X20. Made by TP Link. Comes with three nodes, as mentioned. I think I paid about $150, but looks like they've come down in price some.

Very happy with the unit and it's performance.