Wifi Extenders for the home.

[mopardave]

Gents and ladies.....I'm hoping to buy a house where the current owner has a range of wifi extenders plugged into the mains sockets due to the thickness of the walls. Can anyone offer any advice on what to go for? FWIW I've got a Vodafone router.
Thanks guys!

 

[DaveBos]

My mate at work, a computer programmer, raves about Wifi Mesh Systems, worth a google.

 

[mopardave]

@DaveBos …...never heard of that but I'll google it now!

 

[DaveBos]

Nor had I, quite pricey though when I looked.

 

[Murdoch]

I’m a spark so these things can resolve issues or not ...

Firstly do you need Wi-fi extenders or some hard wired connections or both?

What sort of fuseboard / incoming supply do you have?

On a typical single phase site they should work BUT having2 or more rcds will affect performance .... the manufacturers say they don’t but they do.

I used devolo products very successfully in our house for a number of years before connecting up all the hard wired connections

Hope this helps

 

[DaveyB]

@mopardave I have some units I purchased from maplins that put the router signal into the electrical ring main. Then you just need a specific plug on an outlet in each room you want it, and hey presto.

 

[Insert Coin]

I've got a Netgear Orbi system at my house, 1 router and 3 satellites gives 100% coverage in the house and garden, it's also a mesh system. It's not cheap, but works really well, never drops out, works ok with all my other wireless devices. It also supports Disney Circle, helps me to limit how long the kids can watch their iPads for.

Good article here - Get whole-home Wi-Fi coverage with one of these mesh network kits

 

[Loz]

If they work they're fine but can suffer from interference and can also become disconnected from the hub, when this happens you have a full wi-fi signal but you cant go anywhere.
If you can, you would always be better to hard wire in a proper access point back to your router, also change the SSID and password to be the same on all access points so that you can roam about without having to keep entering new details for each point (especially for visitors if you let them on your network)

 

[Gingercoastie]

I use BT ones as I have a BT hub, theory work fine.

 

[Oldrat]

BT whole home system. It’s the dogs!
Simple to set up too.


Linky

 

[mopardave]

I'm trying to avoid BT if possible....they're fine until you need help....their customer service is appalling! I ditched them for Vodafone. Thanks for all the suggestions though.

 

[Flashollie]

I have a biggish house with very thick walls and I had tried the TP Link extenders / boosters and others and they were crap.
On the advice of my mate whose a network engineer he said suck up the cost and get google wifi.

Did it got two of their mesh units and its so much better. Before I had 4 boosters now I 3 google WiFi. If i didn't want WiFi in my man cave 30 yards from the house I would have only had 2 of the google units. you can by the signly and they are scalable so you can add as many as you want.
And its very very easy to set up and you can prioritize certain devices and easily make it child safe turn it off at bed tiems for certain devices etc.
Oh and it looks nice too which helped me justify the cost to get Wifi to my cave

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Google-Wifi-system-set-replacement/dp/B01MAW2294

 

[Dannyb6467]

I'm trying to avoid BT if possible....they're fine until you need help....their customer service is appalling! I ditched them for Vodafone. Thanks for all the suggestions though.

I agree Mopar...however just for refence I use their live chat facility. I'd go so far as to say it's excellent. Can't be doing with the call centres in whatever country they are based now.

 

[Dellmassive]

I've used these power-line extenders before, all worked well.


Powerline Adapters | TP-Link

Internet Booster - devolo dLAN WiFi Extender | devolo AG


Though IMHO if the walls are too thick then any WIFI based range extenders/Mesh will be compromised.

and power-line based extenders are subject to the quality of the ring-main fitted to the properety and quality/length of cable run.


Best option is always to run a cat5/cat6 from the router into each Dead-Zone and fit a local Access point (WIFI AP) - But that depends on how hard it is to get a cable there . . . . . if not the power-line adapters maybe worth as try.

I've done this with cheap ex-sky duel-band ADSL routers (£10 each on Ebay) Just use them as wifi access points buy disabling the "DHCP" setting in the menu and setup the WIFI SSID/password as you with. then just plug a cat5 in to join it up with your main router...( you may need to assign a statics IP address to each wifi-ap you install)

 

[Phil_G]

I do the same. Our family business is a boarding kennels so its quite a large area to cover.
I buy any old cheap routers, cable them and set them up as a wireless bridge. My main router is of course
the default gateway and dhcp server for everything, despite the multiple routers this is all layer 2.
The router in reception is via a TPLink mains adapter, I use a few of these and they're fine as long as they're
on the same consumer unit, you cant expect them to work through an RCD as it puts an inductor in each leg which
will massively attenuate the carrier. Using old routers as remote AP's is a really cheap and effective method of
expanding your wifi network. If you move around the place a lot, some devices are better than others at renegotiating
from one AP to another, most phones switch instantly but some laptops you have to switch manually.
All depends on your budget and if you mind running a cable or two

 

[Ed Webb]

I agree Mopar...however just for refence I use their live chat facility. I'd go so far as to say it's excellent. Can't be doing with the call centres in whatever country they are based now.

Agree with @Dannyb6467 live chat facility is great. maybe worth noting that BT TV doesn't work very well through wifi extenders, even their own.

 

[RussGT6]

Agree with @Dannyb6467 live chat facility is great. maybe worth noting that BT TV doesn't work very well through wifi extenders, even their own.

i have recently found the same issue with BT TV, terrestrial channels seem ok but as soon as you try Bt sport it lags, will be running a Cat5 soon.

 

[Mike Dean]

Any super IT wiz people on here?

I want the best possible WiFi booster/extender I can have.

BT router under the stairs in the house, I have a BT extender inline. But the garage is in another line, so online is in the kitchen and not strong enough!

 

[Phil_G]

I want the best possible WiFi booster/extender I can have.

Really? so we're talking multiple clustered Cisco 571e's?

 

[Dellmassive]

Really? so we're talking multiple clustered Cisco 571e's?

lol . .

yeh, i was thinking of loading up a few - Ubiquiti UniFi UAP AC Pro Indoor / Outdoor Access Point (UAP-AC-PRO)

may be a directional link direct to the van?