Internet wiring question
 

For home up north- modem is in basement- (has to be)
3rd floor wifi is weak- there is a LAN jack on the third floor- do not want to run wires across the floor
what device would I hook into this 3rd floor jack to give wifi to the third floor- my concern that a wifi extender would latch on the the basements wifi and not provide much strength
Thanks in advance

You might look into a “mesh network” where the various nodes communicate with each other, as well as, the base. I believe each node also has internet RJ-45 jack. A cheaper alternative would be a network extender which plugs into the house wiring.

Thought about the network extender (Powerline adapter) but my concern is that the 3rd floor is on a different circuit from the basement- same panel but different breaker

Why does the modem need to be in the basement? It would be better to locate it on the second floor. Run a COAX cable up the exterior wall and drill a hole through the second or third floor exterior wall.

Moving modem is not an option- why I am looking at other options

This may be a long shot, but I understand that dual band modem/routers automatically connect to wifi devices using the 5 ghz frequency, not the 2.4 ghz frequency. But, the 2.4 ghz frequency has a longer range. So, if you can get the wifi devices on the third floor to connect using 2.4 ghz, they may work better. Good luck.

A powerline adapter will work even if the router is on a different breaker in the basement. They actually work really well.

I’m sure Village Tinker could elaborate on this subject but they don’t need to be on the same breaker. However, they do need to be on the same leg or bus bar. There is a way to bridge the signal from one bus bar to the other for this purpose but I’m not familiar with the process. I had success with the mesh network but it’s not a cheap solution. Running coax to the middle of the house to reposition the modem makes the most sense.

Have granite fireplaces interfering with wifi, tried power line extenders-they sucked. Went to Eero mesh (three units) - now wifi is great. Easy set-up.

I understand that mesh replaces router- it is a combined modem/router, so how would that work?

The mesh network consists of multiple nodes (or access points) that communicate with each other. The first one plugs into your modem/router. The other nodes then communicate with each other bidirectionally using multiple channels. It does not eliminate the original modem/router that connects you to your service provider. Think of the mesh network as a new sub network, and probably best if you assign the mesh net a new network name and password. You want your devices to connect to the faster mesh network rather than try to connect to the modem/router in the basement with the weak signal.

Mesh networks have been around awhile and there’s a lot written about them on the internet, including diagrams to help you understand how they communicate. Reviews will help you select the one to purchase. The only negative is the purchase cost. Setup is easy. Mine was a Linksys with 3 nodes and it eliminated dead spots in a 2 family home. I did not have success with the ac network extender, which would have been cheaper to purchase.

Mesh
 

Try this Amazon.com
I use it here so I can get coverage outside in the yard and throughout the house.

Since you're wired to the upper floor
 

Since you're wired to the upper floor already with LAN, here's the easiest/best option, IMHO. I have the same setup and it works beautifully, i.e. gives me an excellent 5.0 ghz signal: https://ampedwireless.com/sr20000g.html

Fred

Not many people with network experience have added incorrect advice. The mesh network description is valid but not relevant here. Don’t need a power line device. The OP states there is a lan jack on the 3rd floor and a modem router in the basement: perfect! You can hook up a new tri band AX router on the 3rd floor to the Lan jack and configure this router in wired bridge mode. You would use the same wifi configuration as the base router in the basement so no matter where you are in the house you will get good coverage. If you don’t get good wifi reception on the 2nd floor, you can have somebody pull a cat6 cable from the basement to a central location on the 2nd floor or if you have a rg6 cable on the 2nd floor, you can get an adaptor that converts this coax cable to both a coax and lan cable. Once you have another lan jack on the 2nd floor, you can get another router like you purchased on the 3rd floor and set it up exactly as you did on the 3rd fl router.
The reason I like putting routers in because they give me 4 or 5 lan ports so I can plug in devices like TV’s, game consoles, DVD players, tv receivers so I get maximum network speed, I never want to use the slower wifi speeds if I can plug into a router

I would set up a "MoCA" system to extend your network. MoCA in this context stands for Multimedia over Cable Alliance".

MoCA does use your cable coax vs lan ethernet cables to go room to room,
so you would need to have coax cable connectivity in each room you want to connect, typically.

Plenty of YouTube videos on this method of getting internet from a far flung router to a distant room or rooms.

Here's one link explaining it:

https://youtu.be/dm_Znyh7uZ0