Help extending Sky WiFi Signal ... Bridge or Mesh

Tom Jenkins · 3 Oct 2021 at 11:02

Hiya

In need of some help to maximise the range and speed of my WiFi to my garage conversion / office and also to the far reaches of my house. The decision is between a mesh system, probably two Asus XT8 or a wireless bridge system.

This is the layout of the house and office. Router is the purple dot, living room is green, far bedroom is orange and the office red.

The current setup is UK based, Sky Ultrafast Plus (500Mbps) FTTP to the ONT modem under the stairs. Cat5 cabling in the walls to a socket in the far corner of the living room, with the Sky SR203 router connected via the WAN port (purple dot on the diagram above). All green lights are on and speedtest in the same room is between 480Mbps - 510Mbps which is great. There are around 25 devices attached to the WiFi, from TV and Sky Q (no mini's) to Echo View and laptops in the office and some Ring devices scattered around the house.

The issue is as soon as you start roaming the house, the speed declines dramatically; in the far bedroom (orange area) you get around about 50Mbps and in the office (red area) you get between 10Mbps and 30Mbps. I work in IT and do a lot of data transfer, so ideally I need a much stronger signal in the office. The kids also ideally need stronger in their bedrooms.

Soooo to the crux of the problem; I recently bought a TP Link VR2800 in the hope that it would strengthen the signal being a stronger modem. After much hair pulling I got it working (dynamic IP, DHCP etc) but it actually gave a weaker signal in the same room at only ever 250Mbps and the even worse in the office, so scrapping that off and back currently with the SR203.

After reading a lot of good reviews about the Asus XT8's I was going to pull the trigger on that; I think it will give a better signal in the house in general and if I put the second node in the office, I'm hoping it would boost that significantly. I also like the fact of parental controls, signal beaming and QoS etc. However would the distance between the house and office still interfere? The signal needs to go through two fully insulated brick walls and over a 10 metre stretch of open space?

The alternative is, I had a guy round who recommended I get a wireless bridge installed, using two Ubiquity nanostations. One would be connected to the SR203 via a wire through the wall and mounted on the back of the house. The second would be mounted on the back of the office with direct line of sight. Then cabled into the office to go to a 4 port switch, so I can either hard wire everything directly into that or set the TP Link as a WAP and run everything off that, in theory giving a max of 450Mbps. I'm just not sure having issues with the Sky MER authentication if that would all work? I don't full know how the nanostations work or if they need to have a separate authentication? I think this would work and if it does, would solve the issue in the office but then doesn't solve the issue upstairs in the bedrooms and doesn't allow the same control of the network as the XT8's. The WAP in the office might reach upstairs potentially but is a fair distance again.

They are both the same price, so really it's what people think may fix the issue more. Would the XT8 give a similar signal strength in people's opinions or would it degrade more because of the open spaces / walls?

Any help would be brilliant as I know there are a lot of people way more knowledgeable than me on here.

Thanks in advance

Tom Jenkins · 3 Oct 2021 at 12:21

BigT said:
I’d use Mikrotik’s wireless wire instead of nano stations. Plug and play and it’ll be like you put an Ethernet cable to your office and give you gigabit all day long completely transparently.

Wifi upstairs as you’ve identified is a separate issue really and not solved by doing the right thing for the office. You’ve run some cat5 in walls before. Would you do the same to run stuff upstairs, even if you go out and back in? That’d be optimum with some well placed access points, one above the green section and one above the orange. Should also go through your floors to downstairs and give you pretty good whole home coverage. Pick a decent brand of access points and you can have stuff like parental controls, timed access, guest networks, decent handoff/roaming etc. might be more than you want to spend but worth doing right if you and the family are into your IT. At the end of the day no wireless provision can break the laws of physics so you just need more APs to get good coverage across the home.

Yeah I did think about doing that; I could go out the living room wall with an ethernet cable, up the back wall to the roof, through the loft to the other end of the house and place an AP on the ceiling of the landing. That, as you say, would cover the back bedrooms but I was hoping (probably stupidly) to have a one fix for all scenario.

With the Mikrotik’s wireless wire, do they need line of sight to each other? As there is a wall in the way of the office, although a window, so I guess I could place one there but the one in the living room would not have sight of it. Is this the one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077992GG3

Do you think the signal of the XT8 (or similar strong router / mesh system) would degrade that much over the stretch between router and office? I don't know how much it degrades over those sorts of distance. Would you recommend just go with a bridge / Mikrotik wireless wire instead and sort out the house separately?

Tom Jenkins · 3 Oct 2021 at 12:44

Ah I see these MikroTik Wireless Wire go outside as well? So line of sight would be needed?

Tom Jenkins · 3 Oct 2021 at 14:31

dLockers said:
Tom, I'll be honest I haven't read all of your post - but I must say I have had absolutely exemplary experience with mesh networks over regular bridging. Especially if call quality and such is a concern. I have a very basic setup and a house about 1/4 the size of yours, and mesh has been an absolute game changer. I retired the bridge setup that came before it and haven't looked back.

Good to know, thank you. What mesh system do you have?

Tom Jenkins · 4 Oct 2021 at 09:19

MissChief said:
I assume the office has power? Does that power come from the house? If so Powerlines seem like a good option?

Yeah the office has power; its a separate circuit but still comes from the house mains. I've looked into the Powerline adaptors over the weekend; in reality with a 500Mbps line, what would I expect in the office? Assuming the powerline is relatively straight forward with no interruptions along the way? I've been looking at either the TP Link AV1300 or AV2000. Then possibly with connect a WAP at the end or a switch and connect everything up to that. Also possibly looking at the Devolo Magic 2, as that has kind of a mesh as well, so potentially could extend that in the house for the back bedrooms.

Tom Jenkins · 4 Oct 2021 at 09:21

WJA96 said:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/wifi-building-to-building-165m-with-line-of-site.18932365/

Thank you for the link. I've been looking at these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mikrotik-RBWAPG-60ADKIT-MikroTik-Wireless-Wire/dp/B077992GG3 but I assume they would need line of sight to each other? If they were external, that wouldn't be an issue but possible if I wanted them internal, the one in the house would be behind a brick wall, which I assume wouldn't work?

Tom Jenkins · 4 Oct 2021 at 11:20

MissChief said:
Running a cable may be an option, some armoured conduit and a spade, and a drill and some sealant. Job done.

I have thought this as well. The main issue is the slabs on the patio are concreted down so would have to dig them I think but this does sound like the best way to get the best signal into the office ...