Installing Wi-Fi repeaters at home is a very common solution to improve the wireless network and have Internet on all devices. They are simple devices that connect to the router and distribute the connection to other places. However, the truth is that they do not always serve our objective and we may have coverage or stability problems. Therefore, we are going to talk to you about how many repeaters you need and we will also give you an alternative solution.
Achieving a Stable Home Connection
The goal is to achieve a good connection at home. There are more and more connected devices, mainly due to home automation, and that forces us to find a way to have a stable wireless network that allows many things to be connected without becoming saturated. The quality of the devices we use is going to be key.
Determining the Number of Wi-Fi Repeaters
But how many Wi-Fi repeaters do you need at home? Is one enough or do you need more? Everything will depend on each case, where you are going to use the devices, the capacity of the router, the size of the home… For example, a determining factor is where you are going to place the router. If you put it in a central area, it will be better at distributing the signal and, therefore, you will need fewer repeaters or even none at all.
On the other hand, if you have the router in an area further away from the home or your house is large, then you may need to install more than one repeater to be able to connect devices. The ideal is that you carefully check the signal strength, do speed tests and determine if you really need repeaters or simply connecting to the router is enough. Yes, you must take into account the importance of each repeater you use not being too far from the router. If the distance is excessive, you could have problems connecting, since the signal would be very weak or not even able to provide Internet to other devices.
Choosing the Right Repeater
Therefore, having more or fewer repeaters will depend on the general coverage of your home. We recommend that you do a test to determine the signal strength in each place where you need Internet and see if installing a repeater really improves or if you don’t need it.
Another aspect that you should consider highly is to buy simultaneous dual-band repeaters and even simultaneous triple-band repeaters, depending on the real speed you need to achieve:
- Dual-band Wi-Fi Repeaters: this type of Wi-Fi repeater allows you to connect to the router in the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band, although there are some models that allow you to connect to both bands simultaneously. Once connected to the router, what they all do is repeat the signal in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands so that wireless clients can connect. If the trunk link (between the router and the repeater) is made at 5GHz, all clients that connect to this band will lose half of the available bandwidth due to the “jump,” this is something completely normal and you should keep it in mind.
- Triple-band Wi-Fi Repeaters: these repeaters allow you to connect with the router in a 5GHz band dedicated specifically for interconnection, in this way, clients who connect to 2.4GHz and 5GHz will have the best possible wireless performance since in the trunk band there is no There are “slow” clients that harm the interconnection. For this reason, we always recommend triple-band equipment if you want to obtain the best possible performance.
It is also very important to choose a Wi-Fi repeater that allows it to be integrated into the mesh network, for example, all models from the manufacturer AVM allow Mesh if we use the FRITZ!Box routers, perfect for having WiFi roaming available between the nodes and also band-steering in the wireless connection.
Opt for Mesh systems
If there is a useful method to improve the Internet connection at home, it is to install a Mesh system. They are satellites that connect to each other and not directly to the router, as would be the case with a normal Wi-Fi repeater. This allows the connection to be taken to more distant places and coverage problems do not appear.
Depending on the Mesh system model you use, you may have more or fewer satellites. Normally, a kit of 2-3 satellites is more than enough for a regular home. They will be able to cover an area of several hundred square meters and avoid having a limited connection, which could compromise the Internet signal.
In short, as you can see, you may need to improve the connection in various areas of your home. It is essential to really know whether or not you need to have several repeaters, although you can choose to install a Mesh system and cover a larger area without problems.