Improve Wifi

noiseboy72

To improve wifi and give you some wired network sockets at the other end of the house, I can wholeheartedly recommend these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XRXJNMT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The range from the repeated wifi is excellent and set the ssid and password to be the same as your main router (There's a single button on the unit to do this and simple instructions to follow) and you will have seamless wifi coverage.

Range extenders will slow your wifi speed down and can cause more problems than they cure. I found that some of the older units refused to work with iPhones, causing them to lose connection all the time.

You can improve the coverage of your router by moving it away from anything metal or with its own wifi. Routers behind TVs - particularly if there's Sky boxes and TVs with the wifi switched on will often have very limited range, as the routers are subject to interference and high levels of RF, which makes them a little "deaf" to weaker signals.

5.8GHz is much faster but does not propagate anywhere near as well as 2.4GHz, so any devices that are quite distant might struggle to connect to the higher speed network.

If you need to limit traffic to games consoles etc. most routers have a QoS setting, which allows you to set a bandwidth limit to specific MAC addresses. I found that on our 56Mbs connection this was not required - even in a house with 2 teenage daughters streaming Youtube and Netflix continually while we are watching 4K Netflix on the main TV. I do however user it on our 4G routers we deploy at work, mainly limit the amount of data used. Each device is restricted to a 1Mbs connection, which is more than enough for the app they run. Anyone who tries to connect to streaming services is disappointed as we also block them all using a whitelist restriction. This is probably a bit draconian for home use though!

a l e x

Thanks for the help all. I’ve moved the router which helped slightly but still get WiFi connection issues in the main bedroom. The signal is very poor and keeps disconnecting. We have a nest thermostat in the room which is having issues connecting also.

To be honest, we mainly use phones/iPad so power line adaptors won’t be much use. Everything downstairs are wired connections, I just need to sort a better WiFi connection in the bedroom.

Can anyone recommend a decent range extender? I think this would be the best way to solve the issue?

Thanks.

noiseboy72

The unit I recommended gives you both wired and wireless connectivity and works perfectly with iPads and phones.

Powerline extenders use a 1 to many topology, so after fitting the connection to your router, you can add more wired or wireless access points as required.

This avoids stand alone range extenders which in my opinion are the devices which cause the most issues.

Try the device I've recommended and then add a second wireless access point upstairs if required.