I am getting problems with wireless LAN signal strength even though I am close to my WAP. I’m using 5GHz and WAP reports 0% signal strength when talking to my ipad; I am in my bed, as always, and the WAP is outside the bedroom, on the landing, about 7m away from my bed, with a wooden wall in the way of line of sight. There is a doorway between the landing and bedroom right next to the WAP but the WAP is off to one side so that there is no straight line of sight and the WAP’s signal would have to be reflected off something or diffract around the edges of the doorway to get through the doorway to the receiving station. Not such a good chance of diffraction at a wavelength of 0.06m for 5GHz - we need a longer wavelength. And nothing to reflect off, as far as I can see. So I think that the placement where the WAP is not visible through the doorway is a bad problem. It seems that 5GHz really doesn’t like going straight through the wood? Is that the general experience?
If the WAP could be moved so that it shone through the doorway then that would help me in bed but then make a new problem elsewhere in the bedroom - for someone sitting in a large chair in the bedroom bay window to the east the signal would - I assume from the geometry - get rather worse. I’ll look into the feasibility of moving it but I don’t think it’s a solution. I would prefer to move it into the bedroom itself and then deploy another WAP outside on the landing I think - to replace the existing one.
What do you think?
The problem then is how to get stiff CAT-over-the-top ethernet cable into the bedroom through from the landing. Can’t run it through the door unless we use a cable bridge and then presumably would not be able to shut the door, but I can at least look into it. Other option might be to drill a hole through the (wooden) wall and run straight into the bedroom. Could use POE if I can find my POE injectors - Janet has hopefully ‘filed’ them somewhere - but in any case mains for the WAP is available in the bedroom.
The ZyXEL WAPs are not mean for ceiling mount really and have long antennae that stick out, so would be unsightly in the ceiling and perhaps part your hair too when going past. Could place them in plenty of other places. The Cisco WAPs - which I have yet to evaluate - are ceiling mount friendly, if used with POE, obviously, so that going in over the doorway might be an option, but again a bit unsightly. Going through the wall by the side of the door looks like a bit of a nightmare because of the geometry on the outside, where there is a stairway in between the existing WAP and the bedroom wall.
One other thing that concerns me. Due to my use of very stiff thick ott ethernet cable, I have to be very careful not to damage the cable during installation or to bend it round too small a radius at any time. When it goes through a wall, how do I get a large enough radius of curvature ? In order that the cable not be coming out of the wall at right angles and then needing somehow to be bent through 90 degrees, what’s the best thing to do? Go in at a large angle on the whack, not at right angles to the wall? Would that be a solution?
Also, would going in over the ceiling in the roof space be feasible? Would be very neat with appropriate ceiling mount WAPs ? unless they are only meant for office ceilings, with tiles and a space above?