That RushNetworkings acrticle is just mostly a bunch of nonsense.
The advices are seomwhat correct, but the explainations are mostly wrong, which can make it hard to act correctly on.
The first advice have already been given.
Try to relocate your wifi router and do not hide it away.
There are sort of three things that stops a wifi signal.
EM (electro-magnetic) interference, which is noise any electric equipment make. There are rules for how much a device can make and it what frequency spectrums, but it will always be there and the closer you get to the source the more powerful the EM will be. A TV generate a lot of EM, so keep the router away from that, but other equipment does it too. Many microwave ovens generate EM in the 2.4Ghz frequency spectrum.
These are examples of unintentionel EM noise sources, but there are also intentionel EM noise sources. 2.4Ghz is an open frequency spectrum, so other equipment not related to wifi can use it too and wireless DECT phones, wireless doorbells, remote controlled cars and alot of other remote controlled/wireless gear use this frequency spectrum and not all are that polite in the usage.
All this other gear can really saturate the frequency spectrum at times and that is why the 5Ghz frequency spectrum is released for wifi. The 5Ghz frequency spectrum is much more limited in the allowed usage, so a full saturation is less likely to occur, but not all wifi devices support this frequency.
Solids is the second thing that limits radio signals, but it is a wide spread.
Paper is hardly a limitation at all, wood is blocking just a slight and brick a bit more, metal is the worst, since it blocks totally. Concrete is like brick, but its usually reinforced with steel that is a metal.
Solids are a bit special though, because it does not actually absorb the signal, but instead bounce it, so a metal skeleton in a concrete building can often still be penetrated, because the signal can find a way to bounce through the metal bars. It will lose some strength but often come through.
If you have your wifi router behind the TV and the backplate is a large one-piece metal sheet, then it will be hard to bounce around it though.
Be aware here that 5Ghz actually have a harder time bouncing around, due to the higher frequency.
Liquids are the last really bad limitation for radio signals. like wifi, and most people do not realize how much liquid stuff there actually is around them.
Water cooler, water pipes and toilets are logical things with water, but these are also usually cover in metal and therefore hit by the solid limitations.
But plants also contain water and windows are also actually liquids.
The newer 3 layered thermo windows are practically impossible to get a radio signal through.
And with plants then its also worth noticing that the plants change with season, especially if its outdoor plants. In the winter the plants withdraw the sap from the leafs and store it in the roots and stem, which makes it easier to get a radio signal through, but come summer and the plants will start to grow leafs and fill them with sap and its suddenly a much larger obstacle for the radio signal.
Now you have an idea on what can interfere with your wifi signal and that can make it easier to place your wifi router.
If you have an Android phone, then I can recommend WIFI Analyzer to check how the frequency spectrum looks and see what signal strength you get from your AP locations when you stand in different spots in your home.
If you can not find a suitable place for your router, then the solution is not a new router, because routers are limited by laws on what signal strength they can emit and that is something even a cheap router can achieve.
The correct way is to actually expand your wifi with another wired access point.
If you choose to expand your wifi with another access point then there is a few things to know.
First you need to make sure that your current wifi router can be set to a fixed frequency for the wifi.
The 2.4Ghz frequency spectrum is divided into 11 (some places 13) bands, which fits the 802.11b wifi standard providing 11mb/s speeds, but most routers today will at least use the 802.11g wifi standard providing 54mb/s and that standard actually combine 7 bands.
To accomodate the 7 bands in 802.11g the normally accepted bands for usage is then limited to 1,6 and 11 (maybe 13 in some areas).
Band 1 will then use -2 to 4 (no idea why it is allowed to go outside the frequency limits, but it does)
Band 6 will use 3 to 9 and band 11 will use 8 to 14.
The 802.11n standard is a bit more tricky, but it is most likely not really used here, since just one device using 802.11b or 802.11g will pull limit the entire wifi to the slower speeds.
You need to be able to select that your routers wifi will use one of those bands and stick to it.
Once you can achieve that then buy another access point (a wifi router is possible, if you can disable nat and dhcp, but it still requires a little fiddling, so a pure access point is better).
Now make a wired connection to the new access point in the area where you old wifi router does not cover and set up the new access point with the same settings (ssid, password, 802.11 standards) as the old wifi router, although with another frequency (best frequencies will be 1 and 11 if there are no other usage in them).
With this setup devices will connect to the most powerful point and because devices usually try to cling to that device, then you will not much jumping around.
If a jump occur, then you will get a short disconnect, but the device should connect automatically and continue its sessions.
This will mostly be devices you carry around, like your mobile phone, but once it occur is at the point where it would most likely loose the connection completely in the old setup.
This expanding of the wifi can generally occur when there is still room for it in the frequency spectrum, so with the 802.11g standard you can put an access point on band 1, 6 and 11, but after that it becomes much harder, because the next one you add will have to be placed so its range does not overlap with other access points. If there is an overlap, then the access points will start to saturated each other and the end result is poorer wifi.
The general advice is, like some here have pointed out, move as much as possible to wired connections. They are faster, more resilliant to noise and free up the wifi for the stuff that can only use that.
From what I’ve seen so far, the HASS operating system is fairly locked down, even with SSH Protection off, so I don’t think I’d be able to configure OpenWRT outside of the UI.
But it is a worthy cause.
