Extending Internet

[elmodoodle]

Hi,

We have Fios TV and internet. The router is on the first floor, the ONT in the basement. The wifi coverage is poor in one of the bedrooms upstairs, upstairs bathroom, kitchen, and patio.

Ideally, I'd like to run a wire up to the second floor from the ONT/Router and connect it to an extender which should take care of the issue. But I am wondering if/what the best way to improve the connection to these rooms would be. I do not want to compromise the connection speeds.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Cang_Household]

What is the model of your main router? G1100, G3100, or an even older version?

There are a range of options for you.

For Verizon products, you can try WCB3000N(limited to 175Mbps only, below $30, not sold by Verizon.com anymore), WCB6200Q, and E3200. All these products can be uplinked to the main router via coax or ethernet cable. If you only have coax cable installed in your house, I would recommend them over third party equipment. Depending on your region, you may contact Verizon technical support to qualify a free MoCA range extender.

Or purchase a third party access point and uplink it to the main router via ethernet.

If you have more questions, please ask.

[elmodoodle]

Thanks. I do have a g1100 on the first floor. I got the extender but it needs a coax linked the router, which seems really far for a cable to run to help anything. I am just not really sure how to proceed on this. I don't have coax or ethernet wired in this home (100 year old home), but am amendable to getting something into one of the bedrooms. Would a verizon technician help with this or would it be a waste of time? If I asked an electrician I wouldn't even know what cables I would need in the bedroom without talking to verizon first.

[Cang_Household]

Thank you for giving more information.

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@elmodoodle wrote:

I got the extender but it needs a coax linked the router, which seems really far for a cable to run to help anything...

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WCB3000N can be uplinked with an ethernet cable as well, just do not uplink both ethernet and coax at the same time to create a traffic jam.

If your house have either of the cabling, I would recommend you to pull a CAT5e (or CAT 6a, if you are upgrading to 10G in the future?) cable. If you are hiring an electrician, you might as well pull a coax cable too just in case you want TV too in the future. Both coax and CAT5e/6a cable can have a maximum distance of 300ft in theory.

If you want to save some money, you can pull for yourself maybe, just need to check your town's electric and fire code.

[appDev · Accepted solution]

First of all, wired is ALWAYS the best option. Cat5/6 cables probably best, and then Coax.

That being said, the easier (not quite as good) would be to get a "mesh" network - those are the eeros/orbis/google pucks you see all over. They "extend" the network by communicating with one other while still giving you coverage beyond your single router. Again, performance will not be nearly as good as it is with wired, and there are expensive options there too that are better, but its the simplest - you should be up and running in about 30 minutes once you get one.

Just an option to consider, instead of running wires.