Why does the speed fall through the Wi-Fi signal amplifier in the 2.4 GHz range?

Hello! I have such a problem: there is a main router D-Link Dir-615, in the far room Wi-Fi does not reach or speed nikakukuyuschuyu. I put in the middle of the house amplifier Zyxel Keenetic Start II, first worked for 10 minutes (speed 40-50 Mbit/s) and then the signal disappeared or the speed dropped to 0.3-0.7 Mbit/s.

I decided to update the firmware on Keenetic and everything worked stably, a week kept, then sometimes disconnected, but after certain manipulations (delete the Wi-Fi network for example and a new enter, disconnect from the network and turn back on the amplifier) and again everything began to work stably (about a month). And now again it drops out every 10-20 minutes, the speed cuts to ~0.5 Mbps.

Looked what channel shows through the Insider, 1+5, and 1-2 more neighbors with the same channels. Is there any way out? Or is already useless to experiment and just buy a new router with a frequency of 5 GHz!? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Answer

Hello. Did I understand correctly, you have a Zyxel Keenetic router configured as a Wi-Fi signal booster? A network that is built from a router and an amplifier (repeater) very rarely works stably and as desired. With a Wi-Fi signal booster, the speed will always be slower. The speed itself depends on a large number of different factors. Including interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks and different devices.

In your case, the reason for such a drop in speed through the repeater and unstable network operation is most likely interference. The 2.4 GHz band is very crowded right now. You have found out that only on your channel there are two more networks. Even if the signal strength of these networks is not very strong in your apartment, they can still cause interference.

What I would try to do:

Find a less free channel of Wi-Fi network through the same program inSSIDer and change the channel to static in the settings of D-Link DIR-615. Save the settings, reboot it. Then turn off and turn on the Zyxel Keenetic amplifier. Or do a reset on it and reconfigure it.
Try to change the location of the repeater. It is already necessary to look at the place. Try to place it as close to the main router as possible. But so that it covers the desired room with signal.
Consider a variant of the router location, in which the repeater is not needed. You can look at the article in which I told you where to install a Wi-Fi router in an apartment or house. Except that it’s a pity that moving the router around the house is usually limited by a short network cable from the provider. Or lack of ability to run this cable to the right room.

If you do have such problems with Wi-Fi due to interference, then buying a dual-band router and moving to 5 GHz will solve the problem. But you should realize that the network coverage in the 5 GHz band will be even worse than in the 2.4 GHz band (such a feature). And then you will have to put a signal booster. Only this Zyxel Keenetic Start II will not work anymore. You will need a new one with 5 GHz support (802.11ac standard).

If the budget allows, you can look at wi-fi Mesh systems. They are cool devices. You can buy some system of two modules, they should be enough for you. If what – you can add one more module. And the main thing, compared to conventional repeaters – with the help of Wi-Fi Mesh system you can build a seamless Wi-Fi network. You won’t even notice that you have two devices giving out wi-fi. Switching between modules without losing connection.