Home wifi - the teenagers hate me. Help :)

[numtumfutunch]

Hi

Once upon a time (10y ago) me and the missus had a laptop and bought an Apple Airport Extreme to plug into our ADSL modem.
Happy days - we could check our email from the comfort of the sofa, and possibly the kitchen

Fast forward 10y and we have housemates who's demands are rather more industrial.
It doesnt help that the house has thick stone walls and some rooms - their bedrooms LOL - are effectively Faraday cages
Also I suspect a 10y old WAP may not be cutting edge any more..........

Current ISP is FTTC with the Airport Extreme connected to the modem

Having trawled the weapons grade wife* thread I could buy a Tenda or Google mesh thingy which would probably solve the connection problems however my ISP contract ends in the summer and Virgin Media make a big deal of their "Intelligent WiFi"

Kit wise I have a 8y old Macbook, the missus a 5y old iPad and the kids have 5y old Chromebooks. Our current TV box will be replaced when I change ISP/TV provider. There are a number of other gizmos around the house but the Chromebooks chew through the vast majority of data with Netflix and Spotify, usually simultaneously

Question:

Is the Intelligent WiFi really going to be that good or should I just buy a Mesh system now to plug into the Virgin box when I get it and reap the rewards between now and then? Im sick of my current provider and will be moving anyway

Many thanks


PS Weapons Grade Wife was an autocorrect but I like the idea

[Brainpox]

Just get the mesh system now. Virgin's hardware is crap anyway and no amount of "intelligent" wifi will solve your thick wall problem.

[ninepoint2]

We live in an 1800’s sandstone 3 storey house. Virgin 200 Mbps comes into basement. Virgin “superhub” (it’s far from Super) in modem only mode. Ran cabling to middle floor where there is a Linksys WRT 1900ac. Couple of Netgear N300 Extenders and I have to say the whole house seems to be fairly well served. We have two adult sons with girlfriends who are fairly heavy users, as are me and my wife. This set up seems to work well for us. Good luck

[RichTT]

Mesh is the way forward. I use the 2 x Google Wifi points and will have third set up soon. It's been rock solid so far. The app is easy to use, can set priority devices, limit wifi times etc.

[Kermit power]

I have BT Broadband. Wifi devices downstairs next to the router will happily run at 70 meg. By the time I got up to my study (in our loft conversion, with the signal having to get mostly through brick on the way up from the router in a single storey rear extension) speed was down to around 20 meg, and in my son's bedroom at the front of the house, he was lucky to get 10 meg, and the signal would keep dropping.

I bought a Tenda Nova MW3 three pack (currently on Amazon for £90) and it works brilliantly! Really easy to deploy, and I now get a minimum of 35-40 meg consistently anywhere in the house. It's probably the best value technology purchase I've ever made!

One thing to note - if you move to BT and Youview and want to use the Youview app that lets you set things to record from anywhere, you just need to make sure that you have the Youview box connected into the spare Ethernet port on one of the Tenda boxes, not on your BT hub, as otherwise the app gets confused when you first set it up and can't detect the Youview box as being on the same network as your phone.

ETA - Just noticed they're actually on Amazon for £70, although why they have two different options to buy on Prime is anyone's guess! https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D9CC637/ref=psdc_94...

[Tomo1971]

I thought powerline adaptors were the way forward as mesh networks will only repeat the signal they can see

[Kermit power]

Tomo1971 said:

I thought powerline adaptors were the way forward as mesh networks will only repeat the signal they can see

I got 20 Mbps over a Powerline in my study if I was lucky. I get twice that with Mesh.

All you need to do is make sure each mesh unit is close enough to the next one for them to daisy-chain the signal.

[Shiv_P]

What are the chances of running ethernet to 1 or 2 other locations in your house?

[mmm-five]

All the Virgin 'intelligent wifi' does is:

1. scans the channels used by others in your area to pick the least congested one;
2. lets you run a signal test via a phone app in other rooms - to tell you the signal is st and would you like to pay £10/month extra for a range extender box!

Fook that!

[smn159]

I'm been with VM for several years now and their wii-fi routers have, without exception, been absolute crap.

Buy the Google mesh as I have done - life is too short.

[NormalWisdom]

I'm on VM - Bought the TP-Link Deco M5 a year or so ago and it is superb. Amazon have a decnt deal on at the moment

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deco-M5-Replacement-Antiv...

[Deep Thought]

Mesh is the way forward.

Powerline adapters never work out as being that fast and are prone to drop outs. Certainly IME of using them for 10 years or so.

Mesh is a godsend.

For any reasonably shaped standard house a Tenda MW3 or MW6 setup will be fine and relatively cheap.

[megaphone]

If you already have an Airport Extreme then you could add a couple more, or some Airport Express's, they where doing 'mesh' before it was invented. Apple has dropped the range but there are plenty around second hand.

[numtumfutunch]

Thanks all, Mesh it is

[Otispunkmeyer]

Mesh all the way

I went with netgear Orbi. Works a treat.

[br d]

I'm running 5 Asus routers on a Aimesh, 2 wired 3 wireless. I get full signal everywhere but occasionally a couple of them will go offline for an hour then come back on and I can't track down the reason for it.

[numtumfutunch]

They love me

Had a 3 pack TP-Link Deco M5 delivered an hour ago and up and running for the last 55 mins

Obvs early days but clearly hugely better coverage with the usual dead spots conquered

Very, very impressive

Thanks all

PS I tried an Airport Express a while ago and whilst it gave a bit of extra welly was a PITA due to our devices constantly geting connected to the 'wrong' one

[essayer]

BT Whole Home is good.

I would avoid Tenda MW3, I found ours unreliable and prone to weird outages.

[NormalWisdom]

numtumfutunch said:

They love me

Had a 3 pack TP-Link Deco M5 delivered an hour ago and up and running for the last 55 mins

Obvs early days but clearly hugely better coverage with the usual dead spots conquered

Very, very impressive

Thanks all

PS I tried an Airport Express a while ago and whilst it gave a bit of extra welly was a PITA due to our devices constantly geting connected to the 'wrong' one

Enjoy - I have this as mentioned earlier, it is a very decent bit of kit

[bad company]

Powerline didn’t work very well in my 500 + year old house with solid walls and inglenook fireplaces. Replaced with Mesh, BT Whole Home which works very well.