Extending my Wifi coverage

wibbly

wibbly

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Dave
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I currently have my router (connected through Sky BB) on the ground floor of my house, and work most of the time in a converted loft (3rd floor).

Wi-fi coverage can be a little sketchy, with at times the ability to connect lacking completely. I work from a MacBook Air which appears not be quite so strong at picking up my wifi signal as my old MacBook did.

It appears the MacBook Air also suffers with some Bluetooth/wifi connectivity issues so if I connect my mouse, keyboard and trackpad to the air, quite often the wireless freezes completely. (This is a bit of a side issue in fairness, although damned frustrating).... :suspect:

Is there any solution to increasing the wi-fi signal strength, without physically moving the router. Moving from downstairs to upstairs would be a PITA as I have no simple solution to be able to do that.

Any answers gratefully received.
 
I've extended my range using lots of method as we have a cabin in the garden. Some routers have a wireless extender mode where you can link them to your existing wireless network, but you just have to watch the signal strength where you add it. You can have fast connections near the routers but slow link between them.

I've opted now for the power plus extenders with a small personal hub at the other end, but this could also be a wireless device. Just watch for things like the wireless doorbells as the one we had worked on the same or lose frequency and made it unreliable until I changed it.
 
I would spend the effort to run cat 5e/cat 6 from your router to the loft - even if it goes outside the house - and then plug a wireless access point in at the other end.
 
Thanks for the answers guys.

I like the idea of the home plugs if I can find wireless options, basically plug and forget.

I'm looking for a simple option here, if I were to go down the route of looking to wire in cabling from downstairs into the loft, I may just as well re-route the router from where it already is :D
 
Personally, I'd rather go with a homeplug solution from the router to the loft and then have a wireless homeplug in the loft. Wireless extenders can be very hit and miss...
 
arad85 said:
Personally, I'd rather go with a homeplug solution from the router to the loft and then have a wireless homeplug in the loft. Wireless extenders can be very hit and miss...
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Ah OK, is what I've seen not a wireless homeplug then in that Curry's link?
 
nope. That's just a repeater. Takes the signal from your router via wireless and repeats it (I expect on another channel).
 
Ah ok, thanks Andy. Back to Google it is :)
 
I've never seen wireless home plugs, but must admit its been a while since I bought mine.

My setup is main ADSL Router in my office connected to home plug, PC etc. then in the lounge on the other side of the house I have another home plug and connected that to a wireless cable router that feeds the TV, media centre, iPad etc.

There is a bit of tweaking to do in the router settings to turn of DHCP etc, but it works a treat.

My iPad just connects to the router with the best signal depending where I am in the house.
 
ecoleman said:
I've never seen wireless home plugs, but must admit its been a while since I bought mine.
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I googled quickly earlier and only found a 200Mbit/s one. In that case, I'd go with 2x 500Mbit plugs plus a router/access point depending on what you have available.
 
Of course, make sure your home plugs are on the same circuit - that caught me out! Our kid's bedroom is on a separate circuit (at least that's what I assume), as he get's no connectivity in his room when we used a home plug system.

I ended up with a Buffalo wireless bridge in the loft and dropping cat5 into his room. I've set it up so the connection between the bridge and the main router runs on 5Ghz and it has been absolutely rock solid.
 
Furtim said:
I ended up with a Buffalo wireless bridge in the loft and dropping cat5 into his room. I've set it up so the connection between the bridge and the main router runs on 5Ghz and it has been absolutely rock solid.
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If only I knew what any of that meant - it does sound impressive though :lol:
 
Furtim said:
Of course, make sure your home plugs are on the same circuit - that caught me out! Our kid's bedroom is on a separate circuit (at least that's what I assume), as he get's no connectivity in his room when we used a home plug system.
............
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Aye, that's the problem with those who think this is the wonder solution!
 
wibbly said:
If only I knew what any of that meant - it does sound impressive though :lol:
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It's not all that complicated really - I've drawn a picture to make it simple!

Slide11.jpg


There's a couple of lessons learnt that may help you avoid pitfalls!
1. The HomePlug / Ethernet over Power system is heavily dependant on your home wiring; ours is clearly rubbish in the extension part of the house and hence the system is useless there, but it works fine in the older part (oddly), but you get nearer 15 - 20Mbs not the 200Mps max in my case. I will at some point just drop Cat5 from the loft from the wireless bridge to replace these when I next decorate their rooms.

2. Running your WiFi network at 5GHz is far more stable than at 2.4Ghz simply because most people don't do it (and that's because a lot of devices don't support it!). So if you can make use of both frequencies, you can get the best of both worlds. I use separate routers for this, but I'm sure some of the newer ones can now do both.

3. If I could run Cat5 up to the loft, I would - even though the 5GHz wireless connection is solid, I would have preferred a cabled connection, but there's no clear route in my house and the Mrs would kill me if I ran it externally.
 
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Furtim said:
It's not all that complicated really - I've drawn a picture to make it simple!
Click to expand...

Thanks, that explains it better :D

I guess you're still using a wired system though aren't you which is something I don't really want to do. I would prefer a wireless system for simplicity sake.
 
wibbly said:
Thanks, that explains it better :D

I guess you're still using a wired system though aren't you which is something I don't really want to do. I would prefer a wireless system for simplicity sake.
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Most of the devices connect via Wireless, but I was too cheap to buy the kids PC's with WiFi, so they use a wired connection :P
 
Haha, thanks David. There's certainly some food for thought there. :thumbs:
 
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