[Discuss] signal propagation in old houses

[Tom Metro]

MBR wrote:
>    The construction of the house the router will be installed in is
>    problematic WRT getting signals through.  It was built before
>    drywall was in common use in the U.S.  But rather than using wood
>    lath, the plaster is held in place by lath.  But it's not
>    traditional wood lath.  It's WIRE LATH.

I have an ASUS RT-N16 in the basement of a 1930's era house with metal
lath in the plastered ceilings of the basement. Signal propagation isn't
great, but devices on the 1st and 2nd floor are usable. My laptop at the
opposite end of the house on the first floor gets 55% signal strength.
In the same area my Nexus 7 sees a few bars below its maximum. Quite
possible I'm getting less than the claimed bandwidth due to the reduced
signal strength.

Ideally, in your home environment you'd want a full strength signal, so
yes, I'd recommend employing one of the suggested strategies, such as
running wires to access points mounted near where your equipment will be
used most of the time, or power line adapters.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
"Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting."
http://www.theperlshop.com/