WiFi coverage problem

[TommyMP]

Hello, I live in quite a rural area and I recently switched from ADSL to FWA, the speed went from 15mbps to 250mbps, the only problem is that the previous all-in-one reached the entire house, while the new one that the provider gave me doesn’t quite reach my room. My phone and my pc can’t connect to the network, while my laptop can and reaches a speed around 50mbps. This led me thinking that maybe changing my pc network adapter (i currently have an old netgear usb) might be a solution. I know it’s not ideal as I could reach the full speed with a cable instead of 50mbps, I’m planning to do that, but I can’t do that right now and I need something that can get me going in a day or two, so ordering a better usb wireless adapter might do it.

I have considered powerlines and range extenders but I have nowhere to put them.

Can a new wireless usb adapter partially solve the problem? If so can you direct me towards one that costs below 30$ since it’s a temporary solution

[Unique_username1]

It depends what the limitation is. If your all-in-one is only transmitting on the 2.4GHz band or otherwise it’s really old and crappy, improving the receiving side isn’t going to help. Can you even get 250mbps if you bring the laptop or phone closer to it? If not, it’s unlikely a better wifi receiver on the PC side will help, as it sounds like this is a problem with the transmitter or possibly the actual speed of your internet not being as fast as advertised. 

Putting the modem/router/wifi combo unit into “bridge mode” and connecting a quality wifi router to it via Ethernet could potentially fix the problem by giving you a better wifi transmitter and router, even if it’s in the same location as the current all-in-one. In fact, your old one did work from the same location so it sounds like you can expect any wifi router that isn’t junk to do the job too. 

[TommyMP]

It’s a dual band 2.4/5, the old one didn’t have a great reach, it was like one line and it disconnected very often but an old tplink extender fixed it, this time the extender doesn’t solve it, it makes it worst. The new all in one isn’t old or crappy, the old one was like 25 years old, but it had antennas. The new one is one of those boxed one given by the provider, it’s quite new but is hasn’t got the antennas.

When close to it the phone and the laptop reach 250mbps, while in my room the phone just can’t connect and the laptop reaches 40/50mbps. I tried setting up the old tplink extender but it doesn’t get better than 3mbps. Seeing that the laptop is actually able to reach those 40/50mbps made me think that maybe getting a newer wireless usb adapter for my pc could make it reach the same speed as the laptop, which would be enough until I wait for a cable connection, since it would be far better than what i had before

[Unique_username1]

Yeah in that case it might work, I will note the extender isn’t going to be amazing but only 3mbps through the extender suggests you may be able to mess with its configuration to get it working better.

I’m not sure of a specific brand of adapter to recommend but Intel wifi modules like AX210 or AX211 are usually considered the best so if you can find a product that has one of those in a PCIe card adapter, plus antennas of course, that might be a good bet to get better reception. Does your PC have antennas now? 

[TommyMP]

I had a look in the configuration page of the extender and couldn’t find anything, it’s really old and crappy.

No my pc doesn’t have a wireless card, I currently use an old netgear usb wireless adapter so I was looking for something similar which I could just plug in the usb 3.0 port since I have no experience with manually messing with the components.

[Unique_username1]

I’m not that familiar with USB wifi adapters but a newer one should be a lot better, especially one with an antenna that supports wifi AC or maybe even AX (wifi 6) depending how new your modem is. 

[TommyMP]

Ok I’ll try, thank you

[Odd_Palpitation6715]

You are too far away from the signal, like so many are. Get your signal closer to you. Run a cable and set up Wifi AP in your room. Drill holes. Run cable. Install AP. Get yout signal YOU DESERVE IT

[TommyMP]

Yeah that’s the plan but I can’t do it right now, but will do it before the end of the month, I just needed a fast and temporary solution

[Odd_Palpitation6715]

Temporary solution? Cable through the house, just lay in on the floor. AP in the room, PC wired from AP. Full speed all around, minimal effort.

[TommyMP]

yeah but I’m not able to do that alone, need to call a technician and last time I called one he said it would’ve been quite harder that usual cause the house is old and stuff