Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

[G-Man]

We have a modem for our ADSL line that was supplied by the telephone company that installed the line. The latest upgrade was around 2-3 years ago.

Thing, is, we have a fairly big house (single storey, but long), and the WiFi really is bad in the corners of the house further from the modem, which is also, by force, situated at the furthest room. We have a booster, located in the middle of the house, but the signal is still poor, even when our bandwidth use is low.

Is it worth investing in a more expensive modem, or is that scene a scam? If I ought to buy one, what do I look out for?

[Stumpy Pepys]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

I'm sure a newer model will help, but by how much, I don't know.

If you're in a busy area, changing the channel can help. As will keeping the firmware up-to-date.

I believe there are firmware router hacks one can use to boost signal strength, but that depends how adventurous you are.

Anyone used powerline adapters?

[anton pulisov]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

My parents use power line adapters and they work quite well. You could put a second wifi router on the other side of the house, linked to the modem through the power line. (The best way would be to link using an ethernet cable, but that would involve drilling holes and stuff).

Where is the modem? In the utility cupboard? That is always a bad place. Maybe you can mount it on the wall or ceiling outside the utility cupboard.

[Levin]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

Oooh boy. This is a big one.

I'll start off with saying that boosters that aren't connected by cable(/powerline) to your base station are killing your wifi.

More in a bit.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

Levin wrote: I'll start off with saying that boosters that aren't connected by cable(/powerline) to your base station are killing your wifi.

That's a rather bold statement.

Without a repeater, my signal strength is about 59% in my living room. With one, it's 82%.

[Levin]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

Oh it'll boost the signal strength but it halves the available bandwidth as wifi repeaters do what they say on the tin. They take the signal from the primary station and copy it 0 for 0. So a large chunk of the bandwidth is taken up by a copy of the data being transferred (both ways) this affects older devices more as they are more likely to have fewer radios which leaves less time free to talk to your devices.

[Levin]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

I use a powerline adapter booster and it works pretty well.

I would also recommend using a Wifi Analyser app to see what channels are in use around you and manually configuring your wifi channels to ones that have less interference. Don't set both of your waps to the same channel as they'll interfere with themselves.

(A couple of months ago I had to re-plan 30 WAPs over 5 floors because they were all set to the same or too close together channels).

on 2.4GHz wifi use one of 1, 5, 9, or 13 as this leaves the smallest overlap.

If you can (it'll depend upon the ages of your devices) use 5GHz (maybe even disable 2.4GHz on your WAPs), the channels can carry more data and they are designed to not overlap (though as above use an app to check that none of your neighbours are using the same channel).

Edit: as to your original question a new router will improve things slightly but you'll get more bang for your buck using powerline or cabling and multiple access points.

[Ginger Yellow]

Upgrading a modem for WiFi?

Powerline is probably your best bet but a decent (eg Nighthawk grade) router will probably make a huge difference too. It may be overkill, however, depending on your ADSL speeds.