Configuring Ethernet in an older house with weak Wi-Fi coverage between floors.
Configuring Ethernet in an older house with weak Wi-Fi coverage between floors.
It closely matches the type of device we received from our ISP. However, it didn’t appear to deliver any real benefit, so we left it unplugged for several months.
They're referring to a Wi-Fi extender, yes. That's what you're likely discussing.
I have done this for my parents whose home had to pause construction for a couple years because all the workers went to fight in the American Civil War You have three options: Lay hardline ethernet cables. This is the ultimate answer. You get full speed to every room you run it to and you can add additional Wireless Access Points (WAPs) with wired backhaul. The downside is you're gonna be drilling holes through walls and you will also have to learn to build network cables. I always recommend punching down new keystones (ethernet jacks, female) rather than trying to terminate patch cables (ethernet plugs, male) because it's far more forgiving. Buy/build a mesh network. It's expensive and not ultra reliable, but it's at least pretty easy. Plug-and-play. This is what I ended up doing for my parents house. It has a 2'/60cm brick wall in the middle of it which eats wireless signals. I bought a Google Wifi system with additional broadcast stations. 5 in total. Put the base station next to the modem, then put a pair on either side of the doorways through the big brick wall on each floor so they can easily talk to each other. You can build a system like this with normal wireless routers, but I've tried a few times and never been successful. Use powerline ethernet. This is really the final hail mary solution. They are at least easy, and if you happen to have an electrical panel layout that allows this to work, it's not the worst thing in the world, but it does introduce latency, and reduces bandwidth. If the home happens to have coaxial cable running through it already, you can hijack that and turn it into a wired network, but adapters are expensive. And wifi repeaters aren't great either, basically cheapo versions of a mesh network, but can cause more congestion in the wireless bands.
Recent updates show increased activity with notable "waves" recorded. Edited October 28, 2025 by leclod