Wifi Signal Booster

[Simon Bags]

Morning everyone, hope you're all good.

We've replaced our Virgin Media hub router box thing, as recommended and sent to us, and it's rubbish. I can no longer pick up wifi in the main bedroom upstairs which mean no laptop, no mobile phone and worst of all the V6 box doesn't work with all it's features. The last box managed all of this no problem.

Guess I'm looking for a wifi signal booster, a plug in the wall unit, can anyone recommend one please? I think I've found what seems to be the best seller, about £36. Do these things work?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

SImon.

[xeny]

They boost the signal (put it half way between the router and the device that can't see the router)

Remember they also reduce speed, as they're essentially playing a game of pass the parcel with your network traffic.

[NDA]

There are a couple of solutions - I am not a techie, so someone could come along and correct me!

1. Homeplugs. These use the mains wiring of your house to distribute the wifi. They're pretty robust. One end plugs into your router AND into any mains socket. Upstairs (in your case) you plug another one into a spare mains socket and it will push out wifi signals. I've found these to be pretty reliable. Freely available on Amazon.

2. Wifi booster - not sure this is the right term. But this is a device that finds the routers' wifi signal and essentially replicates it. They're quite good and, in your case, you'd probably need one on the landing, or somewhere that's a sort of halfway point between your router and your bedroom.

Remember with both to change the SSID (the wifi's name) and password to that of the router. It will mean devices can move between the signal cells relatively easily.

There are also 'mesh' systems. But that is generally more expensive and could be overkill if you're only looking to boost in one room.

HTH

[Tymb]

i've used a number of these tplink units over the years with few problems, as above it needs to be roughly half way to where you want to get to. I normally find it is best to set them up next to the router and then move it to see how far you can get.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RE220-Universal-Extender-Broadband-Indicator/dp/B07ZWBBPQN/ref=sr_1_3?c=ts&dchild=1&keywords=Network+Repeaters&qid=1607426282&refinements=p_4%3ATP-LINK&s=computers&sr=1-3&ts_id=430578031

Worth also considering a mesh system, I've recently put the bt system below in at my parents as a replacement for the tplink unit above as I was having some issues with an external wifi camera dropping out.

https://shop.bt.com/products/bt-mini-whole-home-wi...

[camel_landy]

Get yourself a mesh system but make sure it does not use the main wifi for its 'backbone'.

I personally use the Orbi but there are some other very good systems out there.

HTH

M

[underwhelmist]

Good suggestions above. You could also put the VM hub into modem mode and connect your own good quality router to it, which might improve coverage and be lower cost than the mesh option. I use a Draytek router which works well.

[Puggit]

We have a TP Link Deco M3 Mesh, 99 quid on Amazon. As above, switch off wifi on the pos router your provider sent. Plug one mesh hub in to the wifi router via ethernet, place the other 2 strategically in the house.

Chalk and cheese for your wifi experience.

[geeks]

I have the triple Deco M4 Mesh setup, rock solid and fast (i get all of our 500mb connection!

The twin pack from Argos looks good value https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9180581

Currys have the triple on a good price https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessorie...

Try to avoid the E4 as it isnt AC1200 (not sure the M3 is either but even so a good product)

[Simon Bags]

Thanks for all your replies and help everyone, really appreciate it.

I'll do some further investigation and thinking.

Cheers, Simon.

[eccles]

I bought one of these, Fritz Repeater 3000, expensive but gives a great signal all over the upstairs where we had a problem before.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AVM-FRITZ-Repeater-3000-A...