How to Fix and Upgrade a Weak WiFi Signal | Ask This Old House

In this video, Ask This Old House home technology expert Ross Trethewey helps a homeowner get stronger WiFi coverage throughout his house by extending the service.

Ross Trethewey helps a homeowner fix his slow WiFi. The family has had problems with their WiFi since they moved in. They cannot stream movies on their television in the basement, and sometimes even emails are slow to send.

Ross sees a ton of similar complaints from other homeowners. Finding the issue can be tricky since you can't see a Wi-Fi network's physical problem. Ross demonstrates a step-by-step approach to diagnose a WiFi problem and determine how to fix it. After checking the wiring and the modem location, Ross shows how to check the Internet speed.

He finds that the WiFi signal gets weak in the basement and top floor, but he has a solution. Ross introduces the homeowner to a mesh network, a distributed router system where you place WiFi routers strategically around your house to strengthen the WiFi connectivity and increase coverage. Afterward, the family has a strong WiFi signal throughout their home, allowing them to send emails and stream their favorite home improvement show.

Skill: 1/5
Cost: Mesh router costs $200—$500
Time: 1 hour

Shopping list:
Internet provider bill

You will need a laptop.

Where to find it?

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How to Fix and Upgrade a Weak WiFi Signal | Ask This Old House

[Astrand]

I think he missed one important point with the mesh network. Once you install a mesh system and connect to your existing modem/router it’s very important to disable the wireless function on the modem/router so that you don’t have WiFi signals fighting each other.

[pf]

It’s why I ran CAT6 cables for all my streaming devices. I prefer hardwired option because it’s more reliable.

[bigboya]

I’ve been running a mesh network for 6 years. It’s fantastic. Streaming 4K in places I had no signal. I bought my own modem. Don’t rent a box. In one year it pays for itself. I’m also a gamer. No issues at all. I don’t have the battery back up. Think I’ll look into that

[spacewolfjr]

I liked the methodology he laid out, it's so important to remove the unknown and design your experiments to isolate each component to test.

[Patmanduu]

I would argue that a single quality WAP, centrally located and ideally on the top floor’s ceiling, is perfectly adequate for 90% of suburban homes. Usually running ethernet cable from the modem to the attic is a lot easier than people seem to think and worth the effort.

[boostedmaniac]

When I remodeled my home, I ran Ethernet to every room in the house. I ran all the Ethernet to a central location in a closet with all my gear including a patch panel. Any dead spots, which was really only my backyard for my pellet smoker, made it easy to add an access point to extend range.

[bluesclues]

Nothing beats hardwired. The mesh system will improve service but like the extender is still relying on the main unit. The modem will always fluctuate.

[mikeclarke]

One thing to remember on wifi, all clients devices share that connection per SSID (non overlapping) channel. Great for mobile devices but best to hard wire stationary devices when can to just prevent overcrowding that spectrum. Also the further away, less signal the radios negotiate a slower speed but still can be too weak and have drops, exponentially increases fro each wireless dive being used. Best for long distance, going through objects, other interference putting more AP's in the house, these are static non routing APs operating on different non over lapped channels and can use same SSID Name or different if want to keep seperated

[fictionalgaming]

Not sure why the comments are saying the MESH solution was bad - only negative is that the mesh devices were a little pricey, but eero has a 2 pack for 129$ and a mesh router for 89$ so overall to stand up a mesh network is 200$ (cheaper than a new modem/router). People are also forgetting that POE devices are generally more expensive than non-POE devices. Furthermore, the lay out and problem the customer was having was a perfect fit for a MESH system. Sure cables could have been ran, sure maybe a stronger 3rd party router may have fixed the issue, sure locating the modem to a central location could have worked, but then you have to run more coaxial, cut holes in the wall, create connection outlets, then to physically wire up the rest of the house you have to do the same.

Time is money as well not just buying hardware, the house clearly is not "New" or modern, so there were some hefty materials blocking the WiFi signal, creating a mesh network to separate each individual entertainment floor into its own Wi-Fi hub was not a bad solution at all, its the preferred solution with the issue is being explained here.

People saying "just get a WAP, and run cat5e cable to it through the attic. Its that simple and cheaper." WAP doesn't exactly come cheap either...they can be between 100-200$ as well depending on which brand you go far. look at the situation before with 1 network device handling 3 floors of WiFi, and then looking at it after you see that it can not only accommodate the family of the house but guests of the house as well.

Wifi for first floor ---- goes from 90 mbps to 230mbps --- handles people on 1st floor

Wifi for 2nd floor --- goes from 40 mbps to 230 mbps --- handles people on 2nd floor

Wifi for basement --- goes from 16 mbps to 230 mbps -- Handles people in basement

The upload speed for his service is garbage anyway and if uploading photos at 5-10 mbps is a no deal on this type of network solution for you then nothing will satisfy you. Photos range from .5 - 8 MB not hundreds of MB...also back ups only append new data not existing data, so your phone won't re-backup 200 GB every-night. It will check existing items as back up and then only add items that are not backed up. Also back ups happen over night while you are asleep, I do not see a problem where its 8 hrs of uninterrupted uploading at 5-10 mbps (mega-bits per SECOND).

There was nothing wrong with the solution here, except some more detailed explanation into the choices of the hardware and implementation of the solution would have been nice to have.

[walt]

Hey this old house. Long time fan since the 80's when my dad would watch you on the antenna.
I'm now a licensed electrician, and former isp/low voltage data installer from years ago.

I always love the trethuey segments and am glad that Ross is a recurring segment of the show.

This video on extending the WiFi signal made me want to comment that power line networking devices (gigabit) and moca devices (2.5 gigabit) exist and can work great.

I myself have used power line adapters for 6 years and they work flawlessly.

They do have s negative connotation from early adopters in the early 2000's when the speed and connectivity wasn't as good.

They also suffer from connection issues in north America where the vast majority of residential wiring uses a split phase (often called single phase) wiring system.
The manufacturer instructions tell you to be in the same circuit as the other adapter which is rarely possible, the reason that they say that without getting too technical is because in a split phase electrical system, the utility transformer has one utility phase that makes a line 1 phase of 120 volts anda line 2 phase which makes 120 volts. If you put A multimeter across line 1, & line 2 you get 240 volts.

This is the typical residential single family home wiring system. Duplex, triplex, multifamily homes or apartment complexes can have true 3 phase voltage systems of 208/120 volts.... 208 being line to line and 120 volts being line 1, 2, or line 3 to neutral.


In any event the power line Network adapters can have trouble communicating across different phases or lines/legs.


... It's so convoluted of an explanation that the manufacturers just say keep it on the same
When in reality it's just that there isn't a connection between the phases.




Here's the playoff


To remedy this all that you need is additional adapters to bridge across.

A typical home will be single phase and every other circuit breaker in an electrical panel will be opposite phases. So a normal single phase electrical panel will have 1 through 20, or 38, or 42... etc.

1, and, 2 will be horizontal and just below will be circuit breakers 3, and 4.

Circuits 1, and 2 will be on the same phase. Circuits 3, and 4 will be in the opposite phase of circuits 1, and 2. This continues in the same repeating order on down the panel every other row is opposite.

So the way to get communication between both phases, and throughout a typical North American home is to put one of the adapters on the first phase and another one on the second phase and run a cat 5 or cat 6 in between them.



Now on to moca adapters.

They can work by running a network signal between two adapters each being connected to a coaxial cable I believe RG6 provides the best connection I am unsure of rg59 the old standard is capable of providing the full 2.5 gigabit connection if the home comes pre-wired with coaxial cable it is often faster than a category 6 cable or Wi-Fi or powerline networking.

There are definitely options available and Wi-Fi is the slowest of all of them and can suffer from interference

[Joemama-kmnp]

Great, now I can just copy and paste this video to friends and family who keep calling about wifi problems!

[larryt]

The first thing I did is buy my own cable modem without wifi built into the modem, I have a consistent speed reading and do not not pay a monthly charge, then I installed the eero mesh system. Since i have a better modem, I do not have much down time. In the last 3 years I only had to reset the modem 1 time.

[evelynwald]

I wish he would come to my house and help me. It’s great when you understand all of this stuff but when things go wrong, it’s hard to figure out what to do. Also, who wants to see all that stuff in a room, there has to be better ways to get the signals you need in a more discreet and aesthetic way. It’s great if you can start from scratch, but over time, all this stuff evolves and requires replacements.

[nn]

Lol the way he talks and walks I see carbon copy of dad . Keep up this wonderful channel, we all need to support this great channel.

[TruelyView]

I have multiple streams working on only 30 mps. Step one should have been to just buy a standalone modem. The combo units from the internet service provider are known to be terrible. Most providers also charge you to rent them so if you just buy one you end up saving money in the long run. Got my Asus for 50. Saved a rental fee of 15 per month.

[brandonpike]

This is the first video I’ve seen from this channel and it explained this concept absolutely perfectly for me. I really appreciate this learning style and I liked and subscribed!

[TomCee]

The extender would probably have worked fine if it was located halfway to the modem/router. Putting it next to the tv was getting no better signal than the tv directly. In fact, depending on how the extender was configured, the tv might still be connecting directly to the router.

[STho]

Like all good wireless systems...
You improve it by adding lots more wires.

[Thefatveganchef]

Oh and also a splitter will not cut the signal in half, it will reduce the signal by the decibel level printed above the leg of the splitter which is ok to do as long as the cable tech has the signals balanced. A house amp is normally only installed if there are more than 4 cable boxes and modem installed or if the run from the tap is long enough to require it.

[marcosmendoza]

Great video on how to learn more! Some of us are not to familiar with wifi network equipment etc ... My question is which model was use or needed to add this on my house? Thank you This Old House!