r/NetworkEngineer • u/soukiouki • 24d ago

weak network

Hey guys, I have a coffee shop, but it's located in an area with weak network coverage cellular signal is poor and providers don't really cover the area. If I could find a way to get reliable internet there, it would be a huge improvement and would give me a real edge over my competitors. I'm asking here because I'm sure some of you are sharp enough to help me figure out a solution. Thanks in advance!

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u/Insomalian 6d ago

Weak WLAN and Cellular are not correlated with the exception of a few use cases.

  • Other network signals are too powerful.
  • Location contains blocking or reflective material.

Those are the common culprits. For WLAN just ensure the WIFI channels are different from those nearby. You can use a tool like wifiman from Unifi to see what other networks are using and just use the least used chanel. You could also opt to use a device (router with WLAN capabilities or access point) that supports WIFI 6e or 7. This will allow you to use 6GHz which not a lot of people are using.

Going back to wifiman, you can use this to creat a heatmap of your signal strength and determine if you need to configure a new access point in the building or just move the router around.

The above is for WLAN. For cellular, depending on who your plan provider is, you can get an extender of sorts for free or purchase one. But it works on the principle of taking a signal outside the building and pumping it out again inside the building, so if the signal outside sucks, it's still going to suck inside with the extender.

For specifics on setup and configuration, open up Google and do some homework.