How many access points does your home need?
No rules of thumb — a real link budget: how far your signal actually travels given your walls, your storeys and where the router sits, for 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz side by side.
What you need
1
| Band | Reach | Through a floor | Covers | Needs |
|---|
An estimate from a link budget, not a site survey. Furniture, neighbours' networks and an awkward floor plan all cost you range on top of this.
Calculated in your browser — nothing is stored or sent.
How it works
1. Estimate your floor area
Take the floor area of one storey and the number of storeys that need coverage. Roughly is good enough.
2. Pick your walls and the router's spot
Brick fits most Dutch housing. Router in the meter cupboard? Say so honestly — it makes a real difference.
3. Read off how many points you need
The big number is the access-point count for the recommended band. The table shows what each band manages on its own.
Under the bonnet sits the COST 231 multi-wall model: free-space loss plus the attenuation of every wall the signal passes on the way. The transmit powers are the ETSI limits that apply in the Netherlands, and 10 dB of margin comes off because your phone transmits more weakly than your router. Running a smart home on Zigbee? Put its channel beside your Wi-Fi with the Zigbee channel planner, and see what your smart devices cost to run with the energy cost calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Why would I need more than one router?
Because radio waves do not ignore walls. A brick interior wall costs you around 10 dB at 5 GHz, a concrete floor 24 dB — and every 6 dB halves your range. In a typical terraced house one router on 2.4 GHz is often enough, but it rarely covers the top floor on 5 GHz. This tool works that out per band instead of applying a rule of thumb.
What's the difference between a repeater, mesh and an access point?
A repeater picks up your Wi-Fi and re-transmits it on the same radio, so you halve your throughput and double your latency. Mesh does the same thing tidily and automatically, but still shares the air. An access point with an Ethernet cable shares nothing: data arrives over the wire and the radio only transmits. From three points on, wiring them is usually the difference between 'it works' and 'it works well'.
My router is in the meter cupboard. Does that matter?
It's the single most common mistake in Dutch homes. A closed door and a metal meter box cost around 8 dB together, and the meter cupboard is almost always at the edge of the house rather than the middle. You can easily lose half your range before the signal even enters the living space. An access point in the hallway or living room usually helps more than a more expensive router.
Why is 5 GHz faster but worse?
Higher frequencies are absorbed more by materials. The same wall that costs 6 dB at 2.4 GHz costs around 10 dB at 5 GHz and more again at 6 GHz. In exchange there is far more spectrum and far less neighbour congestion, so in the same room 5 GHz is several times faster. Hence the standard approach: size your number of access points for 5 GHz, and let 2.4 GHz handle the far corners and your smart home devices.
How accurate is this?
It's an estimate from a link budget, not a site survey. We use the COST 231 multi-wall model with published attenuation figures, the ETSI transmit limits, and a 10 dB margin for the fact that your phone transmits more weakly than your router and your hand is usually in front of it. What we don't know: your exact floor plan, your furniture, and how many neighbours' networks are transmitting over the top. Trust the order of magnitude, not the decimal.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your own browser. Nothing is stored or sent.
Rather have Wi-Fi that just works everywhere?
We survey the house, put the access points where they belong and wire them up where we can — often alongside a smart home running neatly on top of it.