TR Forums

Hey folks...

So here is my issue...  currently I have the following setup on the upper floor of my house:

Cable Modem -->  Linksys Router 

The router is a few years old but still works well.  We get a solid signal both upstairs and downstairs with no issues.  However, my wife got a treadmill that she uses in the basement, and it has wireless to track workouts and whatnot, and the signal down there is kind of spotty.  So the thing keeps dropping off and annoying her, and indirectly me.

I could try buying a stronger router, but frankly I am happy with the current one.  My first idea was to buy an extender and put it either in the basement or someplace downstairs.  I've heard mixed reviews about those, but I'll keep it as an option...

However, I do have an older Linksys router lying around that still works, so I was wondering if something like this would work:

Cable Modem --> Linksys Router -->  Powerline (upstairs, connected to router via ethernet) --> Powerline (basement) -->  Old Linksys Router (connected to powerline via ethernet)

I was thinking I would setup the old router as a separate SSID, and on a separate channel, to avoid having it conflict with the main router.  My questions are:

1.  Will this even work?
2.  If it does work, will having this second router turned on affect performance on my main router?
3.  Are there any changes to the main router I'd need to make?

I'm less concerned about performance on the basement router...  It'd be nice if we could stream videos and whatnot down there, assuming we ever put a TV down there, but it's not a necessity right now.  Basically for now I'd just like her treadmill to be able to access the internet.

So basically my options (as I see them) are:

1.  Buy a bigger, stronger router and figure out how to make it extend vertically as well as horizontally (it's a large house)
2.  Buy a network extender.
3.  Do my funky powerline idea.
4.  Run ethernet down to the basement and use the second router that way - I'd rather avoid this one as it's an old house and a PITA to run wire.

As an aside, regarding option #2 - is it possible to have an extender act as it's own SSID?  In other words, my existing devices use the main SSID and only the stuff in the basement uses the extender?  Does that make sense?

All but option 1 is very complicated.  It's not very wife friendly to make a complicated home network.  That said, I'd roll eero, or something similar.  It's a whole lot easier.  It's a built in mesh wifi solution. Downside, expensive.

https://eero.com/

I've never used any of the powerline stuff, but if it basically gives you the equivalent of a wired connection back to the original router, #3 should work.

I disagree with Losergamer04 that another AP is "too complicated". The treadmill presumably stays in the basement, and does not need to "hop" between the two APs; so once it is set up to talk to the 2nd AP it should "just work".

An extender or old router in AP mode should let you have a separate SSID.

...also, don't tell anyone, but at my old house I ran Cat5e though my air vents to get between the basement (modem) and the top floor (router). Worked great.

Alternatively, you could get a big-ass AP that would probably get the signal far enough and get your router out of the wifi business completely. That's what I'm looking at doing soon, my RT-AC66U is showing signs of I'm-old-and-this-house-has-too-many-wifi-devices.

I think you can use your air ducts so long as it's "plenum" grade.

I have used the power line stuff and both kits I've tried were junk.  That may have changed in the last three years.  Anandtech just reviewed some, I think.  The other issue is it's a broadcast.  So when you put more than one on the wire there is a chance for collisions.

I didn't mean it wasn't too complicated to setup, but it's not family friendly. The benefit to a mesh device is there is only one SSID and you can expand it fairly easily.

Losergamer04 wrote:

I didn't mean it wasn't too complicated to setup, but it's not family friendly. 

In the case of other devices that get used both in the basement and other areas of the house, yes the two SSIDs could cause some confusion. But for the specific issue he is trying to solve with the treadmill, it is not a problem.

There may also be an option #5: Relocate the existing router to a more central location, providing coverage to the entire house.

I think your option is probably the best of them.

This is completely doable assuming powerline networking is up to the task (I have no experience with it).

On the downstairs router you would just disable DHCP/DNS, change the LAN IP to something that won't collide with the upstairs router, and plug the Ethernet from the powerline adapter into one of the LAN ports. This will effectively turn the downstairs router into a dumb access point. If the two routers support the same encryption methods, you can even set them to have the same SSID, password, and encyption, and wireless clients will happily roam between them with no loss of connectivity.

The only problem I've had with power line networking is bad latency due to old/weird wiring, but otherwise it worked fine when I tried it a few years ago.  Since you're not going to be gaming or streaming video over this connection that may not even be an issue.  I'm always partial to running ethernet rather than relying on wireless, maybe through the air ducts like drfish suggested if the construction of your house makes it a pain in the neck otherwise.