A large home or multistory home may require a larger WiFi footprint than the hotspot can provide. They often require either wired Ethernet, WiFi Extenders or a WiFi mesh product (like Eero or Orbi) to spread the signal around. The best installation of the hotspot is to leave the hotspot where it has the strongest/best connection with the tower, then use a WiFi extender or wired connection to broadcast the signal throughout your home. There are a few ways to extend the WiFi signal.
- Wired connections If you are building your home, the least expensive and most reliable way to get a network signal across your home is to pull CAT6 wiring as the home is being built and you have access to all the rooms. A wired connection will always outperform a WiFi signal and is the most reliable network connection.
- WiFi Extenders These are simple radio devices which receive and retransmit the main unit's WiFi signal. The following are some WiFi extenders we recommend, but there are many out there, including ones under $30. Searching on Amazon and looking at the number of customer reviews is an easy guide for the best ones to get.
- NETGEAR AC750 WiFi Range Extender with Gigabit Ethernet (EX6100)
- NETGEAR AC750 WiFi Range Extender (EX3700-100NAS)
- NETGEAR N300 Wi-Fi Range Extender, Essentials Edition (EX2700)
- TP-Link AC750 Dual Band WiFi Range Extender - Mesh Devices There are a number of WiFi mesh network products now on the market: Eero, Google WiFi, Netgear Orbi, etc. One unit connects to the router and then creates a radio mesh network between all of its peer devices through your home. These can be a good solution when you don't have a way to get a wired network connection and are generally easy to set up. They tend to be the most expensive solution but members get fast networking, easy network management (e.g. via a smartphone app) and great results from them.
The mesh devices typically require a wired Ethernet connection to the primary or main WiFi device of the mesh. If your hotspot does not have a wired connection, there are a couple ways you can address this:
- Use a WiFi extender or a WiFi to Ethernet adapter to provide you a wired Ethernet port for the primary point. The WiFi extenders are in the above list, below is a highly rated adapter; there are lots of others out there, too:
- IOGEAR Universal Ethernet to Wi-Fi N Adapter for Home or Office, GWU627 - Change your hotspot to a device that provides a wired Ethernet port. The MOFI router, offered on most plans, has four Ethernet LAN ports. If you are interested in changing your hotspot to a MOFI, just let us know and we can provide you details.