I did finally figure it out, mostly by giving in and doing it the more complicated way that was "recommended by professionals" or whatever. Thank god for online syntax checkers.

Working-from-home/quarantine-tech problem:

Hec works from home. I'm working from home for the next 3 weeks. Matilda is out of school for the next 3 weeks. She'll have school assignments to work on, almost entirely online, and I'm all set up with a VPN and ready to go.

HOWEVER... the wifi signal in our structurally problematic apartment (bowling alley-ish, with lots of narrow doorways and a long crooked hallway) reaches no further than the living room. Not only are we all confined to the apartment, we're all stuck in the same two rooms.

I've been looking online at ways to boost or extend the signal for months but I am a dummy and have succeeded only in utterly confusing myself as to what to do and how. Can some wise member of the hivemind (I think almost everyone here has been in our apartment and knows our set-up) advise me? Just tell me exactly what to get and I'll get it; I'll be fine with installation and set-up, but for a very long time now I've been literally stuck at the overwhelmed-by-choices/too-little-knowledge-to-make-an-informed-choice stage.

Until it's fixed, I can at least go with Matilda up to my campus library for short stints, since it has a gorgeous signal and is more than large enough for safe social distancing, but Hec's device is a desktop so he can't really up and leave, and we can't just live at the library. And we have two bedrooms with doors that close, perfect for getting actual work done, and it's infuriating that we can't use them.

Help? Just tell me what to get and I'll get it and I'm pretty confident after that, but I'm literally stuck at the pre-Step 1 step.

I'm a tech dummy and I'm sure there is a more sophisticated approach to this, but when I was having trouble streaming video from my bedroom TV through Roku due to spotty wifi there, I bought this WiFi extender from Amazon and it's been working great for me: [link]

Basically you have to plug this into an outlet in an area that is like half way between your main router and your problem area, but still gets a decently reliable wifi signal. Then it will boost the signal to cover your problem area. I could barely get Roku in my bedroom to connect before, and now, I'm having no problem streaming video. It required no specialty knowledge at all. I plugged it in and I think pushed a button and voila!

JZ, what model of modem and router do you have?

I am not a personal expert, but my parents had major wifi issues and swear by their Mesh WiFi network. They went with the Google WiFi system (now called Nest WiFi I believe, and the three little mini hotspots all act as little Google homes too, which is cool if you like the whole smart assistant thing). There are competing ones that get really good reviews, including Eero, if you are uncomfortable with Google. [link]

A mesh network can really help. We have the Orbi system at our house the the three repeaters fully cover our entire 10,000SF property.

Alternately you can do the low tech method and just drop a long ethernet cable down the middle of the apartment have some folks plug in the old fashioned way.

Thanks! I'm going to check online for the best option among these—we're definitely far short of 10k square feet, so we probably don't need a mesh network.

JZ, I think you'll be fine with one extender, which is why I wanted to know the model of your existing router.

javachik, Netgear N300 (I was out until just a little while ago and only just got a look at it).