Re: The best Wi-Fi upgrade I made wasn't a new router, it was moving one piece of furniture

On 8/18/26 12:18, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 18/08/2026 14:36, Rich wrote:
>> c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> On 8/17/26 20:47, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>>> On 2026-08-17, Rich <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The Natural Philosopher <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> 2.4Ghz will happily do a miles as many RC modelers have found. 
>>>>>> Just not
>>>>>> with trees in the way.
>>>>>
>>>>> Living trees are quite full of lots of water, which is a very good
>>>>> 2.4G signal absorbing medium.
>>>>
>>>> Good point.  There's a reason microwave ovens operate at 2.45 GHz.
>>>
>>>    Alas 5ghz interacts poorly with STRUCTURES.
>>
>> 5Ghz is much more easily absorbed by structures.  Brick and concrete
>> are very good absorbers of 5Ghz signals.  Brick and concrete also
>> absorb 2.4Ghz signals as well, just not to the attenuation level that
>> 5Ghz is absorbed.
>>
>>>    I doubt there's a 'perfect frequency' that will
>>>    get thru structures, veggies AND offer a good
>>>    data rate.
>>
>> There is no "perfect frequency".  Ignoring FCC rules that mean you
>> can't use every frequency anyway, if you want more penetration (less
>> attenuation) from structures you want lower frequency.  But lower
>> frequency comes along with lower bandwidth for data, so lower data
>> speeds.
>>
> Its ironic that I could probably build a reliable data transfer for 50 
> baud running on 27MHz

   Quite true - 'reliable', just not FAST.

   As for the 'FCC' ... sorry, no Ministry Of Housinz
   detector vans running around. They can't afford it
   and the VAST proliferation of signals makes a mess
   even an AI couldn't sort out. Unless you're blasting
   half a megawatt over commercial/govt stations the
   FCC just doesn't *care* anymore.

>> Reality is you have tradeoffs, and have to decide which tradeoff is
>> acceptable to you.
>>
>>>    Best, shitty, fix is to have multiple repeaters in house and then
>>>    pick the BEST one to connect to in any given part of the structure.
>>
>> Yes, that is the best way, but also the more complicated way, so most
>> non-techie folks won't end up going that route.
>>
> The best way is to wire the house with CAT 5

   CAT 6+ these days !!!

   Of course not all houses are 'wiring friendly', mine
   is NOT. Also, not EVERYTHING is directly indoors, I
   have some security cams on outbuildings.

   Anyway, the fairly cheap solution is repeaters/range-boosters
   They can get signals "around corners" pretty well.

   The 400mhz and 900mhz data bands were pretty good,
   and a number of devices are still made for them.
   They'd get through walls and trees and tropical
   rainstorms - often a mile+ range. Still, alas,
   yer data SPEED isn't gonna be like modern wi-fi.
   They're more like 'radio-linked modems'.

   https://www.adafruit.com/product/4072