I apparently need a tutor on wireless... help requested

So I am discovering that my knowledge is out of date on WiFi. There are now multi-stream, dual and triple band routers that operate on different frequencies, and a newer 802.11 standard called ac. :-k

Here's my issue. I do not have a big apartment but I have terrible WiFi coverage. There are only 4 rooms plus the bathroom, basically equal sized rooms. The chromecast in the northeast room wouldn't work with the Comcast router in the southwest room. Move the router to the northeast room, works perfect. The Wifi in the southeast room has always been spotty. Again with the router in the northeast room, it's sometimes okay and sometimes really bad. Walk around the wall into that room, perfect. If I go outside for a smoke the WiFi is unusable.

So, what's the best solution? :dunno: I could add a repeater to the southwest room where the 2nd chromecast is now buffering to the point of stupidity. The signal in that room is basically half in the room where the router is located. I could add a dual band router or a tri-band to have different networks, run my computer off the 5GHz signal and hope the 2.4 is more powerful to break through interference. I have changed channels a few times with limited impact. The number of listed Wifi signals on the analyzer is really high, so it might just be a device interference issue, no idea.

Thoughts?

Channel changing does very little if you have super crowded air space already. I think you have your options well covered already, cuz the best solution really is to either get one of those small, cute little repeaters or get a multiband router. I don't think there is much else to say about it really. Those are the simplest and cheapest solutions. Unless you can tweak your routers output power and location some more. I mean, can the router be located in the middle of these rooms so both get coverage or just one or the other? And if you can set your router to pump more juice into the transmission. Sometimes you can do that even with stock firmware.

I bought an extender and it really didn't help. In the course of jerking around with this whole this, I figured out that the Comcast issued modem/router is 802.11b at 54Mb, single channel. Fuckers. I returned the extender, bought a Netgear 4-channel 802.11n 300Mb modem/router. Everything works fine and I have wifi access outside when I smoke. Returned the POS rented Comcast modem and cut my bill by $10/month.

Jezter, I used your suggestion to more centrally locate the router and it did seem to balance the coverage more. Thanks.

Oh so you had some really old crappy one... you would think they don't even make routers with b standard... glad you didn't lose any money with all this hassle and got it all sorted out. :tup: