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JoshInKC
December 8th, 2014, 08:03 AM
Okay- Long story short, cell signal at my house has gotten worse over the past few years, complaints have done nothing. Changed carriers to tmobile, who allow wifi calling. Said wifi calling works great when in line of sight or very close to the Google fiber modem/router. The modem/router thing has never had great wifi coverage to begin with, so I assume this is simply an effect of that.
I'm considering getting a new router or something (A bridge? A booster? Are those things?) to plug into the G/F box and improve its signal, etc. So, my questions are - Is there any obvious reason this won't work? Any recomendations as to specific products or types of product that'll help?

thesameguy
December 8th, 2014, 09:44 AM
There are some considerations here, and it's probably worth trying to visualize where you want to be ultimately to help determine what it is you should add. But, the first question, is it possible to disable the wifi on the Googlemachine and add a newer/better access point? Does the Googlemachine have a 5GHz band?

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2014, 09:49 AM
Google Fiber Help - Use your own router (https://support.google.com/fiber/answer/2446100?hl=en)

JoshInKC
December 8th, 2014, 01:40 PM
It is definitely possible to disable the WiFi and plug another router in, as to whether or not it is 5ghz capable, I'll have to check when I get home.

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2014, 02:10 PM
https://support.google.com/fiber/answer/2667456?hl=en

Yes, it supports 5 Ghz.

Alan P
December 8th, 2014, 05:07 PM
What devices are you trying to connect? If you feel capable then try setting a different SSID on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. if your devices support 5GHz then you can be sure you're connecting to the 5GHz as some devices will flip to 2.4GHz almost automatically. 5GHz is way less congested compared to 2.4Ghz but the range is slightly less. it may also be worth downloading some sort of Wi-Fi analyser to check the channels. A good free one on Android is 'Wi-Fi analyzer' funnily enough. Lists the other networks around you and shows their channel.

thesameguy
December 8th, 2014, 06:34 PM
I think my approach would be a Netgear EX6200. They are pricey, but they do work well. You can configure the 5GHz band on the googlethingy to connect to the 5GHz side of the AC6200, and then use the 2.4GHz band as a second wifi network on the other side of the house. Latency could be an issue for voice communication, so I'd buy the Netgear locally so you can return it if necessary. This is probably the quickest path to a bigger wifi network.

Another approach might be to get one of the Netgear powerline-based wifi repeaters - the XWNB5201. As long as you have a stable electrical system in the house and you don't need a huge extension to the wifi coverage this is another quick way to get more wifi. Latency will be reduced and cost will be lower than the EX6200, but they have kinda crap range in exchange.

JoshInKC
December 10th, 2014, 04:18 AM
Having done a bit more research, apparently this is a not uncommon problem with the Samsung Note 4, and there are a few suggestions as to router settings that might improve the issue. Therefore, I'm going to call google and see if they can step-by-step me through that part. That is one annoying thing about google fiber- all the advanced settings are sort of buried and laid out weirdly.
The other real annoyance is the fact that they chose to use crappy radios- which I think is part of my problem, so I'm going to be looking into range extenders one way or the other - it'd be great to get a clear wifi signal on my front porch.
But, since I have the first-gen GF box, maybe they'll give me one of the new ones, which are supposed to be better.

FaultyMario
June 16th, 2015, 12:22 PM
In the same vein.


Modem is in the upstairs apt. (We live in a duplex, of sorts). Woman complains m-i-l cant make full use of her smart tv. Wifi signal cant get past the old school concrete slab dividing the 2 apts.

Our telmex overlords sell a lan-thru-the-ac kit we can t really use cause the apts are on different circuits.

What would the best solution be? Ethernet cable around concrete slab and the a) router or b) ac kit plugged to m-i-l's circuit?

thesameguy
June 16th, 2015, 12:39 PM
You could do that, or you could invest in a legit wifi repeater. The Netgear EX6200 works pretty well, especially if you have a dual band router and can use the 5GHz band to "bridge" to the EX6200... Then you have 2.4GHz clients to the EX6200, 5GHz traffic back to the router. Cramming all the activity on a single band causes lag and loss of bandwidth. It may not be an issue for streaming, but it's hell on games.

thesameguy
June 16th, 2015, 12:42 PM
Another option that might work is using a wifi bridge like the Linksys WUMC710 and those Powerline adapters. Put the WUMC710 in a place where there is good wifi reception, then run a cable to a Powerline adapter that's on the same circuit as the MIL. It'd be a little more costly, but possibly a better result.

drew
June 25th, 2015, 03:03 AM
Crack that thing open and MacGuyver them bitches. Crank it to 11 and get wi-fi a mile away :)

FaultyMario
June 25th, 2015, 11:39 AM
I'm gunna half ass it.
One of these days.

21Kid
June 29th, 2015, 03:52 PM
We just recently moved into a duplex as well. The house apparently was wired with CAT-5 which is nice. But, not in every room. I have an extra Linksys E1200 (802.11n) laying around. Can I use this to get a wifi signal on the other side of the house on the 2nd floor. Our main router is on the top floor on one end and we need to get the signal to the other end, and 1st floor of course.

thesameguy
June 29th, 2015, 05:45 PM
Sure, you can do that. Set the WAN side configuration to static IP and give it some bogus IP address like 192.168.168.1, turn off DHCP, and connect the wall to one of the LAN ports. Leave the internet port empty.

mk
June 30th, 2015, 02:07 AM
Then all wireless to 2nd box is also static

I'd try:
2st box 192.168.1.2 DHCP relay
1st box 192.168.1.1 DHCP starting >2

With multiple routers you'll get hierarchical network where all connections are not equal.
Means that default sharing works only one way.

21Kid
June 30th, 2015, 06:31 AM
Thanks! It's mainly just so my daughter can watch netflix in her room.

thesameguy
June 30th, 2015, 08:44 AM
I don't understand exactly what mk is saying, but I think he's confused. ;)

The point is to misdirect the internet side of the second router and use only its switch and access point to participate on your existing network. One other thing you will want to do give the router a specific address on its LAN side. They usually default to ".1" but you can change that to whatever. In fact, you must change that or it'll get angry with your real router. Make a note of what you set it to so you can log back into it in the future. ;)

21Kid
June 30th, 2015, 08:45 AM
:lol: noted.

mk
June 30th, 2015, 12:12 PM
My experience is that those boxes are not behaving in these cases, maybe I've tried wrong hardware.

If the need is only as described you can use the second box as a normal router,
just change third octet of its address to something else than the first ones.

On the other hand, you can try Dynamic Routing, should be available.
To do so you first disable NAT and then enable Dynamic Routing a new setting, if I understood the procedure.

Anyway, TSG's style is best if it works.

OT,
I read that a malware of some sort tries to connect to dafault network admins up to 7 or so as a 3rd octet

thesameguy
June 30th, 2015, 12:20 PM
IP is IP, it doesn't matter what the WAN side of the box is doing so long as the LAN side is set up properly. This configuration will work on any normal consumer router. There is no way it can't!

mk
June 30th, 2015, 12:59 PM
What if it is routing ports separately and sees different networks.

It's not unheard eighter that the switch function is deliberately cripled if another router is present.
Like you need to support our cause and buy a switch.

thesameguy
June 30th, 2015, 02:34 PM
That would be insane. The router would literally have to inspect every packet and determine whether each packet's header makes sense and then do something. That would require a lot of overhead and a lot of processing. Nobody would build that into a cheap consumer router.

mk
July 1st, 2015, 02:07 AM
Must admit I've lost interest years ago.
Maybe we just had a bad hardware period, but back then many had stock piles of adsl modems with 4 port switch and constantly breaking external microswitches.
Those modems were also practically free, new one came with every ISP change, with no extra cost, nor discount if rejected, were generally not locked and didn't like to be a switch with other modem.

Can't think of 1G SOHO router eighter, 10MB/s today then shouldn't be an issue at all.
And router part is always there, it's not disconnected.
Also, generally the box has only one chip and then one software also, maybe modems have two.
Means that the programmer has desided what happens to the packet that for some reason is not part of the configured network.

Anyway, Kid will tell.

mk
July 15th, 2015, 10:26 AM
Or not.

21Kid
July 16th, 2015, 06:30 AM
:lol: Haven't had time. Just wanted to see if it was possible. :)

mk
July 16th, 2015, 06:41 AM
Keep your eyes open when you try it.

My take is that if you buy say an access point that's what you get, but if you buy a wireless router you may also get a part that only looks like an access point.