Wifi extenders

[Theoldfm]

Sorry if this has been asked a thousand times…. But i am looking for some advice on wifi range extenders.

We have a good broadband supply and in the room next to the router the wifi signal is great, but not in the rest if the house or in my home office above our detached garage.

I have run a cat 5 cable to the garage but the virgin media range extender thing has packed up and i am looking for recommendations both for the other rooms in the house and for plugging in at the garage (the cable terminates downstairs and my office is upstairs over the garage).

Im losing the will to live as i have no idea what i need to buy….!

[PushedDover]

Not an expert, but I have found a solid solution to be "Mesh" not extenders.

I have akin to this - and ironically, extendable.

https://amzn.eu/d/0c79YVrk
(or an older version of)

[AB]

As above, I have Deco units all over the house as it's quite large and has very thick walls.

Works like a dream.

[Marshall878]

Finally moving to a Mesh system solved all our issues. Works great all via WiFi, can be used with ethernet too to improve signal and range.

Never going back to having multiple wifi addresses throughout the house

[Theoldfm]

This looks like an option for the house but how would these work or be linked to my garage which is detached from my house?

Sorry to be thick but I am keen to upgrade as a matter of priority as teams calls are a nightmare at the moment!!!

[Marshall878]

You state that you've got Cat5 running to the garage?



They can use ethernet backhaul. You'd connect a unit to either side of the cable which would extend the same WiFi address across a gap which wouldn't normally be achievable over WiFi

[NDA]

AB said:

As above, I have Deco units all over the house as it's quite large and has very thick walls.

Works like a dream.

Same.

It's also been totally reliable for the past sumpty years too.

I was put on to Deco via PH as it happens - having fiddled with range extenders for a few years. I always found range extenders to be be flakey and I was constantly fiddling with them to try and improve things. I now have full signal throughout the house and never think about them. Recommended!

[PushedDover]

Theoldfm said:

This looks like an option for the house but how would these work or be linked to my garage which is detached from my house?

Sorry to be thick but I am keen to upgrade as a matter of priority as teams calls are a nightmare at the moment!!!

You would have MEsh units in the house. one at the end of the Cat5 in the House, and one at the end of the Cat5 in the garage.
Both ends would be covered in wifi signal and of course if located near windows et, there will be coverage outside between too.

[RizzoTheRat]

Most mesh setups like the Deco's have a couple of ethernet ports, so your master one could have ethernet connections to both the modem and the unit in your garage.
When meshing rather than running on a wired connection, it's important to remember that they need to receive a decent signal from the master unit to then rebroadcast, so wander around the house with a phone app like WifiMan or WifiAnalyser to find where has a decent signal to put any repeaters.
The P series Deco's use Powerline (internet over the mains cables) as well as WIFI mesh which means you can put them in an area with no signal, but it's not as quick as mesh WIFI.
If you want a lot of bandwidth look for tri-band ones, they have a third WIFI band just for the connection to the master node so can run a bit faster.
However cable will always beat WIFI, if you can run a cable to any sensible points its generally worth it. My house wiring is all in ducts so I was able to use the old phone cables that ran to the lounge, dining room and master bedroom to pull Cat5e cables through and now have all my access points on ethernet.

[hellorent]

I had a similar problem, and I purchased my own router (AX58) just to see if it would improve reception, wow a vast improvement maybe try that 1st.

[Theoldfm]

PushedDover said:

Not an expert, but I have found a solid solution to be "Mesh" not extenders.

I have akin to this - and ironically, extendable.

https://amzn.eu/d/0c79YVrk
(or an older version of)

What can I say but Wow!!

Thanks to the advice on PistonHeads I have just taken delivery and installed the Mesh units as per the link above and now have perfect signal everywhere.

I connected the one in the garage to the cat5 cable that I then linked to one of the Deco units in the house (not the router) and that is 100% perfect now too.

What a game changer and thanks again to everyone that had contributed on this thread!!!

[NDA]

Theoldfm said:

What can I say but Wow!!

Thanks to the advice on PistonHeads I have just taken delivery and installed the Mesh units as per the link above and now have perfect signal everywhere.

I connected the one in the garage to the cat5 cable that I then linked to one of the Deco units in the house (not the router) and that is 100% perfect now too.

What a game changer and thanks again to everyone that had contributed on this thread!!!

Glad it worked out.

Many people turn off the wifi signal from their router to help free up general bandwidth - as you are no longer using it, it might be worth doing at some point.

[PushedDover]

Theoldfm said:

What a game changer

Agreed - one of the best Tech upgrades I made few years ago - add in the fact now all the other devices (printers, sonos etc) are on the same network, to access, and how the rural location I have means Wi-Fi calling is essential, and walking around on the phone this is solid moving around the property - it is a no brainer.

Mesh network also lets you run a guest network and applies a basic level of separating your Router / infrastructure too (turn Wi-fi off on your Router by the way OP)

Lastly, when you move house, or broadband supplier, and a new router / account - just plug it in to the Mesh, and no need to pair up all your tech / devices again to a 'new wifi' broadcast from a new router