Extending WiFi network
Author
Discussion

audi321

Original Poster:

6,177 posts

243 months

Tuesday 12th May 2020
quotequote all
Hi all. I’m a bit out of date with WiFi extending. The last time I did it was with power line adapters to another WiFi point.

Is this still the way forward? Or is something better out there? As I see it I have 3 options;

1. Powerline to a WiFi powerline of access point.
2. WiFi extenders
3. I see screwfix do a double plug socket with an extender in (for £25!) but only 2.4ghz. Looks neat though.

I’m not really bothered about the cost (to a degree) but speed, latency and ease of set up are important. It’s an old 3 story Victorian thick walled house and I’ll like it extending all over including a long garden.

Thanks for any advice

AS62

419 posts

202 months

Tuesday 12th May 2020
quotequote all
BT's Whole Home WiFi mesh network has worked well for me over a 3 story stone 1890s townhouse. I'm sure there are fancier/more technical options but this has been good out of the box.

bad company

21,920 posts

296 months

Tuesday 12th May 2020
quotequote all
I also use BT Whole Home. It works well over our 5 bedroom 17th century house which was difficult to cover with WiFi.


audi321

Original Poster:

6,177 posts

243 months

Wednesday 13th May 2020
quotequote all
Numpty question but do I need BT for this? I am in the Hull area so cannot get anything other than KCom (which is actually pretty good so I can’t complain).

megaphone

11,693 posts

281 months

Wednesday 13th May 2020
quotequote all
Theres a whole thread on options here

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

For easy set-up look at a Mesh system. BT Wholehome is one, but there are others that are recommended, Tenda do one which gets good reviews, have a read of the other thread.

bad company

21,920 posts

296 months

Wednesday 13th May 2020
quotequote all
audi321 said:
Numpty question but do I need BT for this? I am in the Hull area so cannot get anything other than KCom (which is actually pretty good so I can’t complain).

No you don’t need BT internet. Our ISP is Sky and the BT Whole Home works very well. Easy to set up too.

audi321

Original Poster:

6,177 posts

243 months

Wednesday 13th May 2020
quotequote all
Brill thanks. I’ll buy some discs now then. Cheers all.

anonymous-user

84 months

Thursday 14th May 2020
quotequote all
audi321 said:
Brill thanks. I’ll buy some discs now then. Cheers all.
I'd really have a read of the thread above, the discs are ok but there are better and cheaper options out there, also depending if you are wedded to any particular ecosystem you may wanna look at Amazon or Googles offering etc

Sy1441

1,283 posts

190 months

Thursday 14th May 2020
quotequote all
AS62 said:
BT's Whole Home WiFi mesh network has worked well for me over a 3 story stone 1890s townhouse. I'm sure there are fancier/more technical options but this has been good out of the box.
Same here, we've a large 4 bedroom new build with internal double garage and a decent size garden. We didn't get a great signal at the decking down the back of the garden or at the side where we have a ring security camera so bought the 3 disk pack, stuck one at the back of the house, one in the garage and the one attached to the router in the cupboard under the stairs where the fibre runs in. The whole home thing worked out the box and does the trick.

boyse7en

8,207 posts

195 months

Thursday 16th July 2020
quotequote all
What's a cheaper option to get WiFi just outside the house to the patio area?

No electric sockets on the wall of the house alongside. I can run an ethernet cable from the router to nearby if that helps.

eein

1,565 posts

295 months

Friday 17th July 2020
quotequote all
audi321 said:
Hi all. I’m a bit out of date with WiFi extending. The last time I did it was with power line adapters to another WiFi point.

Is this still the way forward? Or is something better out there? As I see it I have 3 options;

1. Powerline to a WiFi powerline of access point.
2. WiFi extenders
3. I see screwfix do a double plug socket with an extender in (for £25!) but only 2.4ghz. Looks neat though.

I’m not really bothered about the cost (to a degree) but speed, latency and ease of set up are important. It’s an old 3 story Victorian thick walled house and I’ll like it extending all over including a long garden.

Thanks for any advice
The screwfix option that is built in to the socket is very, very, very crap. I had it and continued trying to use it for about 2 years. The documentation is a joke - it's clearly a chinese made device and the UK company white labelling it has no clue. The plastic they use is cheap and crumbles if you slightly over tighten which exposes mains wiring. There is no way it would pass UK CE mark testing if they'd actually done any.

The actual conenction between the two sockets is very poor and drops out all the time.

The receiption at the extensio socket is the worst bit. The reception from it is ok if you are within 2m of the socket and in the area it 'looks' out over. If you are off to the side, or in the next room the reception is almost zero.