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I am looking for the fastest wireless (WiFi) solution with the best range for home. What would be the best solution? I have challenging situation with two thick floors.

Hennes
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Peter Stegnar
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2 Answers2

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Fastest wireless solution for home with the best range

For speed you may consider a 5GHz wireless network which offers a higher throughput than 2.4 GHz networks, for better range you should install directional antennae rather than range extenders as they will have a negative impact on the speed.

And here's a handy utility to do a site survey and discover 'weak spots'.

Ekahau HeatMapper is a free software tool for quick and easy coverage mapping of Wi-Fi (802.11) networks. It's the only free, easy-to-use tool that shows, on a map, the wireless network coverage in your home or small office. HeatMapper also locates all access points.

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Gaff
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Go for Wireless-N Certified devices. I cannot recommend any devices as it changes based on country, but try to look for big (network) brands - Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, Dlink etc.

However, I have had problems with houses that have thick floors, you may want to look at either running ethernet across the house or putting more than one router in your house and enabling it as a repeater / range extender.

William Hilsum
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    +! I might also look for a N-Cert device with the ability to add external, higher gain antennas – Dave M Mar 01 '10 at 18:55
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    It would be N draft devices that you'd be looking for. All of the Apple products work well with N draft networking gear. – Josh K Mar 01 '10 at 20:49