[usaf-lt-g]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if someone might be able to help me maximize my range / signal quality settings on my R9000. I have a 3 floor house (basement, main floor, upstairs) whereby the R9000 sits in my office wiring closet on the main floor. My wife's office is in the basement, and the bedrooms are on the upper level. These areas don't seem to be getting adequate signal or quality as they are constantly dropping the internet connection.

Firmware is: DD-WRT v3.0-r36020M std (05/25/1

I have 5GHz, 2.4GHz, and virtual "Guest" interfaces for each as well. the 60GHz band is disabled as I have nothing worthwhile to connect to it.

SNR Data -



5GHz Setup



5GHz Guest Setup



2.4 Setup



2.4 Guest Setup

[vit5421]

Here is my experience with r7800 and other routers.
I have a big house as well and in order to cover all 2 stores with basement and even backyard i put main router as Gateway in the office (1st floor) on the high shelf, run the wire to basement and put the 2nd as wired AP Router ( wan and dhcp disabled) - https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_access_point
I did some adjustments for " Minimum Signal for connection" but of course the roaming is not allow me seamless switch as proper mesh network supposed to do but at least work at full speed.
Of course 5 ghz is not good enough for long distance and auto channels, 40mhz are bad setup for 2.4 as well. 161 channel with LL(-6) will give you 30dbm on 5 ghz so you can consider try 80mhz instead of 160 for higher Tx power but it also depends of your clients.

[usaf-lt-g]

Hmmm....

I'm wondering if I should just start putting in some cheap TP-LINKs to repeat the signal. Basement is already wired, so that's easy enough to hook up another router down there in repeater mode. Garage would be nice, so would upstairs, and my backyard...

That would mean 4 more routers, and only 1 of them has an appropriate means to be "wired."

Somehow, setting up 3 "wireless" bridges seems like a bad idea, unless I can figure out a way to not chop the speed off incredibly. I know it can be done, but that would mean a couple of virtual networks, and I believe each one cuts the speed in half.

[ddaniel51]

Tweaking a single router is not going to solve the attenuation from the walls and floors across a large coverage area. Additional AP's are needed to provide good consistent signals.

I ran an ethernet cable from the computer room to the living room and master bedroom. The living room has an additional switch connected to an AP router, multimedia, tv, cable tuner, remote tv tuner, NAS, and also covers the workshop and backyard. The bedroom has a small switch that gives the permanent laptop and tv there hardwired access to the house network.

Wifi coverage from the main router and AP cover the 6 Amazon Echo's, 4 phones and whatever odd Wifi wanders into the house.

Perhaps you can find a path to run an ethernet cable upstairs to provide additional AP coverage there.

[usaf-lt-g]

[vit5421]

Its very hard to suggest. In my opinion it will be strange to paired incredibly expensive $400 r9000 with cheap wired AP. I am always using the same main and wired AP routers for easy Management, Software upgrade mistakes, similar Troubleshooting and chipset compatibility for roaming.
I am using 2xR7800 refurbished and tested by Netgear with $130 each

[usaf-lt-g]

[ddaniel51]

The 7800's would do well as wired Ap's.

I gave the 7000, 7800 and 8500's to my son after the gigabit came online from my ISP. Bought some cheap 9000's
on fleabay since they easily run my apps and gb bandwidth. So, I have main router spares on hand.

I'm a retired network, systems and fiber admin so I can play. Old habits die hard as my house network is tied together with a Cisco business class programmable switch.