I get asked, “How do I get better coverage of my wifi wireless router in my house, I seem to have dead spots or can not get the speed or range that I would expect?
Well lately I think that sun spots seem to be making it worse! Kidding. I know that first off it seems that we keep wanting more and more from our wifi systems. I have noticed over the last several years that the range of all wireless product doesn’t seem to be what it used to. I know that now in my neighborhood that I can pop hop my laptop and search for a hotspot and I see 15 or more SSIDs from different access points. I have two different cordless phones one on 2.4 ghz and one on the 6 ghz. My family of 4 each have cell phones (4) with wifi (android) on them we each have a laptop (4), I have a wii with wifi (1), two iPads (2), a wifi bridge to the back of my TV to connect the TV, DirecTV, Sling, XBox. Right there I have 12 wifi devices connected to my access point. Even if my neighbors have 2 devices connecting to their access points (3 each) times that puts another 45 devices plus my 12 is 57 devices in range of my house all cluttering the signal. All that noise in the air is causing the distance to be much less then it used to. Here is what I have done to make it better for me.
I used to have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 which worked GREAT for many years. It like so many things after many years died. I decided to upgrade to a wireless N router. My requirements were simple. First it needed to be able to run an upgraded firmware that I love using in wireless routers. This firmware is DD-WRT and for a complete list of supported devices you can go to their site. After doing some comparisons of the various models and seeing which brands I liked the best in past, I finally decided to try the Linksys E2000 wireless router.
Cisco-Linksys E2000 Advanced Wireless-N Router
List Price: $94.99
Buy New: $50.00
You Save: $44.99 (47%)
New (17) Used (19) Refurbished (4) from $24.99Selectable band 2.4 or 5GHz, Wireless-N technology uses multiple radios to create a robust signal that travels farther and faster, with reduced dead, All ports support Gigabit speed and Auto-Crossover (MDI/MDI-X) -- no need for crossover cables, Guest Access feature allows your visitors access to the Internet, but not your computers or data (more)
Flashing the Linksys E2000 router was quite simple with DD-WRT from the instructions from their site. Installing this firmware does some great things for the router. It extends and adds many new features. For the average user you only need to change one thing besides normal router configuration for your network and that is boosting the TX/RX (Transmit/Receive) Power to almost twice what is stock on the router. Oh Yeah! More Power! That will give you better range and speed for your wireless network.
Buffalo Technology AirStation High Power N300 Gigabit Wireless Router & AP WZR-HP-G300NHv2 (Black)
List Price: $84.99
Buy New: $64.60
You Save: $20.39 (24%)
New (45) Used (4) from $44.95AOSS One-touch security setup, AP and router mode, built-in SPI-firewall, WAN auto setup, 2 adjustable flip-up antennas and 2 External Antennas with Adjustable Output, 3 x 3 (Tx x Rx), 10/100/1000 Mbps, Auto Sensing, Auto MDIX, WPA2, WPA-PSK (AES, TKIP), 128/64-bit WEP, 3 years P&L Warranty (more)
Running this router for serveral weeks I seem to have found it to be running better then the previous router that I had in place for years. Then I decided to to see if I could get more with a different router that I just happened to get. It was Buffalo’s WZR-HP-G300NH. Nice looking and ready to flash. I swapped out the router and BAMMM. I had the best ever signal that I ever had with a wifi in my house even with all the extra noise that I talked about. I now can go with my laptop the my neighbors 3 house down the street and still surf on it.
So to get the most wifi output I now use the WZR-HP-G300NH with the DD-WRT software/firmware installed on the the router. I bump the the power wireless power signal to 200 and do a few other minor tweaks based on the needs of the location. Now you and all your neighbors will see your wifi signal. No more dead spots in your house!
