Seeking Advice - WiFi Extenders
 

I am not an IT guru and I need help understanding how this works and hooks up.

The Problem:
My house is old, plaster, thick walls (about 10" thick). I have a SimplySafe alarm system that gets WiFi interruption alerts a few times a day. Basically, I get a text that states system has lost connection, and follows up with a re-connection text a few seconds later. This occurs at least 5-6 times per week.

I called SimplySafe and they had me reset the base unit by removing the batteries for an hour and that seemed to work for about a week and now I'm back to the same.

My router is located on the second floor at one end o the house and the alarm system is located downstairs at the other end of the house. Not that far since it's a two story but walls and floors are thick (95 yr old house).

My Question: does a WiFi extender have to be hardwired? And, are there better ones than what would be provided from xfinity?

I tried extenders and they worked, but they were also spotty. Go with a Wifi6 Mesh system.

Mesh system would work great in your case.

I use a 3 node eero system for my 3200sqft house, really a huge step change improvement over single point router.

Mesh for the win.

Yup, mesh works well. Place one near difficult wall, in my case 8" solid concrete wall into garage, no problem.

Or something like this... It uses your houses existing wiring to extend a wifi network

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Powerline-WiFi-Extender/dp/B00HSQAIQU?th=1

I replaced my hodgepodge network with mesh and really like it. But you could just add another router configured as a wireless access point or buy one of the plug in style repeater. The plug in repeater works okay.

This link did not work.

I use a google mesh system. I just upgraded after several years to their newest version. My house is an odd shape and has plaster walls and metal siding. I have 6 nodes to cover the space and a hardwired one in my shop. So far, so good.

It may work for others so I'll mention what I did.

I ran a cat5 (or cat6, dunno which) from a port on my wifi router to the apartment at the back of my house. Then got another wifi router but set it up as a secondary router so it's ip address is different, and plugged that in. So instead of a signal getting weaker it's 100% up to strength and doesn't drop off.

Another thing to note is 5GHz doesn't go through walls very well and 2.4 is a whole lot better at walls and distance.

I had a Powerline system and took it out, speeds varied widely depending on where I plugged it in. The electrical wiring needs to be close to a straight shot to the router for it to be effective.

Like the others have said, a mesh WiFi system will be your best bet. I have a TP-Link Deco WiFi 6 system and it works well. There are lots of options, I would probably grab whatever happens to be on sale that week at Bestbuy. Ideally you want one satellite per floor unless you have a lot of square footage.

If should have mentioned, my setup is TP link deco mesh. Mine isn't wifi6. I have six nodes. Two are direct wired. One wired to the modem direct and one connected to it that is out in my barn. I have three covering the house, first floor, second floor and garage. Two in the barn and one out in my shop. I have coverage anywhere I go on my 2 acre property.

That’s a good point, if your house has Ethernet and you can hardwire to the base station, you’ll get better speeds.

One issue with wifi extenders is slowing down overall network speed due to rebroadcasting comms back and forth. A mesh network fixes this.

An extender just takes a weak signal and stretches it, a mesh system delivers the same signal as at the router throughout the house/office.

Have an earlier version of this system. Works very well.
https://amplifi.com/alien

^+1

We've also got 3 nodes - about 6000 sq ft 3 level house. Router/gateway is in the basement, 1 eero almost directly above it on the main floor in the den/kitchen, another in the master on the main floor near this computer I'm on, and the 3rd eero upstairs in the open loft/office area where my wife works. Simple to set up and no complaints with about 6 months of use.

We have Ubiquity APs, but our house was wired for it. Works great.

Put a Deco in at mom and dads which works very well for them, other than the one node is too close to the TV and it will drop a few packets now and then.

I bought the TP-link Deco AXE5400 WiFi 6E (that's a long title).

I ordered on Amazon last night at 8pm and it was on my doorstep this morning - amazing. I will install it this afternoon when I go to my rental.

I was convinced that my SimplySafe was defective as I have been getting error messages about 3 times per week. Then, yesterday, I moved my modem/wifi about 3ft since I moved a piece of furniture. Immediately, I started getting error messages. I would get "WiFi interferance" and then two seconds later "everything ok". I was getting this about every two min. I moved my modem/wifi back to its original location (I think) but the error messages continued. In fact, I had to turn my ringer off since it was constant texts. This morning when I woke up, I had 277 text messages from my security system. I look forward to getting this resolved.

The Deco mesh came with 3 stations so I will try one on each level (upstairs, downstairs, and basement).

These will initially communicate via wifi but I plan on running a WAN cable to the basement when I install the conduit for my security cameras from attic to basement (next month's project).

Thanks for all the great advice!

I use a pair of ethernet over power adapters to get a gb to the basement, then connect that to a mikrotik hap set in bridge mode. Has been flawless for almost a decade.

My provider and access points come and go but that fixed link has been flawless.

Current house is served by a mesh of 3 devices provided by quantum fiber but they still cant reach that part of the house (downstairs room, alarm, hot water heater.)

I like that its its own independent thing.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

I ended up buying the Deco AEX5400 WiFi 6E and it seems to have solved all my problems. I placed the units (3 of them) 2nd floor, 1st floor, and Basement. I haven't had any problems since.

Thanks for all the advice - it worked.