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OT: WiFi Extenders - recommendations?

Relatively soon we will have ELONS Star link and household WiFi will be a thing of the past...Like dial up modems, fax machines, VHS, and PC’s.
 
So we had a power blip a couple of weeks ago (the week before Isaias) and it fried our extender for upstairs. I've been out of the loop on that equipment for a while, so curious what people would recommend now.
Late to the party, but like others here, I have eero and love it. Probably like you I had a router and then an extender for a while. Too many drops, not good enough coverage. When I had coverage, it was often slow. TBH - I think a 24/7 router will only last a few years anyway. Got the 3 eero PRO bundle. Upgraded about a month ago and wish I did it a year ago. No drops, strong max signal in and around an over 4K sqft house and in yard, etc. I know you are an IT guy. This stuff is good, really good. I would recommend to anyone.
 
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Google WiFi here as well. Works great. Eero is also very good and a little cheaper than Google. Both are easy to set up. If you don't already have a Google account/Gmail I'd recommend eero
Something to consider if you have any privacy concerns is Amazon bought Eero and Google is, well, Google. Both companies hoover up your data although their products work well and are well supported.
 
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So we had a power blip a couple of weeks ago (the week before Isaias) and it fried our extender for upstairs. I've been out of the loop on that equipment for a while, so curious what people would recommend now.
Orbi is the way to go. Mesh systems are the best. Forget the extenders. The one I got covers up to a 4,000 sq ft house with ease, and can be had for $249. It has one satellite. Another can be added for even more coverage I have 3 levels and absolutely no dead spots, even when outside in the yard.

Have had it for 4 years and never an issue.
 
Relatively soon we will have ELONS Star link and household WiFi will be a thing of the past...Like dial up modems, fax machines, VHS, and PC’s.
Nah.. StarLink will be okay for places without good broadband wired connections.. but will also be somewhat dependent on weather and atmospheric conditions. And you'll need a dish on your house.
 
Nothing yet.
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Can any of these be used with Verizon Fios and is the setup fairly easy? I have been renting my router(it was upgraded 2 years ago) from Verizon for probably 13 years at around 10 bucks a month.

I do have and want to keep Verizon for my tv. Because I am not that tech savy, I am looking to buy a router that works with my verizon ONT and will allow me to still watch fios tv, still use my phone which is VOIP(I think) thru verizon, and still get close to the 947 mbps download speed and 772 upload mbps speed.

Thanks in advance for explaining in plain english what will be needed and how easy or hard it is to setup(especially still using fios tv and phone)

Best of Luck,
Groz
 
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Will any of these suggestions boost cell phone reception? I’m in a townhouse, end unit, my router is on the first floor. I’ve converted my basement to a home office recently and I’m having an issue with dropped calls.
 
Will any of these suggestions boost cell phone reception? I’m in a townhouse, end unit, my router is on the first floor. I’ve converted my basement to a home office recently and I’m having an issue with dropped calls.
What cell service do you have?
 
Can any of these be used with Verizon Fios and is the setup fairly easy? I have been renting my router(it was upgraded 2 years ago) from Verizon for probably 13 years at around 10 bucks a month.

I do have and want to keep Verizon for my tv. Because I am not that tech savy, I am looking to buy a router that works with my verizon ONT and will allow me to still watch fios tv, still use my phone which is VOIP(I think) thru verizon, and still get close to the 947 mbps download speed and 772 upload mbps speed.

Thanks in advance for explaining in plain english what will be needed and how easy or hard it is to setup(especially still using fios tv and phone)

Best of Luck,
Groz
Is your goal to extend your wifi connection or to dump the $10 monthly charge? If it's the latter, there aren't many options on the market that are fios compatible.
 
One phone is Verizon, the second is Total Wireless and they run through Verizon towers. Same dropped calls on both.
Our home internet is Optimum. I have no problem running a Roku TV in the basement.
 
One phone is Verizon, the second is Total Wireless and they run through Verizon towers. Same dropped calls on both.

My parents are on tmobile and just had a signal booster like this sent to them for free (had to put a $40 refundable deposit). Not sure if Verizon would offer the same, but a device like this would work. There are other 3rd party cell signal boosters that you can get from other sites that would also work. Just keep in mind that you have to register them with your carrier.
 
now to answer a question NOBODY ASKED...

here's a fun little video on test of trying to do very long range wi-fi from this guys work to his home.. my rul eof thumb is this.. if you think.. wouldn't it be cool if.... well.. someone has probably done it.. or tired it.. or made a youtube video about it...
 

My parents are on tmobile and just had a signal booster like this sent to them for free (had to put a $40 refundable deposit). Not sure if Verizon would offer the same, but a device like this would work. There are other 3rd party cell signal boosters that you can get from other sites that would also work. Just keep in mind that you have to register them with your carrier.
hmmm... seems pretty odd to me. Most cell companies allow you to set your phones to allow wifi calling. Which uses your wifi connection to take and make calls and all your data use. So everywhere you get wifi you have cell phone use.

This signal booster just seems to me like a strange kind of thing to achieve the same result.. use your broadband connection to provide cell service.,, using your electricity.. the cable-modem router you are paying them for.. and making your broadband connection more busy.

Hmmm.. I suppose if it turns it into a 4GLLTE signal tied to T-mobile.. then every T-mobile user in your area that can see that booster signal can be using your broadband to provide cell service.

Does this mean that data you use over this booster.. which is really from broadband you are paying for.. is recorded as data used in your cell phone plan? If true.. that is damn sneaky... and will it kick in throttling when you leave the house and need to use a real 4G LTE signal from T-mobile?

This sounds similar to me what the cable companies are doping to provide cell service. They use the modem-routers in peoples' homes to provide the signal to users of that cable companies cell service.



You should have your parents try wifi calling.... just in case T-mobile is playing games with getting paid for data use over that booster thing. And then that would bring us back to the OP topic.. providing good wifi signal everywhere in the house/yard.
 
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hmmm... seems pretty odd to me. Most cell companies allow you to set your phones to allow wifi calling. Which uses your wifi connection to take and make calls and all your data use. So everywhere you get wifi you have cell phone use.

This signal booster just seems to me like a strange kind of thing to achieve the same result.. use your broadband connection to provide cell service.,, using your electricity.. the cable-modem router you are paying them for.. and making your broadband connection more busy.

Hmmm.. I suppose if it turns it into a 4GLLTE signal tied to T-mobile.. then every T-mobile user in your area that can see that booster signal can be using your broadband to provide cell service.

Does this mean that data you use over this booster.. which is really from broadband you are paying for.. is recorded as data used in your cell phone plan? If true.. that is damn sneaky... and will it kick in throttling when you leave the house and need to use a real 4G LTE signal from T-mobile?

This sounds similar to me what the cable companies are doping to provide cell service. They use the modem-routers in peoples' homes to provide the signal to users of that cable companies cell service.



You should have your parents try wifi calling.... just in case T-mobile is playing games with getting paid for data use over that booster thing. And then that would bring us back to the OP topic.. providing good wifi signal everywhere in the house/yard.
The wifi calling works when they're in decent wifi signal range. They've been resistant to get a new router slash mesh network because they're cheap, so there are dead zones in the house. Also, for some reason texts don't come thru or go out in a timely manner, so I wasnt going to tell them no. But I agree...I use wifi calling all the time and it's been great.
 
Thanks to this thread, some research (and a very long line at the local Cablevision drop-in location) I ended up getting Nest for my home (Costco ran a pretty good deal online- router and three ports for $300). So far so good; used to get numerous drop spots in my son's room (part of a finished/ walk-up attic) and in the bedrooms about 2-3 rooms off the main router (and even in my home 'work spot' in the next room) that have seemingly been soundly resolved. Between work, the kids' schooling and me being back in school as well, we needed a more reliable connection (it seems like some systems were faster but would experience more fluctuations) and so far I'm a fan. My phone actually picked up a solid working connection when I was parking my car across the street after work (we're on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a 2-family home), which I thought was cool.

Joe P.
 
The wifi calling works when they're in decent wifi signal range. They've been resistant to get a new router slash mesh network because they're cheap, so there are dead zones in the house. Also, for some reason texts don't come thru or go out in a timely manner, so I wasnt going to tell them no. But I agree...I use wifi calling all the time and it's been great.
I have found there is a weirdness to texting between android and apple devices.. I haven't taken the time to get to the bottom of it.. but timing certainly was involved in some cases. Its mostly how apple penalizes non-iPhone users in MMS.. media message exchanges.. they will send only the most rudimentary versions of videos and photos out to non-iPhone users.
 
Thanks to this thread, some research (and a very long line at the local Cablevision drop-in location) I ended up getting Nest for my home (Costco ran a pretty good deal online- router and three ports for $300). So far so good; used to get numerous drop spots in my son's room (part of a finished/ walk-up attic) and in the bedrooms about 2-3 rooms off the main router (and even in my home 'work spot' in the next room) that have seemingly been soundly resolved. Between work, the kids' schooling and me being back in school as well, we needed a more reliable connection (it seems like some systems were faster but would experience more fluctuations) and so far I'm a fan. My phone actually picked up a solid working connection when I was parking my car across the street after work (we're on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a 2-family home), which I thought was cool.

Joe P.
yes you really cannot go wrong with Google Nest or Eero or any of them really. And it will be awhile before you end up with #Wifi6 devices and wish you have a wifi6 mesh network. You may never care as speed is rarely the main issue.. dependability is. And you'd have to have a lot of devices competing for constant attention before wifi6 would make a difference there. Though if you routinely transfer big files around over wifi.. maybe network speed would be a benefit.
 
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yes you really cannot go wrong with Google Nest or Eero or any of them really. And it will be awhile before you end up with #Wifi6 devices and wish you have a wifi6 mesh network. You may never care as speed is rarely the main issue.. dependability is. And you'd have to have a lot of devices competing for constant attention before wifi6 would make a difference there. Though if you routinely transfer big files around over wifi.. maybe network speed would be a benefit.

One of my brothers was in data communications in the Marines and I was talking to him about this a few weeks back; his statements were pretty much congruent with yours. I asked him about 'holding on' a bit more until wifi6 costs come down and he basically said, 'most devices aren't even using it right now and for what you run, it's not really going to make much of a difference'. You're also spot-on with consistency; I would rather have a system that tops out at '9' and consistently delivers '8's' than a system that can 'go to 11' but is usually delivering anywhere from '6-9', if that makes any sense.

...I should also thank the person in front of me in line at Cablevision a couple of weeks back. We struck up a conversation and when I told him why I was there (to exchange my router), he told me I'd probably be better off buying my own. He also got a new router from Cablevision months back but was still having drop issues; he ended up getting one of the NetGear Nighthawk routers (forgot the model but remember him saying it had 6 antennas and ran about $270) and said they've literately had zero issues since installing it. That, along with this thread are what lead to me just picking up my own router.

Joe P.
 
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One of my brothers was in data communications in the Marines and I was talking to him about it a few weeks back; his statements were pretty much congruent with yours. I asked him about 'holding on' a bit more until wifi6 costs come down and he basically said, 'most devices aren't even using it right now and for what you run, it's not really going to make much of a difference'. You're also spot-on with consistency; I would rather have a system that tops out at '9' and consistently delivers '8's' than a system that can 'go to 11' but is usually delivering anywhere from '6-9', if that makes any sense.

Joe P.
- Oorah

Rutgers and the Marines share the same birthday, Nov 10.. and both started in taverns.
 
I'm sure I am not the only one who has this issue - Fios wifi speed (gigabit connection and G3100 router) is great, but doesn't travel far in my home. Does anyone have any suggestions on purchasing multiple extenders without breaking the bank (each Verizon extender is $200).

Thx!
 
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I have Fios as well. Same speed as you. Google Wifi. Looks like it is only $200 now for 3 pods. I have 3 people working from home full time and stream TV. No issues.
 
I definitely have this issue as well. I am going to buy Google wifi on these 2 recommendations, so if it doesn't work, I'll have someone to blame.

Edit: Just ordered from Amazon. If you go there, it's $1 cheaper! $198.99! Oh, and if you don't mind buying used, you can get one there for $149.99, although they call it "renewed."
 
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Based on the responses above (thank you) I did a quick read of the Q&A on the Best Buy website and someone said that while you can use the Google mesh wifi you might have to bypass the Verizon router wifi signal or the Verizon router and Google extenders may compete with each other.

This doesn't sound right to me as I had assumed the Google wifi would simply pickup the signal via wifi (and possibly LAN connection) from the Verizon router therefore giving me 4 wifi transmitters (3 Google and 1 Verizon) in my home. The last thing I want to do is make my system complicated.

Was the Best Buy Q&A bulls#t or does adding the Google wifi create some sort of wifi conflict?
 
Based on the responses above (thank you) I did a quick read of the Q&A on the Best Buy website and someone said that while you can use the Google mesh wifi you might have to bypass the Verizon router wifi signal or the Verizon router and Google extenders may compete with each other.

This doesn't sound right to me as I had assumed the Google wifi would simply pickup the signal via wifi (and possibly LAN connection) from the Verizon router therefore giving me 4 wifi transmitters (3 Google and 1 Verizon) in my home. The last thing I want to do is make my system complicated.

Was the Best Buy Q&A bulls#t or does adding the Google wifi create some sort of wifi conflict?
You would be using the separate mesh network as your main connection in the house. I have Comcast as my service, and while the Comcast wifi network is also running, I hid the network via router setting so devices don't try to automatically connect to it. Has been working fine for me.
 
You would be using the separate mesh network as your main connection in the house. I have Comcast as my service, and while the Comcast wifi network is also running, I hid the network via router setting so devices don't try to automatically connect to it. Has been working fine for me.

Thank you for the response. So you have the Comcast router, but you're not using it?
 
I bypass the Fios router and network too, you create a new network that flows through the google wifi.
 
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