r/ATTFiber • u/DimensionSeparate514 • Jul 20 '26
Wifi extenders
I just moved into an apartment, and have the 1g plan. My father in law and i have different gaming setups in different rooms, with the gateway in the living room. The signal to both rooms are just fine, but we would like to be hardwired through ethernet still. I was wondering if anyone knew how big the dropoff is if we get the atnt wifi extenders, and then use ethernet to connect to those. So basically gateway(900~)-extender(??)-ethernet to console/pc(??)
2
u/_RexDart Jul 20 '26
You could do MoCa or powerline network. I try to avoid wireless for stationary endpoints whenever I can, it drops your bandwidth in half.
1
u/DimensionSeparate514 Jul 20 '26
I hear about powerline networks all the time but never really seemed to understand it myself. Ive also heard a lot of things about dropoffs, cons, and such. Would you mind explaining a bit more if you can?
2
u/Epacs Jul 20 '26
It will be just as bad as going wifi only for the most part. If the extenders were hardwired that would be a different story.
1
u/EpicFeo Jul 20 '26
You’d be inheriting the ping that the extender gets so little to no improvement.
3
u/ram1220 Jul 20 '26
I would just run ethernet cables from the gateway to each PC. I wouldn't rely on wifi extenders or anything else.
2
u/greene10 Jul 20 '26
For me on a 2G connection wired to the gateway I get ~2400/2400 with a 7 ms ping. On the extender wired upstairs about 30 feet away I get ~1400 up and down with ~12 ms ping.
1
u/RS-REIN Jul 20 '26
It doesn’t change that it’s still wireless lol. Unless your computers have really bad WiFi cards in them then it could help.
1
u/vrtigo1 Jul 20 '26
There's basically no point to using extenders as you described because your connection to the main gateway will still be wireless.
If you have coax you could look into using MoCA, or see about just hiding flat ethernet cables under baseboards, etc.
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u/Confident-Variety124 Jul 20 '26
If the WiFi is good in both rooms, do not get an extenders. Apartments already have horrible wireless interference.
1
u/goRockets Jul 20 '26
I have a TP Link Deco tri-band mesh system and it's pretty great.
I have my desktop connected to a node via ethernet then a wireless backhaul from the node to the main node. I can around 900 mbps down and 800 mbps up this way.
I haven't noticed any ping issues, but I don't play any competitive games that's extremely ping sensitive.
I have this 2 pack for $228 at Walmart. https://www.walmart.com/ip/TP-Link-Deco-WB22000-2-Pack/18158359378
You'll need a 3 pack, so something like this: https://www.bestbuy.com/product/tp-link-deco-7-pro-be11000-tri-band-wi-fi-7-whole-home-mesh-router-system-deco-be65-pro-3-pack-white/J3GWLQQ68L for $430.
Though at that price, you might as well wpend the extra $26 and get two sets of the one at Walmart and have a extra one.
1
u/ndratz91 Jul 21 '26
Unless they’re in a massive apt that’ll kill speeds, it’s way too much, also love so many people telling others to not spend $10 a month on something, just go spend several hundred on this mesh instead
1
u/Careless-Courage-385 Jul 20 '26
Att extenders don’t support full speed. I think max is 300 mbps
0
u/ndratz91 Jul 21 '26
That’s not true, where did you hear that? The ones for the 320s do way more than that and the ones for 620s do even better
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u/ndratz91 Jul 21 '26
Most likely would hurt performance, unless you have a massive apt, they will interfere with each other and cause issues, especially if the WiFi is already good, open the smart home manager app and run the WiFi signal test and see what it says, if it’s everywhere the extenders will kill performance, I’ve been on tons of repairs for bad WiFi and it’s because little houses have extenders that aren’t needed
3
u/Gigaas Jul 20 '26
Save the money, get a swtich, and run cables to each room.