Router suggestions

Magus`

I currently have a Netgear N600 covering an apartment of about 600 square feet. Despite it being fairly small, the reception is god awful. I know that part of the reason is interference (I have over 8 other WiFi signals in an apartment building with 4 rooms.. somehow).

Any suggestions on a good replacement that isn't super expensive? Thanks!

a5ehren

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/

TP-Link Archer C7 is good enough for pretty much anything, and the 5GHz bands are strong enough to actually be usable.

Feral

Wirecutter is always a good source for info and you can't go wrong with their recommendation.

I also like Asus's routers quite a lot, but they're a bit pricey. I have the Asus RT-AC87U which is a $200 router, but for a small apartment and one person you'd probably do fine with the Asus RT-ACRH13.

Also, I'm batsignaling @Elki because I think he's in the market for a new router.

Elki

Sweet, thanks. I'll dig into reviews of the ARCH13 and A7 and decide one one.

Mugsley

@Magus` if you have Android, download the app Wifi Analyzer. It should tell you where the congestion is in your apartment. My guess is that you just need to change to less congested channels and it will help with your reception and speed. If there are 8 signals in the apartment, I highly suspect you're getting interference/congestion on given channels, vice actual router issues.

vimmer

Might be obvious but if you're living in an apartment building you should connect everything that doesn't need to move around with an ethernet cable. Don't pollute your wifi spectrum more with unnecessary devices.

Shadowfire

vimmer wrote: »

Might be obvious but if you're living in an apartment building you should connect everything that doesn't need to move around with an ethernet cable. Don't pollute your wifi spectrum more with unnecessary devices.

Truth.

But, with the TP-Link er... linked above, you'll get a stronger 5GHz signal. The 5GHz band has a wider spectrum of available channels, so there's less chance of neighbors stepping on each other.

Magus`

Yeah there's a shitton of 2.4 signals but one 5ghz. I still get a ton of dropout on that wavelength.

Elki

The C7 seems like it'll do the job for me. Ordered.

Inquisitor77

Given you are in a congested area, once you get a new router it might also help to modulate the power so that you only need to cover the area of your apartment. Generally speaking, boosting the signal so that it covers half the county doesn't mean that you will get "better" coverage in your living room (range is far more determined by physical geometry than anything else). It just means that people half the county over can see and potentially hack into your network. And you will be causing noise problems for everyone else who don't want to access your network because your router is blaring everything (hence the problem you are running into with all your neighbors). As long as the signal strong enough to get to the edge of your apartment, and no farther, that's all the power you need.

If changing the router and going to 5GHz doesn't fix the problem, I'd say that it's likely that you need to change the placement of the router/devices or get a new modem/antenna (if we're talking about a PC).

Tofystedeth

Lower frequencies have better penetration than higher frequencies so if you're going with the 5ghz, if possible, position your router so there's as few walls as possible between it and the devices you'll use.

Magus`

The router is in my bedroom which leads directly to the living room. Not a straight line, per se, but there are no physical barriers.

I think it's funny I get better reception from other people's place than my own. Some of these signals have to be coming from neighboring buildings, the closest of which are 100-150 feet away.

Inquisitor77

They could very well just be drowning out your signal (to my earlier post), or your devices themselves aren't functioning properly.

Shadowfire

Magus` wrote: »

The router is in my bedroom which leads directly to the living room. Not a straight line, per se, but there are no physical barriers.

I think it's funny I get better reception from other people's place than my own. Some of these signals have to be coming from neighboring buildings, the closest of which are 100-150 feet away.

You've got an N600. I recommend them for my older clients who have maybe a couple devices, but they're not going to keep up with modern services.

Magus`

Does the C7 let you easily change signal strength? The N600 has no options I could find.

a5ehren

C7 is full strength all the time unless you install 3rd party firmware to blast it beyond FCC limits.

Magus`

What if you want to decrease it?

Wolfman2120

TP has emulators on their website for routers. I couldn't find the setting to decrease in the archer c7 emulator.

For kicks, I checked the emulator on the archer c9 and it has the setting to adjust transmit power under Advanced > Wireless > Wireless Settings

Source:
http://www.tp-link.com/us/download/Archer-C9.html#Emulators

Nova_C

Just to offer another choice if anyone is still looking around, I bought Netgear's Nighthawk router and the thing has been bulletproof. I'm on the fourth floor of my condo building, and I can connect to it in the park across the street, despite every other unit having their own wifi.

AngelHedgie

Nova_C wrote: »

Just to offer another choice if anyone is still looking around, I bought Netgear's Nighthawk router and the thing has been bulletproof. I'm on the fourth floor of my condo building, and I can connect to it in the park across the street, despite every other unit having their own wifi.

Make sure that you've updated the firmware, as that router had a major security hole in their implementation of the server running their Web interface.

Nova_C

AngelHedgie wrote: »

Nova_C wrote: »

Just to offer another choice if anyone is still looking around, I bought Netgear's Nighthawk router and the thing has been bulletproof. I'm on the fourth floor of my condo building, and I can connect to it in the park across the street, despite every other unit having their own wifi.

Make sure that you've updated the firmware, as that router had a major security hole in their implementation of the server running their Web interface.

Well, that's good to know.