edscho

For the last 7 years the WiFi reception in my home has been very poor. I am curious how others have gone about troubleshooting and solving WiFi reception issues.

More details: I pay good $$$ for a business-grade fibre (FTTP) connection (500 Mbps down / 200 Mbps up). I have a direct Ethernet connection to my main work computer, and from there I do actually get these advertised speeds and low latencies (a few milliseconds) to my local AWS data centre, and life is good. But whenever my wife or I try to use our laptops (both Mac and Windows) or iPhones in the home, the WiFi reception is intermittent and often unusably slow from most rooms. For example, here's what I see right now on my MacBook Pro (2021):

``` $ networkQuality -s ==== SUMMARY ==== Uplink capacity: 0.000 bps Downlink capacity: 349.330 Kbps Uplink Responsiveness: Low (10 RPM) Downlink Responsiveness: Low (18 RPM) Idle Latency: 220.875 milliseconds ```

In other words, the downlink capacity is 1000 times worse with WiFi than with Ethernet.

I have tried a DLink COVR mesh network with multiple access points (and am using it now), but WiFi speeds in most rooms are woeful either way. The house is not large (130 m^2 or 1400 sq feet). I've tried some WiFi scanning tools and there's no significant WiFi interference from the neighbours (it's a low-density area). Signal strength to my nearest COVR mesh router is apparently -59 dBm, with a SNR or 36.

Perhaps the exterior fibro walls are to blame (good old asbestos cement sheeting) but that's just guessing; WiFi speeds are often terrible even from rooms adjacent to the router with only flimsy interior walls in between.

What I really want is a recommendation for a systematic approach to identifying the real cause of the abysmal WiFi, along with some troubleshooting tools (preferably open source). Or some success stories about how you overcame crap home WiFi!