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Would a good antenna fix my wifi? (self.chat)

submitted 1 year ago by hallettj to c/chat

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's a story as old as time. I moved into a new place with great fiber internet - but the modem is in the garage, my desktop PC is not, and the place is a rental so I have limited options for making modifications. The signal is not bad, but I'm getting dropouts.

Since the PC and router are fixed in place I thought maybe a directional antenna or two would help? 5GHz directional antennae are kinda scarce which makes me wonder if I'm on the wrong track. Does this new "beamforming" thing supersede directional antennae?

I have 802.11ax (a.k.a. Wi-Fi 6) on both sides of the connection. Maybe I could upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E and give 6GHz a go? Maybe that would be worse due to the intervening wall...

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[–] shanghaibebop 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Get an access point with a healthy uplink. Mesh networks work too.

I wouldn’t recommend powerline unless it’s the last resort. It’s really hit or miss depending on your circuitry.

[–] hallettj 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thanks for the heads-up about powerline. My house is oldish, and the wiring might not be amazing. It's good to be warned before I put money into that option.

I'm not sure what you mean by a healthy uplink? Like put a Wi-Fi device in a spot with a better signal, and run a cable there?

[–] shanghaibebop 2 points 1 year ago

Yea.

Try to get the Wi-Fi node to a better place using Ethernet.
Get a Wi-Fi “repeater” or better yet, a mesh network, where the second access point is placed in between your computer and the router to “rebroadcast” to the router.

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