Back Room Wifi Keeps Dropping

ivanvallejo

We just moved packing for the coffee shop into the storage room at the back. The router sits up front by the counter. And the signal barely makes it past the bean shelves.

The label printer and the scanner drop out four or five times an afternoon. I think I checked the router log and it's just them reconnecting over and over.

Before I go buy random boxes, what would you do in your own back room: a mesh, a repeater or just run a cable?

wildanchor

first of all, the plug-in repeaters will likely reduce your connection speed by 50% and will disconnect and reconnect themselves periodically. It is possible, but not recommended.

Second, pull one network cable from your current connection to your back room and install a real access point there. Don't rely on wifi for the label printer. Give it its own physical cable so it never depends on the signal...

Hidden_Panda

I did exactly what wildanchor suggests last year: pulled a cable to the back room and put an access point there, with the printer on its own cable.

The printer on a cable was the bigger win by far.

The scanner hardly mattered, it's almost a non-issue once the printer stops dropping.

wildanchor

If pulling a cable through the wall is a problem, the second best thing is a powerline set that runs your network over the power sockets. one adapter by the router up front, one in the back room.

Not as good as the cable plus access point in the back room.

But still a better solution than a wifi repeater, because the back room no longer depends on the signal making it past the bean shelves...

You would still plug the printer into the adapter at the back by cable. So you get the same "printer on its own cable" win as in the earlier reply, just without drilling through the wall.

ivanvallejo

I'll be getting someone to run the extra wire for me - access point and printer will both be on the wire. And I'll be keeping the power-socket plan in place for plan B