ISP router wifi range

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨rambos@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

Hello Lemmy,

We finaly moved to a new place with fiber connection woop! ISP installed ZXHN F670L FTTH next to entrance door where electronic cabinet is. Appartment is just 60 m2 and we have issues with wifi signal.

Tv (Xiaomi TV stick) is mounted on the wall just 4-5 m from the router (no door, just corner of the wall is barrier from the line of sight). I can see 2.4 GHz wifi at 50% signal and 5 GHz takes like 30 sec to even show on TV menu. 5 GHz wifi is at 20-30% only and when I connect its unusable.

PC in next room is losing connection all the time and thats behind 2 walls.

If Im not just next to a router, I have better signal from 2 neighbours that use same ISP (I can tell from SSID).

I called them and they said techician will come on monday to check and possibly replace router with some Huawei model.

I still have old (coax cable) router from old place, I placed it in same spot for testing and signal is much better. Still not perfect, but TV has 80-90% and PC in next room is almost the same.

Do I just have crappy router or my walls are wifi unfriendly what do you think? I dont need super high speed on wifi, but I need stable connection (2 android phones, 1 work laptop, 2 smart switches and few smart appliances). More important devices like server and main PC are using cable connection. This router has 1GB LAN ports and Im fine with that since my speed is 300/100 only. 100 Mbps would be plenty for Wifi.

Should I stick with 2.4 GHz and fight with neighbour routers? Can I expect better signal from Huawei (sorry dont know exact model yet)? What if ISP cant provide proper solution, what wifi AP would you recommend? I could place AP in another room and connect to a router via UTP cable.

Thx in advance

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Comments

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lungdart@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
discord.com/servers/8311-886329492438671420

Get rid of their junk equipment and put something decent in. Discord link is a group dedicated to doing just that. You may find info for your specific ISP.

If you do it right, you won’t even need their gear inline at all.

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- rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thank you, I will probably ask on discord as well. Shame its US/CA based, Im in Croatia (sad part of EU). Getting rid of ISP equipemment sounds amazing
  
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Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Not every ISP allows this, but my ISP router is in Bridge mode and forwards all the traffic to my own wifi router. This means I get to place the thing and have full control over my wifi.

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- rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thanks. I dont see that option in router settings unfortunately, but I was thinking about that. I might ask ISP to change to bridge mode if thats even possible from their side. I used to have their DSL router in bridge mode long time ago. What router do you use?
  
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  - Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Mine is a TP Link AX 1500. No complaints so far.
    
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ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Combination wifi & router devices are notoriously unstable. Those provided by ISPs are particularly bad. If you have the ability and the funds, spend a little more to get a prosumer router and wireless AP as separate devices that connect to your modem in bridge mode. In the long run, for me anyway, the stability and reliability of this kind of setup paid for itself quickly in less of my time wasted. My setup: my own cable modem per the specs my ISP provided, a unifi edge router X, and a unifi AP. Everything except the AP live in a little electronics cabinet tucked away. The AP gets it’s power over Ethernet, so it can be mounted to a better placement with regard to walls, doors, pipes, etc. on a wall or ceiling with only a length of Ethernet cable running to the router. The AP itself just looks like a hand sized bump of white on the wall. I turned off the AP’s status lights once it was setup so that it remains as discreet as possible.

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- rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thank you for detailes answer. I might go that route, but need to find slsuitable device(s). Ill check what unifi sells on our market
  
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talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
One thing you can try doing before throwing away the router (which is probably the exact same one your neighbor use) is checking the channel situation in your condo with an app like WiFiAnalyzer and also try moving the router around (some spots are better than others - and hi up is usually better)

That said, ISP routers are often terrible.

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- rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thank you. I changed both 2.4 and 5 GHz channels already. Moving router helps a lot, but short fiber doesnt let me to move it to any other wall. Router is on the cardboard box on the floor for now. I could mount it above cabinet, but seems like its just tad better there. Not worth IMO, I need to cut the cabinet door to guide all cables… If new router doesnt help Ill probably buy wifi AP and mount it in another room where I have LAN connection already. I could also replace wifi antennas, but feels wrong to invest in such a bad device that I dont even own. Its just funny how bad it is and we are talking about <5m distance
  
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rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Update: they replaced a router with Huawei HG8145V5 and wifi was much much better, but freaking UI was supper laggy and I couodnt change some settings (like wifi channel) so I insisted on new one (again huawei) which finally arrived today. Getting almost full signal everywhere and 170/130 on speed test in the worst spot and UI is perfectly fine. Our walls and cabinet might be bad for wifi, but obviously ISP routers are just crap. I also found out bridge mode is not possible. Ill stick with this one for now, lets hope this serial number is lucky 😉

Thank you all for help

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PeachMan@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You can do a lot better by buying your own modem and router, but that can be expensive. The thing you’re doing right now is a good idea if you don’t want to spend a lot of money, whine at your internet provider and get them to send you a better router.

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- rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thx for comment. It would be nice if they replace router and fix the problem, but Im aware their equipment is trash. Im not hoping too much honestly. Good to see all comments here to be more aware of truth. Ill probably buy my own router/modem/ap just need to figure out whats best for me.
  
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  - whoxtank28@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I called them out for a service, was having them move my fiber box to a different room. When the guy was here, I asked if he could replace my router with a newer model, and he replaced it with the best and newest one they provide lol.
    
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