As a new network enthusiast/hobbyist, I have discovered so many terms that I have never heard of and perhaps more importantly, misunderstood. In this series, I like to share new things I learned about network. This is a geared for network novice. In this episode, let’s learn a way to expand area of Wi-Fi network coverage.
Teaching Points
In this article, you will learn:
- ways to expand your Wi-Fi coverage
- what is wireless access point
- what is mesh network
- what is Wi-Fi repeater
- what is Range extender
- what is Wi-Fi booster
- how to search google using an proper search term
Chief Complaints
“I don’t have enough area of network coverage.”
Signs/Symptoms
Your Wi-Fi connected client device may indicate weak signal. Sometimes, it may look like you have full bars but your internet speed dips significantly e.g. over 200’s Mbps down to 10 Mbps.
In these situation, the first question I would ask to you is how far are you from your router* or do you have obstacles e.g. wall from the router?
* Technically, the router here is really referring to wireless access point or mesh node, which I will define later in this article.
If your answer is “yes”, it is most likely related to the fact you are now too far from the router. This should not be to anyone’s surprise, Wireless signal emitted by the router unit as well as your client device attenuates further away you are.
The perfect analogy here is audio. The closer you are to the audio source like a radio, the better you can hear the sound. If you are in a different room with wall in between, the sound may be attenuated more than just a distance. In fact, the difference in the wall material introduces greater degree of Wi-Fi signal attenuation than simple distance just like a sound. For the audio analogy, that is exactly what the sound proof wall for.
Practical application here is that do not just trust manufacture‘s claimed square foot coverage of Wi-Fi network device because your house construct may be significantly different than the tested environment. For example, for my 3800 sqft home, I needed 9000 sqft equivalent Orbi AC units to cover all the area.
do not just trust manufacture’s claimed square foot coverage of network system because your house construct may be significantly different than the tested environment.
How about the sudden drop of 200 Mbps to 10 Mbps sudden? One may expect more gradual signal attenuation, especially if using the sound analogy. What is happening in this situation is you have switched from 5 GHz band to 2.4 GHz band connection.
In audio analogy, imagine you have a two radio stations. One is high quality, perhaps Hi-Res audio but that station has lower volume. When you change to the other station, which has lower sound quality but have much higher volume. Obviously, the latter station can reach further distance due to higher baseline volume.
So 200 Mbps to 10 Mbps speed drop is analogous to you walking away from the radio while initially listening to the Hi-Res radio station but at one point you feel like it got a bit too hard to hear the audio, so you’ve used a remote control to switch to the lower resolution station. Since that station has the higher volume you can hear it better. This saying 2.4 GHz band got higher Wi-Fi signal strength and Wi-Fi system uses signal strength over throughput to determine which band to use. However, the radio station switch results in lower audio-quality or lower throughput for Wi-Fi.