Poor 5GHz range on Asus AC68 Suggest an Extender/Repeater?

[CurrentlyPissed]

I live in a high populated area of Town Houses so the channels for 2.4Ghz are incredibly clogged. I used a WiFi Tool to see what was available but litteraly every channel has 3-4 broadcast on it. However I am the only 5Ghz band I can see, but the problem is my Router is upstairs, and the downstairs connection is short of terrible. 1 bar on phones at best, can only get 30% of my connection speed on a good day.

What AC repeater would you recommend? Will this solve my problem? Is my problem located in the fact that the router is located above me? Should I relocate it? And if so will upstairs performance be similar to what my current situation is?

My Town House is only 1400 sq ft. I'm practically about straight under the router but it has to cross stairs, and a few walls. Is this asking too much of the 5Ghz band? Or do I have a bad router? Seems like I should expect more out of a $200 Router.

This is the router I am using.

http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC68U-Wire...&ie=UTF8&qid=1413810238&sr=1-1&keywords=ac68u

 

[PliotronX]

Your name suits the situation, I would be too. Yes that is one of the best WiFi specimens available and unfortunately the 5GHz band has problems penetrating surfaces which is why almost nobody uses it. What I would do is try to place an AP (any) closer to where you want coverage by either running GigE or a pair of these. Put the AP on the least used channel (use a laptop with the free version of inSSIDer to even reveal hidden AP's) and if either RTS/CTS are disabled, try reversing them, lowering fragmentation, increasing transmit power, reducing transmit power, Merlin's firmware, etc.. A repeater might end up being worse because it is going to have the same receive capability that your clients have now and introduce a man in the middle that must listen then broadcast, effectively dividing throughput in half and introducing latency. It's such a shame we are not allowed more frequency bands, it's more crippling than running out of global IPv4 addresses...

 

[JackMDS]

Repeater is No a valuable solution.

Get another Wireless Router lay one cable to the second floor and place there the second Wireless Router configured as an AP

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

It probably will take few more years until the crowd in general will understand and accept that Wireless was design to work with multiple APs.

Until then it simply easier to nourish the Mundane useless "Pisse4d Off". ^_^ - - .

which is why almost nobody uses it.

I am curious how much it cost you to assemble a group of researcher and establish statistically that that is actually the current situation.?

 

[PliotronX]

Repeater is No a valuable solution.

Get another Wireless Router lay one cable to the second floor and place there the second Wireless Router configured as an AP

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

It probably will take few more years until the crowd in general will understand and accept that Wireless was design to work with multiple APs.

Until then it simply easier to nourish the Mundane useless "Pisse4d Off". ^_^ - - .



I am curious how much it cost you to assemble a group of researcher and establish statistically that that is actually the current situation.?

I can count on one hand the amount of 5GHz AP's from my past 5 home locations, yet there were probably 60 2.4GHz AP's total, usually on the default channel 6. If range is a factor of why I did not see many 5GHz, then that is proof positive that the range is horribad.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's such a shame we are not allowed more frequency bands, it's more crippling than running out of global IPv4 addresses...

Google "Samsung 802.11ad 60Ghz wireless"

 

[JackMDS]

Well you can do a simple experiment.

Start spreading around that "Kim K." using 5GHZ and see what would happened.

If you do not see it in your neighborhood on your Wireless Available due to the fact that the "Crowd" does not of its existence.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I wouldnt go so far as to say that nobody uses 5ghz, its actually VERY popular, especially with businesses and high density deployments.

Yes, you need more APs to get the same coverage, but if you want to go AC you are going to be going 5ghz

 

[dawza]

I actually think people generally don't mess with defaults, which seem to be 2.4 mixed mode on consumer gear I've seen-- and I'm guessing more expensive dual radio devices are the exception rather than the rule. Most SSIDs seem to be from ISP-provided devices, in my experience. I have been seeing more action in the 5 GHz space in the last few years at my current (residential) location, though. Still nothing close to the congestion of 2.4, thankfully.

That aside, OP, your best options are to run Ethernet (if possible), try powerline (as PilotronX suggested), or if you have coaxial jacks in place, MoCA. Repeaters or extenders, as others have mentioned, have their own issues-- the scenarios where these are an ideal solution are far fewer than the name and marketing would have you believe. Doesn't mean they wouldn't work for you, but YMMV for sure, and you'd have to accept the invariable bandwidth compromises.

If there is a location between upstairs and downstairs that can pull a consistently stable connection to your main AP, AND you will be able to recreate those signal characteristics from said location to your lower floor, you might be a candidate for a repeater/extender. Generally, there are enough variables with a single wireless hop that I wouldn't want to deal with the headache of introducing another set of such variables unless absolutely necessary.

 

[azazel1024]

Another option would be is try reorienting the antennas on the router. In a straight up and down position it is going to be covering everything perpendicular to the antennas the best. Move them more horizontal and it'll provide better coverage below the router (at the expense of weaker coverage on the same level as the router).

Otherwise, you need a second AP/router in the main level for better 5GHz coverage.