Router in the Attic FTW

[Swamp_Yankee]

This lockdown did a lot to expose the weaknesses in my home wireless network.  When we first bought our house the CenturyLink guy came out and we wired up a quick and dirty DSL hookup and I just put the modem/wireless router combo in the basement because it was convenient.  I had always meant to move it but a half a million other projects got in the way and the service was decent enough.  Fast forward to now having installed a FireStick on the living room TV which is on the opposite side of the house, and the fact that my oldest daughter likes to retreat to her bedroom on the second floor/far side of the house to do her schoolwork on her school issued I-pad, we were starting to have issues.  Our children are not allowed to have their own wireless devices, so the I-pad at home is a new thing.  Regardless, she was trying to video conference with her teachers and it was dropping out, the FireStick would drop out, etc... 

I got 100' of regular phone line and tapped into the box on the side of the house, then ran it up the side (hiding the phone line in the corner trim) and into the soffit.  Luckily we have a walk up attic with lights and electrical outlets installed, so I was able to run the phone line from where it came into the soffit to spot right over the upstairs hallway, dead center of the house.  I then tapped the electrical box for one of the lights and ran some 14/2 Romex to an outlet and mounted it on a collar tie.  From there it was plug and play-after I fired up the modem I checked the signal with my phone all over the house.  Every room is full strength all the way down to the basement!  Mounting up high helps tremendously with signal propagation.  As far as the modem/router living in the attic, we'll see how it goes.  I've read a lot of mixed reviews but I found a few with people who have done it long term with no ill effects.  What they seem to have in common is that their attics are well ventilated as is mine.  I have a 3x3 1/2HP fan set to come on around 90°F at one end and a passive vent at the other.  In the event it does die I'll just get another one from my ISP.  I don't think they charge for them. 

Finally, I moved the WiFi extender that I had installed for the Swampcam.  Previously it was just mounted outside of my walkout basement door, now its almost 40' in the air.  I affixed it to an old satellite dish mount that was attached to the boiler chimney.  It used to struggle to make it the 150 yards to my stand-I'll be curious to see how strong the signal is all directions now.  It should be strong enough that I can install a few more cameras and have no issues using an Alexa for music in my barn or by the firepit.  Better living through wireless networking.

[hunterbob1]

Century Link👎https://nextdoor.com/post/134866648?init_source=copy_link_share

Edited May 3, 2020 by hunterbob1

[Northjerseyoutdoorsman]

Definitely not a good idea having your modem and router in the attic. That extreme temperature swings are not good for them . I have replaced dozens of them for this reason.  Your wireless will be better for now until it burns out. 

[Swamp_Yankee]

1 hour ago, Northjerseyoutdoorsman said:

Definitely not a good idea having your modem and router in the attic. That extreme temperature swings are not good for them . I have replaced dozens of them for this reason.  Your wireless will be better for now until it burns out. 

We'll see.  I wouldn't have done if I hadn't found lots of accounts of people who had done the same thing with no issues.  

[madeinuk]

2 hours ago, Northjerseyoutdoorsman said:

Definitely not a good idea having your modem and router in the attic. That extreme temperature swings are not good for them . I have replaced dozens of them for this reason.  Your wireless will be better for now until it burns out. 

From what I read above, SY's attic is ventilated so isn't quite subject to quite the extremely high temperatures that you can have in an attic.

We have solar attic fans which vent out some of the worst heat quite well taking the attic from 'hot as balls' prior to the installation in July to just hot.

Regarding the low temperatures of Winter, my experience has always been that they work better the cooler they are.

Personally, I am watching this to see how long his router lasts but I expect it to have an almost normal lifetime.

[Swamp_Yankee]

13 hours ago, madeinuk said:

Personally, I am watching this to see how long his router lasts but I expect it to have an almost normal lifetime.

Even if it doesn't, with a little more work I could relocate it to the top shelf of the hall closet, which it is currently sitting directly above.  It would be completely climate controlled and only about 12" lower than where it is currently.  I just didn't feel like cutting holes in the attic floor, closet ceiling, etc...  With the router where it sits currently I get "normal" service all the way out here (approximately) 200' from the house.  At about 150' the service is "good."

This is with just the regular Centurylink router.  I haven't reconfigured the Wavlink extender yet.  I was getting marginal WiFi at 150 yards with it mounted 6' above grade, so it will be interesting to see how far it goes where it's mounted now.  

[NJ Predator]

I have two wifi extenders in the house and I do believe they work just fine.

[Swamp_Yankee]

Update:  Last week Mrs. Yankee and I were experiencing some speed issues during video conference meetings and then Amazon FireTV was having trouble connecting which was the last straw for my kids.  We had some hot days so I wondered if that was the end of my little experiment   I called India and after fighting with them for about 20 minutes about whether or not I was actually a customer (they couldn't find my account for some reason-funny, the bills always seem to find their way here...) and another 20 minutes fighting about why they needed to send a tech out, they agreed to.  When the tech showed up he tested my connection at the box and had 10.0 Mbps solid, but then I explained to him what I had done.  He took one look at the phone wire I had used from Ace Hardware and guessed that's what the problem was.  I had just figured phone line was phone line, but I brought the modem down and he hooked me up temporarily via Cat 5 cable-10 Mbps all day long.  He gave me enough for a clean run from the box up the side of the house and into the attic.  That also eliminated all of the junk that I was connecting through the in the basement.  The phone wires used to run from the box into the basement to some kind of junction block which I then connected to come back out of the basement and up the side of the house with the regular phone wire.  Service has been flawless since.  

[Lunatic]

I just bought Wifi extender for $40  and I don't have any issues with speed or dead zones in and around the house

[Swamp_Yankee]

20 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

I just bought Wifi extender for $40  and I don't have any issues with speed or dead zones in and around the house

I have an extender hardwired to the modem that goes out of the attic and up the chimney to the satellite dish mast about 40' above grade.  I haven't gotten around to testing the signal yet but the goal is to be able to reach multiple wireless solar powered cameras around the property.  

[Lunatic]

26 minutes ago, Swamp_Yankee said:

I have an extender hardwired to the modem that goes out of the attic and up the chimney to the satellite dish mast about 40' above grade.  I haven't gotten around to testing the signal yet but the goal is to be able to reach multiple wireless solar powered cameras around the property.  

I have two cams. One back yard and front door. They came with their own wifi extender.

[Lunatic]

55 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

I just bought Wifi extender for $40  and I don't have any issues with speed or dead zones in and around the house

 

8 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

I have two cams. One back yard and front door. They came with their own wifi extender.

But I live in a small, one story house.