Looking for guidance on choosing a new AP/router? Let’s explore your options and find the best fit.
Looking for guidance on choosing a new AP/router? Let’s explore your options and find the best fit.
Speed isn't the top concern for me. Coverage and a stable connection are more important. Unlike my current AP, which offers full signal but sometimes lacks data for 30 seconds, most Wi-Fi devices I use are phones and just two laptops—mainly for browsing and light tasks. Anything needing more bandwidth connects via Ethernet (PCs, consoles, etc.). I’m confused about how the signals work between floors. If I have three devices per floor, does the one on the third floor get its signal from the main one on the first floor, or does it pick up the repeated signal from the second floor? I checked the documentation but didn’t find any details on this.
Discovered a solution: The furthest device will rely on APs in between as repeaters. However, each additional one reduces the bandwidth in half. It starts at (theoretically) gigabit—what my connection can handle—and drops to (theoretically) 500Mbps, which remains sufficient. I plan to try them before investing in more costly equipment. When renovations begin soon, I’ll likely rewire extensively, so networking might be worth revisiting, and I may also think about adding a NAS later. Who knows... Thanks for the guidance!
@Dreckssackblase You're getting what you pay for. The D-Link setup I talked about came in yesterday. The process was really frustrating. After several attempts to follow the manual, it kept going wrong. Eventually, I gave up on the instructions and just tried it using only my basic networking skills and some logic. Still, one of the extra APs isn't getting the right Wi-Fi password. As soon as a device connects to that AP, it disconnects and shows "wrong password," even though it was there before. Right now I'm testing it with the main AP and one of the two extra ones. It's odd because after hours of trying last night, everything worked fine once. Somehow, during the night someone just changed the password for me... I'm going to keep trying to make it work longer. If I can't fix it today, I might have to switch to a different solution using Ubiquity gear.
You managed to get the D-Link Covr device up and running. Although you're not sure about the exact steps, after some more testing it has been functioning properly for a couple of days now.