Bell Aliant Internet: WIFI "Range" Problem

[CrazyinNB]

We are “relatively satisfied” with the services to which we are currently subscribing: Aliant High Speed Ultra and telephone bundle ($97.72 / month) and Rogers Cable TV VIP ($66.76/month on a 12 month contract) . Our problem is that the Aliant modem (Siemens Gigaset SE 567) is not “strong enough” to reach all parts of our home, with a “satisfactory” signal.

Our house is a two story, split entry with no basement. The downstairs includes 3 bedrooms, a recreation room, mechanical area, and has a finished garage attached to one end. The upstairs has the master bedroom, a study, living room, dining room, and kitchen. Currently, the internet modem is located in the centre of this top floor, connected to to the Aliant service via a telephone jack.

We have 4 computers in use (3 of which are laptops) – all are running on WIFI. Our son’s computer is a desktop, which connects via a D-Link DWA 125 USB Adapter. His bedroom, located at one end of the downstairs floor, seems to be too far from the modem to allow him to interface online with various computer games (e.g. Diablo 3) – the D-Link indicates only a 70% signal. Aliant’s technicians have experimented with various channels on the modem, to no avail. He has moved it, therefore, to the rec room (centrally located), but that causes conflicts with other family members trying to watch TV or entertain friends.

A neighbour suggested simply adding a stronger router to the modem, but Aliant has warned us that, if we do so, their technical “support” will no longer deal with us, should we encounter problems.

I have, therefore, begun to entertain the idea of switching to FibreOp internet, in the hope that the ActionTek R1000H modem, which “apparently” has greater range, might solve the problem. Unfortunately, Aliant has stated that they would probably install the new equipment in our garage area, next to the electrical panel. Thus, it would be located at the end of the house furthest from our son’s bedroom.

It appears that “fishing” new wiring from the garage to a more central point in the house would not be very easy ( no crawlspace nor ready access to floor joists). Because we cannot “bundle” our cable TV until the contract with Rogers expires, Aliant wants to charge us $149 plus tax to install FibreOp internet. But they will not guarantee that the new system will solve our problem.

Does anyone have any advice?

[willise]

If you are tech-savvy enough, I would get another router and set it up as a client bridge. THat way you could have whole home coverage for your wi-fi signal.

Or if the problem is essentially your son's connectivity, look into a powerline adapter. It uses the wiring in your home to send the internet signal. Place one next to his computer and then use a wired connection for his gaming.

[CrazyinNB]

Although I have learned a lot by reading internet articles and posts to this site, over the last 3 weeks, I am definitely not "tech savvy".

Our house is about 60 feet from garage electrical panel to our son's bedroom.

Is the ActionTek R1000h "up to this task"?

I will ask Future Shop whether they are willing to install a Client Bridge" for the Siemens Gigaset but, as stated, I am worried about not having Aliant tech support in the future

[JamesK]

If you are tech-savvy enough, I would get another router and set it up as a client bridge.

I'd recommend the TP-Link WA901ND access point. It's designed for the task and can also be used as a repeater, among other functions.

[willise]

Personally (and this is my own opinion only) I wouldn't ask Future Shop to even plug in a router

Go to a website like ncix or newegg and look for power line adapters. TrendNet gets fairly good reviews. It will be a lot less complicated to go that way, with less chance of needing "tech support", and it will greatly increase your son's gaming issues.

However, if you find that the wifi coverage is less than ideal throughout the house, then a client bridge may be the better solution. It is a little more complicated to flash the router with DD-WRT firmware, but the tutorials on the DD-WRT page are very straightforward and easy to follow, even for the less "tech savvy"

[FuzzFace]

I am worried about not having Aliant tech support in the future

When aliant says they will not support it, it means they will not provide tech support for the bridged router, they will still provide tech support for their dsl modem still

[philster]

I agree the comment about not even letting Future Shop Plug in the router...And Like willise said they won't support the bridge router, but they will support your modem and connection. If you were to have in internet issue, it's simply a matter of unplugging the Router You purchased from the Aliant modem, let them fix the issue and then plug it back in.

Since your neighbour made the suggestion, is this neighbour more technically inclined that they could set it up for you? Or maybe they know someone who would, I'm sure you could buy them a gift card or something for their hassel and it would cost way less than having FS do it.

As for The Actiontech on Fiber op, I find the wireless signal amazing, I can recieve 2 bars signal while 2 houses over, and some neighbours have Fiberop and I can see their secure wifi network.

Also, before I had Fiberop, I had Aliant TV and High Speed. The Siemens Gigaset was what I had. That was set up in my office on the main level and the tv run was run a few rooms over (I'm lucky my basement isn't finished so they hid the cable there.)

When it came time for fiberop they installed Half the equipment in the basement, and ran a line to my office and installed the Actiontech in my office where the Siemens Gigaset was.

How many months in are you with the Rogers Contract?

[Dr.Dave]

If you decide to try Powerline Ethernet adapters, make sure you can take them back, since they can cause problems with the Actiontec router. They can sometimes cause pixelization problems with the TV stream (when you get that installed). See this thread for an example:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=154298

[Testo]

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11"

The theoretical distance for the Actiontec (Wireless n) vs 567 (Wireless g) is easily double. I setup my Actiontec along side my 567 and could easily pick up the Actiontec 100+ meters away, IIRC.

[CrazyinNB]

The D-Link DWA-125 USB adapter, used by our son's computer, handles G. Should we buy a DWA-130 (handles N) if an ActionTeck R1000H is installed?

Can our laptops communicate in N? How can we tell what they can handle. All 3 are less than two years old and, of course, show G when we click on the "signal bars" at the bottom of the screen (because the Siemens only broadcasts in G).

[CrazyinNB]

"Oops" !! I looked online at the specs for the D-Link DWA 125, and it appears that it WILL communicate in either G or N protocol.

[CrazyinNB]

I really appreciate all the comments and advice that has been offered. PHILSTER asked how long we had remaining on our contract with Rogers - unfortunately, there are still 5 months to go, and the penalty for terminating early is prohibitive.

Besides, as I mentioned in my original post, we are not unhappy with our cable service. On the contrary, I feel that the Rogers offering is superior to Aliant's FibreOP TV in terms of the channels we receive with the VIP package. We do not have HD (we tried it several years ago and didn't find it enhanced our viewing experience much (except for sports programs, but we don't watch much of that). PVR is probably not a feature that interests us either.

Bell Alliant makes a big deal about their $99 bundle as an enticement to switch services entirely, but after the 3 month introductory period, their package becomes much more expensive for us we have 4 televisions in the house and would need an STB for each ($4.95 plus tax for 3 of them every month i.e. an additional $201.37 per year, with taxes !!).

Aliant would probably have to utilize our existing coax setup for TV (installed when the house was built in 1997) because re-wiring would probably be very difficult. Right now we have 6 "runs" originating from our garage ("only" 4 are in use).

[philster]

Thats the downside with being forced to Rent the Fibre op TV boxes, I'm lucky I only have 3 TV's in my house, I have the PVR thats included in my bundle and I rent a second box. My Third TV is a 17inch HD tv that I'm fine using Over an Over the Air Antenna on it (Picks up CTV and Global in HD perfectly)

If you do decide to make the switch 5 months isn't too much, As Rogers usually wants a months noticed, and a lot of times the Aliant Install Appointment Avalibilities only start a month away anyways as they are typically that busy with new installs.

[Danster]

I left ROGERS for many reasons but the most important one was for the internet speed. I do agree that ROGERS have more HD channels but Aliants service is more important to me than ROGERS.

Switching from one to another, we lost channels but I am also saving over 40$ a month.

[Tridus]

You could always call Aliant up and see if you can still get FibreOp Internet without the TV, to replace your DSL. That's what I ended up with originally when I got it (we then added the TV back later to save money because for us it was a lot cheaper then Rogers).