Can a better router solve this?
Discussion
Plusnet 60mbs broadband with a Plusnet hub.
Small terraced house with loft extension.
Router is in lounge at the front and my speed test on my phone shows 57 down 20 up when in same room.
Same in bedroom above lounge but anywhere else it ranges from 25 to a big fat zero. Zero in the bedroom on the first floor at top of stairs at the back of the house.
Everything fine on power lines, ethernet etc but would a decent router from one of the big names give better WiFi coverage.
Cheers and thanks for any help and suggestions.
Small terraced house with loft extension.
Router is in lounge at the front and my speed test on my phone shows 57 down 20 up when in same room.
Same in bedroom above lounge but anywhere else it ranges from 25 to a big fat zero. Zero in the bedroom on the first floor at top of stairs at the back of the house.
Everything fine on power lines, ethernet etc but would a decent router from one of the big names give better WiFi coverage.
Cheers and thanks for any help and suggestions.
Put an access point on a Powerline or Ethernet connection to the existing router at the top back of the house.
Alternatively a mesh would possibly resolve it - I say possibly as what you describe suggests the side to side walls in the property are very wifi opaque, which is a tricky problem for anything wifi based. A mesh with wired backhaul would work well, but they tend to be more expensive.
A single better wifi source (router in this case) rarely helps - there are statutory limits to how much transmit power they can use and also the wireless source has to be able to "hear" the mobile device for everything to work..
Alternatively a mesh would possibly resolve it - I say possibly as what you describe suggests the side to side walls in the property are very wifi opaque, which is a tricky problem for anything wifi based. A mesh with wired backhaul would work well, but they tend to be more expensive.
A single better wifi source (router in this case) rarely helps - there are statutory limits to how much transmit power they can use and also the wireless source has to be able to "hear" the mobile device for everything to work..
croyde said:
Plusnet 60mbs broadband with a Plusnet hub.
Small terraced house with loft extension.
Router is in lounge at the front and my speed test on my phone shows 57 down 20 up when in same room.
Same in bedroom above lounge but anywhere else it ranges from 25 to a big fat zero. Zero in the bedroom on the first floor at top of stairs at the back of the house.
Everything fine on power lines, ethernet etc but would a decent router from one of the big names give better WiFi coverage.
Cheers and thanks for any help and suggestions.
Try putting a shallow parabola shaped bit of tin foil behind the router. Point it towards the opposite side of the house.Small terraced house with loft extension.
Router is in lounge at the front and my speed test on my phone shows 57 down 20 up when in same room.
Same in bedroom above lounge but anywhere else it ranges from 25 to a big fat zero. Zero in the bedroom on the first floor at top of stairs at the back of the house.
Everything fine on power lines, ethernet etc but would a decent router from one of the big names give better WiFi coverage.
Cheers and thanks for any help and suggestions.
Our router is in the downstairs kitchen at the very end of one side of the house. The furthest upstairs bedroom struggled with coverage. Using the tin foil trick gave just enough extra range.
Other thing you can do, if you have a dual band router is use the 2.4Ghz band in the furthest rooms. It will be a bit slower the 5Ghz but the range will be better.
Other than that power line or access points are the way to go, but in a terrace you should be able to get away with a just a good router.
This is what I've got for our 3 storey house
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-B...
works brilliantly.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-B...
works brilliantly.
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 10th October 15:48
Thanks for the replies.
I had a router by the front door of my old flat.
5m down the hall and into the lounge and the signal went.
It was trying to get through the hall wall, a bedroom wall then the opposite wall into the lounge. All old school thick and solid.
Lovely for sound and heat insulation but rubbish for WiFi.
Had to put an access point via power lines in the lounge.
Will look into similar and you've saved me the £300 my lad wanted me to spend on something that looked like an alien spider
I had a router by the front door of my old flat.
5m down the hall and into the lounge and the signal went.
It was trying to get through the hall wall, a bedroom wall then the opposite wall into the lounge. All old school thick and solid.
Lovely for sound and heat insulation but rubbish for WiFi.
Had to put an access point via power lines in the lounge.
Will look into similar and you've saved me the £300 my lad wanted me to spend on something that looked like an alien spider
gottans said:
Easier to go for one of the mesh systems for better coverage throughout the house.
The overall performance is a combination of both the router and the client device, most routers are reasonably similar so probably won't be the magic bullet you want.
Don't like mesh systems as they are basically repeaters.The overall performance is a combination of both the router and the client device, most routers are reasonably similar so probably won't be the magic bullet you want.
Silly question, But what are you doing on your wireless devices that need such speed?
I have always worked from home and have the cheapest virgin package and bog standard hub, speed has never been a problem. Only time it seems an issue is when downloading a 4gb iso, but I go and have a cup of tea or let the dog out etc
I have always worked from home and have the cheapest virgin package and bog standard hub, speed has never been a problem. Only time it seems an issue is when downloading a 4gb iso, but I go and have a cup of tea or let the dog out etc
Spare tyre said:
Silly question, But what are you doing on your wireless devices that need such speed?
I have always worked from home and have the cheapest virgin package and bog standard hub, speed has never been a problem. Only time it seems an issue is when downloading a 4gb iso, but I go and have a cup of tea or let the dog out etc
Not the OP, but trying to improve on a minimum of 0 Mb/sec hardly seems a vast desire for WiFi performance.I have always worked from home and have the cheapest virgin package and bog standard hub, speed has never been a problem. Only time it seems an issue is when downloading a 4gb iso, but I go and have a cup of tea or let the dog out etc
wormus said:
gottans said:
Easier to go for one of the mesh systems for better coverage throughout the house.
The overall performance is a combination of both the router and the client device, most routers are reasonably similar so probably won't be the magic bullet you want.
Don't like mesh systems as they are basically repeaters.The overall performance is a combination of both the router and the client device, most routers are reasonably similar so probably won't be the magic bullet you want.
Have you had bad experience with recent models? I read mostly very good things about mesh solutions.
Such as this:
PeedeeTon said:
I've had great success with Google WiFi, which is a mesh.
(interested as I am considering investing in mesh to cure our occasional issues!)mikeiow said:
(interested as I am considering investing in mesh to cure our occasional issues!)
My impression, having set mesh and Powerline up at several places now is that mesh is great where you've got range issues - it's a good way of solving the one end of the house can't get wifi problem, especially in a newer build with thinner interior walls. It also does well with mobile devices moving between units.Where it has a hard time is a structure with very wifi opaque interior walls, unless there's something like a corridor that you can put mesh units along, say opposite doorways into rooms. With that kind of building, either a wired backhaul with access points on it, or a Powerline system maybe with built in access points is a better fit, as long as the mains wiring is to a decent standard and not internally subdivided.
xeny said:
My impression, having set mesh and Powerline up at several places now is that mesh is great where you've got range issues - it's a good way of solving the one end of the house can't get wifi problem, especially in a newer build with thinner interior walls. It also does well with mobile devices moving between units.
Where it has a hard time is a structure with very wifi opaque interior walls, unless there's something like a corridor that you can put mesh units along, say opposite doorways into rooms. With that kind of building, either a wired backhaul with access points on it, or a Powerline system maybe with built in access points is a better fit, as long as the mains wiring is to a decent standard and not internally subdivided.
As above, mesh systems still use radio as the backbone for moving data about and communication between nodes which can be a limitation. Powerline doesn’t and I’ve found it really reliable especially if you connect proper access points for WiFi.Where it has a hard time is a structure with very wifi opaque interior walls, unless there's something like a corridor that you can put mesh units along, say opposite doorways into rooms. With that kind of building, either a wired backhaul with access points on it, or a Powerline system maybe with built in access points is a better fit, as long as the mains wiring is to a decent standard and not internally subdivided.
I've been using powerline adapters for years and my job involves downloading and uploading GBs of data almost daily, and they've always worked flawlessly and as fast as downloading on the PC connected directly to the router, and they take just a few seconds to plug in or move to another location if you want.
Mesh can be wired backhall - depending on the kit your using it may well be better to be wired - as some mesh systems use the same frequencies for the backhaul which will slow the frontside down.
I use a number of Draytek AP903 access points with wired back haul and they seem to work very well once setup (not very intuitive to setup though) .
I have experience of the Google ones and the trouble with them is you cannot bridge between your original network devices wired into your router and devices hanging off the google network this may or may not be a problem depending on how big your network is. The Google setup is more user friendly and can use wired or wireless backhaul and uses different frequencies for the backhaul.
I use a number of Draytek AP903 access points with wired back haul and they seem to work very well once setup (not very intuitive to setup though) .
I have experience of the Google ones and the trouble with them is you cannot bridge between your original network devices wired into your router and devices hanging off the google network this may or may not be a problem depending on how big your network is. The Google setup is more user friendly and can use wired or wireless backhaul and uses different frequencies for the backhaul.
Have you got a WiFi analyser type app on a phone? Before spending any money probably worth checking which channel your router is on as there maybe other signals on the same channel which can limit performance.
There are more channels in the 5GHz band but these signals likes walls even less.
There are more channels in the 5GHz band but these signals likes walls even less.
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