I've recently purchased my first Tesla (2022 Model Y), and it can't see my home wifi. My router is a Netgear Nighthawk X4S R7800 (from back around 2016) located in an office with several walls between it and the apartment parking lot where my car is. There's an outlet right next to a window facing the parking lot which would theoretically be a good place to stick a wifi extender, but I'm wondering if there would be any issues with using one with a router as old as mine. Would I be okay just getting an extender, or would I be better off getting a wifi 6/7 router?
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Upgrading wifi for Tesla - extender, new router, or both?
- Thread starter DoctorWTF
- Start date
I tried an inexpensive ( $45 ) extender with marginal effect. (10 year old Linksys)
Ultimately retuned it and splurged on a Linksys Velop 6 Mesh 3 node Atlas Pro on sale on Amazon for $200.
“Last years model?”
W A Y more reliable/secure/customizable. W A Y glad I spent the extra $. Wish I had saved the time/hassle.
Ultimately retuned it and splurged on a Linksys Velop 6 Mesh 3 node Atlas Pro on sale on Amazon for $200.
“Last years model?”
W A Y more reliable/secure/customizable. W A Y glad I spent the extra $. Wish I had saved the time/hassle.
Had fun with this. My router is down in the basement, which works fine broadcasting up to the rest of the house.
But the attached garage has its foundations on dirt, so the coverage had to go through a couple walls and about 15’ of earth. Barely had any connectivity at all.
However, had the solar panel inverters in the garage; their only connectivity was wired CAT5E. Good enough: for them, ran a CAT5E from the router, through the ceiling of the basement, through a crawlspace, through a 2x4, and along the side of the garage to where the inverters lived. Used a small 4-port hub to connect the two inverters to the single Ethernet cable to the router.
Much later, when got the Tesla, the wi-fi coverage was lousy. So tried using a cheapie range extender, about $20. And discovered a nasty fact: most of these broadcast stations packets on the same band as the router. Which means that, even if on the fringe of the main router’s coverage, all those extra packets from the rebroadcasts interfere with everything else in the house, resulting in lower and intermittent coverage for all the other wi-fi.
Now for the trick: the two extenders I ended up with both had an RJ-45 on them. In extender mode, these are handy spots to plug in, say, an Ethernet-wired printer.
But these extenders both had a different mode: Access Point! Put them into Access Point mode and connect an Ethernet cable back to one of the router’s wired ports. Then, configure the Access Point to have its own SSID, WPA security, band, and all; the router handles routing, firewall, and all that jazz.
Plugged the now-AP into one of the power sockets in the garage, connected another CAT5E patch cable from the hub to the AP, and was done.
So, if you can run a CAT5E from your router to the extender/AP in the garage, or close to the garage, that’s the way to go.
But the attached garage has its foundations on dirt, so the coverage had to go through a couple walls and about 15’ of earth. Barely had any connectivity at all.
However, had the solar panel inverters in the garage; their only connectivity was wired CAT5E. Good enough: for them, ran a CAT5E from the router, through the ceiling of the basement, through a crawlspace, through a 2x4, and along the side of the garage to where the inverters lived. Used a small 4-port hub to connect the two inverters to the single Ethernet cable to the router.
Much later, when got the Tesla, the wi-fi coverage was lousy. So tried using a cheapie range extender, about $20. And discovered a nasty fact: most of these broadcast stations packets on the same band as the router. Which means that, even if on the fringe of the main router’s coverage, all those extra packets from the rebroadcasts interfere with everything else in the house, resulting in lower and intermittent coverage for all the other wi-fi.
Now for the trick: the two extenders I ended up with both had an RJ-45 on them. In extender mode, these are handy spots to plug in, say, an Ethernet-wired printer.
But these extenders both had a different mode: Access Point! Put them into Access Point mode and connect an Ethernet cable back to one of the router’s wired ports. Then, configure the Access Point to have its own SSID, WPA security, band, and all; the router handles routing, firewall, and all that jazz.
Plugged the now-AP into one of the power sockets in the garage, connected another CAT5E patch cable from the hub to the AP, and was done.
So, if you can run a CAT5E from your router to the extender/AP in the garage, or close to the garage, that’s the way to go.
Well.. I was lucky. Back in 2004, the SO and I bought a pre-construction house. The builders were local and pretty amenable, so, shortly after all the electrical wiring went in but before the sheet rock went up, my mid-teenaged son and I (with the builder's permission) ran all over the house with Home Depot CAT5E cable, with every room getting two runs, and all the runs ending up in the basement with four-per-cover CAT5E sockets to plug into.
The nice part of that scheme was that RJ11 (telephone) plugs are compatible with RJ45 sockets, so the same Ethernet wiring worked just fine for running telephone cables around.
Given that, at the time, the basement was unfinished, adding another cable to the pile that ran along the ceiling (well, the cross-beams, really) of the basement, through to a crawlspace, and from there into the garage was trivial.
The problem you've got is that you've got no Ethernet cabling from your router to, apparently, anywhere, with the possible exception of your PC and NAS. Which I'm presuming are co-located with your router.
Well, I'd suggest that if you've got an attic (going up) or a basement (going down) available, running a CAT5E cable through the ceiling or floor, respectively, would likely get you closer to what you'd like. The idea being to get that cable into the garage, somehow. CAT5E supports a couple of hundred feet at Gb/s speeds; if you can get the end of that cable near the garage and some power socket, then putting a cheapie range extender into access point mode, on another band than what the Nighthawk is using, is probably the cheapest way out.
Thing is: Mesh networks do their thing, by design, without needing Ethernet cables running between the nodes, and with no slowdown due to the packet collisions that one gets with range extenders. Admittedly, one gets a lot finer control over the wifi with your router (I also own a Nighthawk, much older than yours) and can do nifty things like port passthrough that these "managed" mesh boxes won't touch. Not to mention local VPN support.
The nice part of that scheme was that RJ11 (telephone) plugs are compatible with RJ45 sockets, so the same Ethernet wiring worked just fine for running telephone cables around.
Given that, at the time, the basement was unfinished, adding another cable to the pile that ran along the ceiling (well, the cross-beams, really) of the basement, through to a crawlspace, and from there into the garage was trivial.
The problem you've got is that you've got no Ethernet cabling from your router to, apparently, anywhere, with the possible exception of your PC and NAS. Which I'm presuming are co-located with your router.
Well, I'd suggest that if you've got an attic (going up) or a basement (going down) available, running a CAT5E cable through the ceiling or floor, respectively, would likely get you closer to what you'd like. The idea being to get that cable into the garage, somehow. CAT5E supports a couple of hundred feet at Gb/s speeds; if you can get the end of that cable near the garage and some power socket, then putting a cheapie range extender into access point mode, on another band than what the Nighthawk is using, is probably the cheapest way out.
Thing is: Mesh networks do their thing, by design, without needing Ethernet cables running between the nodes, and with no slowdown due to the packet collisions that one gets with range extenders. Admittedly, one gets a lot finer control over the wifi with your router (I also own a Nighthawk, much older than yours) and can do nifty things like port passthrough that these "managed" mesh boxes won't touch. Not to mention local VPN support.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
Any good WiFi AC, 6, or newer will likely perform better than an N or earlier router with a range extender. First, they have higher throughput from the start. Then, their beamforming antennae put the power where it's needed most. Since yours is AC2600 and you don't get the needed performance, you'd probably be better off with a Mesh system.
Another option is to get another router that can be configured as a range extender (e.g., LinksysWRT1900AC, which worked for me in the past), but only if you can find one cheaply, and you don't want to pay for a Mesh system.
Another option is to get another router that can be configured as a range extender (e.g., LinksysWRT1900AC, which worked for me in the past), but only if you can find one cheaply, and you don't want to pay for a Mesh system.
fholbert
Active Member
For the record, a router isn’t a wireless access point. Some have a WAP built into them but the job of a router change ip addresses from the outside to your inside ip addresses, typically 192.168.1.x. You don’t need another router, you need a couple small business WAP’s.
Install a POE (power over Ethernet) switch patching it into your router. Turn off your routers WiFi, pull some CAT 5 or better cable from your POE switch to where you want your new WAP’s. Install a couple WAP’s where you need them. In my case I installed WAP’s both inside and outside my home. I used Cisco products but there are much cheaper options.
store.ui.com
store.ui.com
Install a POE (power over Ethernet) switch patching it into your router. Turn off your routers WiFi, pull some CAT 5 or better cable from your POE switch to where you want your new WAP’s. Install a couple WAP’s where you need them. In my case I installed WAP’s both inside and outside my home. I used Cisco products but there are much cheaper options.
Switch Ultra 60W - Ubiquiti Store
A compact, Layer 2, 8-port GbE PoE switch with versatile mounting options.
store.ui.com
Access Point U6 Lite - Ubiquiti Store
Compact, ceiling-mounted WiFi 6 AP with 4 spatial streams ideal for smaller offices.
store.ui.com
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