Source: Hacker News discussion

For all the talk of Wi‑Fi 6E, Wi‑Fi 7, and mesh systems that “blanket your home in ultra‑fast connectivity,” a familiar question still pops up in technical communities:

"Has anything fundamentally changed here? Any tricks and tips to getting longer range on the wifi (the kids complain that it's spotty upstairs)."

It’s a deceptively simple complaint—and a piercing one. Because under it lies a truth most engineers know but consumer networking vendors routinely obscure: the physics hasn’t changed, the constraints are real, and reliability is a design problem, not a product checkbox.

Let’s unpack what has actually evolved, what’s pure marketing theater, and how a technically literate household should approach Wi‑Fi in 2025.

What’s Actually Changed (and What Hasn’t)

Three big shifts matter if you last took Wi‑Fi seriously around the 802.11n/ac era:

  1. Dense, Noisy RF Environments Are Now the Norm

    • Everyone around you runs multiple APs, IoT devices, and cheap repeaters.
    • 2.4 GHz is saturated in urban/suburban environments; it’s long‑range but dirty.
    • Interference and contention often matter more than raw “signal bars.”

  2. Wi‑Fi Standards Got Faster—But Not Simpler

    • 802.11ac (Wi‑Fi 5) → 802.11ax (Wi‑Fi 6/6E) → 802.11be (Wi‑Fi 7) increase throughput and efficiency via:
      • OFDMA (better scheduling for many clients)
      • MU‑MIMO (multi‑user streams)
      • Wider channels, more modulation schemes
    • These help in dense homes, but only if:
      • Your AP and clients both support them.
      • You don’t destroy yourself with bad channel/width choices.

  3. Mesh Systems Became the Default UX

    • The “one big router in a corner” model is architecturally wrong for multi‑story homes with modern construction.
    • Multi‑AP, controller‑driven deployments (mesh or wired backhaul systems) are now common even for non‑technical households.
    • The UX is vastly better, but implementations vary wildly in RF quality, roaming logic, and backhaul behavior.

What hasn’t changed:

  • RF physics: 5 GHz and 6 GHz give you capacity, not magic range. 2.4 GHz gives you reach, not reliability in noisy spectrums.
  • Client radios are weak: That powerful AP doesn’t matter if your phone or tablet can’t shout back with equal strength.
  • Walls and floors still win: Concrete, brick, foil‑backed insulation, underfloor heating, mirrors, and even plumbing can crush your signal.

So when someone asks, “Any tricks to get longer range?”, the honest technical answer is: don’t optimize for range, optimize for topology.

The Engineer’s Model: Your House Is a Network, Not a Single Router Problem

Think of your home like a small campus network, not a living room plus a magic box.

Key principles:

  1. Coverage via multiple cells, not brute force power

    • One overpowered router at one end of the house creates asymmetric links: your laptop “hears” it, but the uplink is garbage.
    • Regulatory limits cap transmit power anyway; cranking to max often increases interference more than coverage.

  2. Backhaul quality is everything

    • Adding extenders that share the same weak 2.4 GHz link usually makes things worse.
    • You want reliable, high‑throughput backhaul between APs: ideally Ethernet; second-best, high‑quality wireless backhaul on clean channels.

  3. Client behavior is messy

    • Devices cling to APs (sticky clients), roam late, or prefer 2.4 GHz in strange ways.
    • Good systems use steering, 802.11k/v/r, and tuned thresholds to push clients toward the right AP and band.

Once you accept those constraints, your upgrade path becomes much clearer—and more effective than buying “the biggest router.”

Practical Upgrade Paths That Actually Work

For a multi‑story home with spotty upstairs Wi‑Fi, here’s a realistic, technically sound progression.

1. Start with AP Placement, Not a New Standard Logo

  • Move the primary router/AP:
    • Place it as centrally and as high as practical—not buried next to the ONT in a metal rack at one corner of the house.
    • Avoid behind TVs, inside cabinets, or directly against thick masonry.
  • Sometimes a 15‑minute relocation beats a $400 hardware spend.

2. Run Ethernet if You Possibly Can

If you can pull cable, even just a couple of runs, everything gets easier.

  • Add one or two dedicated access points upstairs:
    • Use wired backhaul where possible.
    • Configure:
      • Same SSID and password across APs.
      • Same security (WPA2/WPA3), same VLANs.
      • 5 GHz/6 GHz as primary; keep 2.4 GHz for legacy/IoT.
  • Options favored by technical users:
    • UniFi, Omada, Aruba Instant On, or low‑friction mesh systems that support Ethernet backhaul.

This is the most “boring” solution, and also the one used by every serious enterprise.

3. If No Ethernet: Choose Mesh Carefully

Modern mesh isn’t snake oil, but implementation matters.

Look for:

  • Tri‑band or better:
    • One dedicated 5 GHz (or 6 GHz) radio for backhaul, separate from the client band.
  • Proper placement:
    • Nodes must see each other with strong signal; don’t put a satellite where your laptop already fails.
  • Sensible channel configuration:
    • Avoid 80/160 MHz channels on 5 GHz in cluttered environments.
    • Explicitly set channels to avoid overlap with neighbors where supported.

Avoid:

  • Single-radio repeaters that just rebroadcast a poor link.
  • Mystery “range extenders” that don’t clearly state how backhaul works.

4. Tune for Behavior, Not Just Bars

Once the physical layout is sane, a few expert‑level tweaks:

  • Enable band steering: Push capable clients to 5 GHz/6 GHz.
  • Adjust power levels:
    • Too much power on one AP can create huge, overlapping cells and sticky clients.
    • Slightly lowering 2.4 GHz power on the main AP can encourage proper roaming to closer nodes.
  • Use narrower channels where noisy:
    • 20/40 MHz often outperforms bloated 80/160 MHz channels in real homes.
  • Segment IoT:
    • Put 2.4 GHz‑only IoT junk on a separate SSID/VLAN to reduce contention and security exposure.

These aren’t “tweaks for tweakers”; they are the same levers enterprise WLAN engineers pull every day.

What About Wi‑Fi 6E and 7—Worth It for Coverage?

Short version: they’re worth it for quality, not magic distance.

  • Wi‑Fi 6/6E/7 bring:
    • Better spectrum efficiency (OFDMA, improved scheduling).
    • Higher concurrency for many devices.
    • Access to cleaner 6 GHz spectrum (less interference—for now).
  • But:
    • 6 GHz has worse wall penetration than 5 GHz; it will not “fix upstairs.”
    • Benefits appear mainly when both AP and clients support the newer standard.

If you’re buying new hardware in 2025, going with a solid Wi‑Fi 6/6E or early‑mature Wi‑Fi 7 ecosystem is reasonable. Just don’t expect physics to bend. Use them as part of a multi‑AP design, not as a substitute for it.

Powerline, MoCA, and Other Backhaul Hacks

If you can’t run Ethernet and don’t fully trust wireless backhaul, there are middle paths:

  • MoCA (if you have coax):
    • Often excellent. Stable, low latency, near‑Ethernet behavior. Great for feeding APs.
  • Powerline:
    • Highly environment‑dependent—sensitive to wiring quality and noise.
    • Can be acceptable for feeding a secondary AP if tested and stable.

Crucially: terminate these links into proper APs, not into random “Wi‑Fi plus everything” combo gadgets with conflicting radios.

Why This Matters Beyond Angry Kids Upstairs

This isn’t just a parenting issue or a consumer gripe. For a technical audience, home networks are now:

  • Persistent remote offices.
  • Testbeds for cloud, edge, and IoT projects.
  • Latency‑sensitive environments for real‑time collaboration and development.

Bad Wi‑Fi is lost productivity, corrupted uploads, broken CI/CD sessions, flaky SSH, and misleading performance debugging. Treating your home WLAN like a real system—designed, measured, iterated—is no longer overkill for engineers; it’s table stakes.

The core story is almost disappointingly rational: nothing “fundamental” has changed about range. What has changed is that we finally have mainstream tooling—mesh, controller‑based APs, smarter radios—that let regular households adopt the same architectural principles enterprise engineers have used for years.

If you’re still chasing “the one router to rule the whole house,” you’re fighting the wrong battle. Build cells. Respect physics. Design like an engineer. Your upstairs will notice.