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Post by brp on Aug 29, 2023 15:08:11 GMT -5
With a main router, access point, extender, networked washing machine and garage door opener, Z-wave control network, Ring alarm system as well as 5 camera...I may have enough automation to want something simple  Cheers. I've debated those access point /extender things, mainly Amazon's just because they're always on sale on Prime Day and Black Friday and such. Just wish I knew whether it would make a noticeable difference. The house isn't that huge. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath over 2 levels, roughtly 1,500 square feet or so I do believe. Haven't had any noticeable issues while streaming yet, but I'm always apt to add another tv (or two or three...) to my man house. In our case we have a wire running to a room in the back where we have our one TV. it goes to a WiFi Access Point, but also routes directly to the TV as a wire since this is faster than WiFi (and then connected through a USB dongle since that's faster still than the Ethernet port on the TV). The WiFi signal wasn't doing anything after that until we added some camera back there.
Same thing for the extender in the living room which goes to cameras outside.
Our place is not huge - 2600 sq. ft. But it's one level, so fairly spread out. The extenders help with the external cameras.
Cheers.
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Post by Brian5581 on Aug 29, 2023 15:13:49 GMT -5
I've debated those access point /extender things, mainly Amazon's just because they're always on sale on Prime Day and Black Friday and such. Just wish I knew whether it would make a noticeable difference. The house isn't that huge. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath over 2 levels, roughtly 1,500 square feet or so I do believe. Haven't had any noticeable issues while streaming yet, but I'm always apt to add another tv (or two or three...) to my man house. In our case we have a wire running to a room in the back where we have our one TV. it goes to a WiFi Access Point, but also routes directly to the TV as a wire since this is faster than WiFi (and then connected through a USB dongle since that's faster still than the Ethernet port on the TV). The WiFi signal wasn't doing anything after that until we added some camera back there.
Same thing for the extender in the living room which goes to cameras outside.
Our place is not huge - 2600 sq. ft. But it's one level, so fairly spread out. The extenders help with the external cameras.
Cheers.
Makes sense, absolutely. Think I'll wait until one of my tvs misbehaves. |
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Post by helenabear on Aug 29, 2023 20:02:31 GMT -5
With a main router, access point, extender, networked washing machine and garage door opener, Z-wave control network, Ring alarm system as well as 5 camera...I may have enough automation to want something simple Cheers. I've debated those access point /extender things, mainly Amazon's just because they're always on sale on Prime Day and Black Friday and such. Just wish I knew whether it would make a noticeable difference. The house isn't that huge. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath over 2 levels, roughtly 1,500 square feet or so I do believe. Haven't had any noticeable issues while streaming yet, but I'm always apt to add another tv (or two or three...) to my man house. We have a not huge house, but it's plaster walls and distance front to back is pretty long. To go from the back door to our front with cameras and such just was too much for our regular router. We tried an extender but it would drop us too much. My dad's does the same weirdly. We now have a mesh system and 2 network connections and I'm a happy gal. Both of us are WFH (I have since before it was cool to do ha ha ha) and with school at home back during covid we needed it. |
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Post by brp on Aug 29, 2023 20:09:20 GMT -5
I've debated those access point /extender things, mainly Amazon's just because they're always on sale on Prime Day and Black Friday and such. Just wish I knew whether it would make a noticeable difference. The house isn't that huge. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath over 2 levels, roughtly 1,500 square feet or so I do believe. Haven't had any noticeable issues while streaming yet, but I'm always apt to add another tv (or two or three...) to my man house. We have a not huge house, but it's plaster walls and distance front to back is pretty long. To go from the back door to our front with cameras and such just was too much for our regular router. We tried an extender but it would drop us too much. My dad's does the same weirdly. If you ever look at extenders again for any reason, check out TP-Link. I'm using a RE105 (from Amazon, of course) and it works very well. Strong signal at a good distance and no drops that I know of so far.
Cheers.
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Post by helenabear on Aug 30, 2023 5:51:30 GMT -5
We have a not huge house, but it's plaster walls and distance front to back is pretty long. To go from the back door to our front with cameras and such just was too much for our regular router. We tried an extender but it would drop us too much. My dad's does the same weirdly. If you ever look at extenders again for any reason, check out TP-Link. I'm using a RE105 (from Amazon, of course) and it works very well. Strong signal at a good distance and no drops that I know of so far. Cheers. We tried a few and I think our house just sucked for it. Hardware loving IT spouse researched a bunch. We use a TP link mesh system now. That's what we needed for our deep and 3 story usage tall home (basement and 2 story home). Sq footage again isn't huge, but the way our add on was done in the 40s adding in more than double the depth combined with plaster & lath walls, we needed more than an extender. All were returned except our mesh system. |
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Post by captjacksfamily on Aug 30, 2023 6:39:08 GMT -5
Looks like nest natively requires a C-wire, and we don't have one. There is an adapter for this, but the reviews indicate some issues. There are other WiFi thermostats that natively don't require the C-wire. Otherwise, this does look like a nice product. Cheers. It must of been 10 years ago now but we installed a NEST thermostat that require 3 wires on a two wire system in our California house. At the time all of the work arounds didn't work very well (may have improved with time) and since our HVAC was in the attic it was easier to run a new set of (3) wires from the HVAC to the thermostat. We like the nest products so much that when we moved to Florida (5 years ago) we install Nest thermostats, fire alarms and video doorbells. For most of our automation we use Apple home to control, there is a plug and play box that gets very good reviews to take the google devices over to apple home. We thought about it but in the end it was just too easy to keep using the nest app for the nest products especially since the Nest alerts still work on the apple IOS operating system. We have also leaned into Lutron products for other automation including light switches, outlets, and window blinds. The Lutron products work very well in the apple environment. Other stand a lone apps that we haven't tied into apple home are the pool equipment and the garage door apps, and frankly we just don't access those apps enough to make it worth it to see if we could integrate them. We use an older Orbi mesh system for networking and have three tvs that are streaming only, 2 PC, Sonos speakers and various mobile device as well as all the automation and it works pretty well. I am sure there are faster systems but since we are not gamers this is fast enough for us. |
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Post by brp on Aug 30, 2023 7:16:48 GMT -5
Looks like nest natively requires a C-wire, and we don't have one. There is an adapter for this, but the reviews indicate some issues. There are other WiFi thermostats that natively don't require the C-wire. Otherwise, this does look like a nice product. Cheers. It must of been 10 years ago now but we installed a NEST thermostat that require 3 wires on a two wire system in our California house. At the time all of the work arounds didn't work very well (may have improved with time) and since our HVAC was in the attic it was easier to run a new set of (3) wires from the HVAC to the thermostat. Our wires are in-wall, so an additional wire ain't happening. We like the nest products so much that when we moved to Florida (5 years ago) we install Nest thermostats, fire alarms and video doorbells. For most of our automation we use Apple home to control, there is a plug and play box that gets very good reviews to take the google devices over to apple home. We thought about it but in the end it was just too easy to keep using the nest app for the nest products especially since the Nest alerts still work on the apple IOS operating system. We have also leaned into Lutron products for other automation including light switches, outlets, and window blinds. The Lutron products work very well in the apple environment. Other stand a lone apps that we haven't tied into apple home are the pool equipment and the garage door apps, and frankly we just don't access those apps enough to make it worth it to see if we could integrate them. We use an older Orbi mesh system for networking and have three tvs that are streaming only, 2 PC, Sonos speakers and various mobile device as well as all the automation and it works pretty well. I am sure there are faster systems but since we are not gamers this is fast enough for us. We're working with Z-Wave (Hubitat) and it works very well. Just one more complex control scenario (button controls one thing and then that in turn controls some indicator lights) has some issues. No voice, no internet required - except to program the hub. So, minimal exposure. Very programmable and extensible. Lutron makes really good stuff. I have a couple of RF dimming light switches. Switched from halogens to dimmable LED and it works great. Cheers. |
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Post by bakerworld on Aug 30, 2023 7:59:37 GMT -5
About 10 years ago, when we went to wifi internet, the back porch we turned into a room received no wifi so we bought an extender. Over the years techno has improved so when the extender stopped working we didn't replace it. My phone still doesn't work well in that area of the house but I don't sit there much as it's basically DH's room. I had put a outdoor couch in there so I could move it easily to clean. DH hated the couch and replaced it with two oversized loungers, which I don't like. Of course, since I'm not in there much I don't see a need to replace the extender and DH only marginally uses his phone to text so he's good. |
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Aug 30, 2023 11:13:57 GMT -5
Our house is plaster, too, so wifi doesn't like it. It isn't lath and plaster, though, it's something they were doing in the '50s where they installed drywall on the wall instead of lath and then put full thickness plaster of it, it ends up being roughly an inch thick. I ran cat5e through the walls enough so I could hardwire the computer and then later the TV. Vertically through the stud bays, then across the attic and/or basement.
We have a tuck-under garage (her garage) and a detached garage (my garage) sometimes she calls it my house because it has a finished second story that is basically an apartment, but there's no water. The guy before me built it as an office for a business he had, and at the time this house was still on well and septic and the city told him if he wanted water out there he'd have to dig up his septic and put in a new bigger one. He said "no thank you" and thus no water out there.
But the wifi just barely barely BARELY gets out there, upstairs, and cuts out often. Well in my finished second floor of my sweet garage (hesitate to use the word man cave but that's what it is) you can't NOT have wifi. I figured out that since it was a business, he had a buried conduit between the main house out to the garage, and had phone and coax and cat5e...So I hooked that to the router in the house and ended up putting a second router on the other end (in the garage) so now I have garage wifi. Yeah baby
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Post by WDWGoof on Aug 30, 2023 12:03:27 GMT -5
Reading all this IT stuff is giving me hives! Too stressful for me. Pretty sure my house will never be a “smart house.” I’ll just stick with pressing the garage door opener manually and turning lights on the old fashioned way, while I watch TV using my 100 mile antenna. Works for me🤣
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Post by Brian5581 on Aug 30, 2023 13:39:57 GMT -5
I've debated those access point /extender things, mainly Amazon's just because they're always on sale on Prime Day and Black Friday and such. Just wish I knew whether it would make a noticeable difference. The house isn't that huge. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath over 2 levels, roughtly 1,500 square feet or so I do believe. Haven't had any noticeable issues while streaming yet, but I'm always apt to add another tv (or two or three...) to my man house. We have a not huge house, but it's plaster walls and distance front to back is pretty long. To go from the back door to our front with cameras and such just was too much for our regular router. We tried an extender but it would drop us too much. My dad's does the same weirdly. We now have a mesh system and 2 network connections and I'm a happy gal. Both of us are WFH (I have since before it was cool to do ha ha ha) and with school at home back during covid we needed it. Mesh, that's the name I was looking for. That Amazon Eero Mesh system. It'll end up back in my cart at some point I'm sure, just hope I can at least notice a difference, ha. |
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Post by captjacksfamily on Aug 30, 2023 14:27:34 GMT -5
It must of been 10 years ago now but we installed a NEST thermostat that require 3 wires on a two wire system in our California house. At the time all of the work arounds didn't work very well (may have improved with time) and since our HVAC was in the attic it was easier to run a new set of (3) wires from the HVAC to the thermostat. Our wires are in-wall, so an additional wire ain't happening. Our thermostat was mounted on an interior wall so it wasn't a bad job. Check to make sure that there are not any supports or fire stops between studs from the thermostat mounting hole to the attic, drill a small hole in the header in the attic and pull a new wire from the thermostat hole using fish tape, easy peasy in our case. I did hook up the nest with the new wire using the attic access to route the wire to make sure it solved our problem before going to the bother of installing it right. Also to be fair we are (or were, not so much anymore) hard core DIYers, we have remolded both kitchens and bathrooms taking them down to studs and building back up. |
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Post by brp on Aug 31, 2023 10:03:58 GMT -5
Our house is plaster, too, so wifi doesn't like it. It isn't lath and plaster, though, it's something they were doing in the '50s where they installed drywall on the wall instead of lath and then put full thickness plaster of it, it ends up being roughly an inch thick. I ran cat5e through the walls enough so I could hardwire the computer and then later the TV. Vertically through the stud bays, then across the attic and/or basement. If I ever had to do walls again, I'd run cable (seems they're up to Cat 8 now! )or maybe fiber. But that would take the kind of incident I don't wish for,
Cheers.
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Post by brp on Aug 31, 2023 10:07:02 GMT -5
Our wires are in-wall, so an additional wire ain't happening. Our thermostat was mounted on an interior wall so it wasn't a bad job. Check to make sure that there are not any supports or fire stops between studs from the thermostat mounting hole to the attic, drill a small hole in the header in the attic and pull a new wire from the thermostat hole using fish tape, easy peasy in our case. I did hook up the nest with the new wire using the attic access to route the wire to make sure it solved our problem before going to the bother of installing it right. Also to be fair we are (or were, not so much anymore) hard core DIYers, we have remolded both kitchens and bathrooms taking them down to studs and building back up. Ours is an interior wall as well. I've spent a fair bit of time in the attic doing wiring - none of our bedrooms had overhead lights, just controlled sockets, so I rewired all of those to have overheads controlled by the switch- so I know our attic well. Over toward the garage (where the furnace & blower are located) it gets way too low for me. If the wire happened to be attached to a stud anywhere in there I'm toast.
So, I'm just gonna get a WiFi (or Z-Wave) thermostat that doesn't need a C-Wire. Much easier and I'm sure I can get it to do what I want since the demands are minimal.
Cheers.
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Post by brp on Aug 31, 2023 10:11:57 GMT -5
Interesting travel day yesterday: We were going to San Diego (from SJC) for the day for my mom-in-law's 91st. Morning flight down. If anyone is familiar with SAN airport, it's right in the downtown and one practically has to fly between tall buildings to land. That doesn't work with fog. And we had fog. As we got there, the pilot circled a bit, and got the go ahead to land. As he was coming in, landing gear went down and I could tell we were low but didn't ground, Well, apparently he didn't either. Heading down then then a sudden incline and a big push steeply up. Only our second aborted landing in much travel. We circled a bit and came in the other way with no issue. Only about 40 minutes late. It impacted the whole day, so our return flight in the evening was delayed. As we were boarding, another FC passenger (hurray for upgrades) said that he had seen us on the morning flight. And so had the folks in front of us. At least 6 people on the same two flights Cheers. |
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