Problematic BT smart hub. Replace with Aftermarket router?
Discussion
We have a BT fibre line in the house (newly put in as our old cables couldn't hack fibre).
BT provided a smart hub with the contract and it works mostly fine. Pc it's beside has ether net connection, but everything else is on WiFi.
Recently the WiFi range is getting worse and worse.
It's a 100 year old stone house, 4 rooms downstairs and 3 upstairs.
I'm finding the phone I have in bedroom won't connect to the wifi in room below it anymore.
I've heard IPS supplied hubs can die a slow death. Would replacing the hub with say a netgear fibre midem/router give better signal range?
I am talking from a room it's in to the lounge TV, say about 10 metres away ish, through 2 lath and plaster walls diagonally.
It does still get that far but it's losing connection and the phones are the worst for swapping to 4G a lot.
Any help on if a aftermarket modem router would give slight improvent I'm after?
Cheers
BT provided a smart hub with the contract and it works mostly fine. Pc it's beside has ether net connection, but everything else is on WiFi.
Recently the WiFi range is getting worse and worse.
It's a 100 year old stone house, 4 rooms downstairs and 3 upstairs.
I'm finding the phone I have in bedroom won't connect to the wifi in room below it anymore.
I've heard IPS supplied hubs can die a slow death. Would replacing the hub with say a netgear fibre midem/router give better signal range?
I am talking from a room it's in to the lounge TV, say about 10 metres away ish, through 2 lath and plaster walls diagonally.
It does still get that far but it's losing connection and the phones are the worst for swapping to 4G a lot.
Any help on if a aftermarket modem router would give slight improvent I'm after?
Cheers
It's interesting you mention the routers potentially dying a slow death. We've had BT for just over 2 years, very happy with it but recently the WiFi has been playing up.
I was on my work laptop and it kept saying patchy WiFi signal. I'm sat 4 metres away from the router. In my cabin I'm similar distance to a tplink access point hardwired into the BT router 30m away and this works perfectly.
A roku device just would not connect to the BT router despite being connected for at least a year yet connects to the cabin router.
I called BT who ran diagnostics and did a few bits their end, rest the line etc and it seems better. But does that explain the connection problems?
I was on my work laptop and it kept saying patchy WiFi signal. I'm sat 4 metres away from the router. In my cabin I'm similar distance to a tplink access point hardwired into the BT router 30m away and this works perfectly.
A roku device just would not connect to the BT router despite being connected for at least a year yet connects to the cabin router.
I called BT who ran diagnostics and did a few bits their end, rest the line etc and it seems better. But does that explain the connection problems?
The most likely reason for deteriorating WiFi connectivity over time is more and more neighbours signing up and conflicting on your channel. If your router is set to auto channel selection just reboot it and it might get less congestion. Switch it off and switch it on again really is the right answer sometimes.
I have an App called WiFiAnalyzer that lets me see the extent of the congestion on all channels and on both 2.4 & 5 Ghz bands
I have an App called WiFiAnalyzer that lets me see the extent of the congestion on all channels and on both 2.4 & 5 Ghz bands
bennno said:
Router isn’t the issue, they are as good as anything you will buy, you just need house mesh system and if it’s very thick walled might need to run an Ethernet cable to first disk.
I must admit that I've not been overly impressed with the BT 'discs'. Another oldish house (1957) and the wifi seems to be ultra patchy in the study, despite having the max of 3 discs, may well end up calling BT out for a looksee irocfan said:
I must admit that I've not been overly impressed with the BT 'discs'. Another oldish house (1957) and the wifi seems to be ultra patchy in the study, despite having the max of 3 discs, may well end up calling BT out for a looksee
Just need to get distribution right. We tried a very expensive router alternative and it didn’t work as well as the home hub 6.Look at the BT Complete WiFi offering, it may be you already have it and just need to phone up and grumble at them to get a new router, or some WiFi mesh discs, https://www.bt.com/help/bt-halo/what-is-complete-w...
The BT routers are a joke known as the Homes
t X
You have several options
Get a VDSL modem and buy a better router
Get VDSL modem and buy a mesh system - Orbi, Deco or Tenda
Buy a replacement router with in built VDSL modem
You cannot put the Homest into modem mode so if you did want to keep the Homest you could buy Mesh that supports AP mode (just not Google as that only supports 1 node in that mode)
t XYou have several options
Get a VDSL modem and buy a better router
Get VDSL modem and buy a mesh system - Orbi, Deco or Tenda
Buy a replacement router with in built VDSL modem
You cannot put the Homes
t into modem mode so if you did want to keep the Homest you could buy Mesh that supports AP mode (just not Google as that only supports 1 node in that mode)Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff