Home Wifi Problem

Thanks Gerry for the reply:) I am using a BT Broadband Extender 200 Kit.

I don't know how to solve this problem. using desktop at the moment,either with or without the booster,the interet drops every now and again .

thanks for your comment about my bugs pics:D unfortunately,it's winter now,hard to find bugs to photograph:(

Okay. TYhat kit is a 'powerline' broadband extender. It extends your cabled home internet via your household wiring. For a computer to pick up a signal from it, it has to be connected to a second box also plugged into the mains (presumably on the same fused circuit as the first), via an eternet cable. You can use up to 8 of these from the same base station. Neither the base or any of the satelites transmit any wifi signal.

Given this I am puzzled that the first 'wifi analyser' screen capture pictured above clearly shows a second wifi transmitter coupled to your hub. Have you by any chance got any of your smart phones, tablets or laptops set up, accidentally or on purpose as a wifi access point. If so this will probably suck the life out of your wifi signal.
 
A good Wi-Fi signal is around -50 db
After about -70 db it becomes almost unusable.

The signal in the study doesn't seem to be very strong. I don't know where you have the wi-fi booster plugged in, but if as Gerry says the red network is the booster, then that's even weaker in the study. Is there somewhere you could plug the booster in that's halfway between the hub/router and the study?
I'm assuming you don't see your internet dropping out at all when you have the laptop in fairly close proximity to the hub/router?

Assuming that the issue is with the wi-fi signal strength, there are a few options.
1) You could replace your hub/router with a better one - generally, those supplied by internet service providers are mediocre. Using a replacement that has external antennae gives an added advantage of being able swap the antennae for higher gain variants - The only problem is that these tend to make the signal more directional, thus you could get a better signal on the ground floor of your home (assuming your hub/router is on the ground floor) but a weaker signal on the first floor.


You can't (legally) replace the hub. It is against Sky's T & Cs. :(
 
A good Wi-Fi signal is around -50 db
After about -70 db it becomes almost unusable.

The signal in the study doesn't seem to be very strong. I don't know where you have the wi-fi booster plugged in, but if as Gerry says the red network is the booster, then that's even weaker in the study. Is there somewhere you could plug the booster in that's halfway between the hub/router and the study?
I'm assuming you don't see your internet dropping out at all when you have the laptop in fairly close proximity to the hub/router?

Assuming that the issue is with the wi-fi signal strength, there are a few options.
1) You could replace your hub/router with a better one - generally, those supplied by internet service providers are mediocre. Using a replacement that has external antennae gives an added advantage of being able swap the antennae for higher gain variants - The only problem is that these tend to make the signal more directional, thus you could get a better signal on the ground floor of your home (assuming your hub/router is on the ground floor) but a weaker signal on the first floor.
2) You could try using a Wi-Fi dongle with your laptops/desktops to which you can attach an external antenna - I have one of these with two antennas - a +5db antenna that it came with and a +10db antenna I bought separately. With the 10 db antenna attached, I'm able to see many more wireless networks - but as yet I've not really roadtested it. If it's an option you are interested in, then I'll happily do some tests to see in real terms what difference it makes.
3) You could try getting a second wireless access point - almost any router will do - you can pop it in your study or somewhere nearer to your study and then connect it to the first access point using a network (cat 5e/6) cable. That way, when you are in your study, devices can be connected to the nearer wi-fi access point. If cabling is an issue, you could always try power over ethernet adapters. Again, they have their issues - they work best where both adapters are connected on the same mains ring. Sometimes other electric devices cause noise or interference which impairs them. There are also privacy concerns too - the network traffic between the power over ethernet adapters is generally unencrypted and if you happen to live next door to an avid computer hacker, they can buy a similar device and use it to sniff your network traffic. Despite the shortfalls, plenty of people swear by them.
4) Use network cables. In an ideal world houses would come with network cables and sockets chased into the walls. You might be able to run a cable under the carpets or perhaps neatly around the exterior of your home. Essentially, it's the one sure fire way of being able to always guarantee network connectivity without wireless issues - or running multiple access points connected via cable so that wi-fi just works better. But it also requires the most thought and investment. At home I have ethernet cables connecting a network switch in my garage to a network switch in my living room, and network cables connecting the "modem" to the firewall. Then other devices are either plugged into the switches or connected by the wireless access point that's plugged into the living room switch. As we redecorate, I'm planning to install more network cables so that hopefully, eventually, there's a network socket in nearly every room.

Finally, has the Wi-Fi/Internet actually ever been any better than this?

Thanks again for the detail reply:) i may try a wifi dongle,hope it will help .
 
Okay. TYhat kit is a 'powerline' broadband extender. It extends your cabled home internet via your household wiring. For a computer to pick up a signal from it, it has to be connected to a second box also plugged into the mains (presumably on the same fused circuit as the first), via an eternet cable. You can use up to 8 of these from the same base station. Neither the base or any of the satelites transmit any wifi signal.

Given this I am puzzled that the first 'wifi analyser' screen capture pictured above clearly shows a second wifi transmitter coupled to your hub. Have you by any chance got any of your smart phones, tablets or laptops set up, accidentally or on purpose as a wifi access point. If so this will probably suck the life out of your wifi signal.

Thanks Gerry again :) I have my smartphone connects to the wifi at most of the time. I may try a wifi dongle to see whether it will make a difference .
 
I've had a quick read through the thread but can't see if you have been advised to switch the router off for 30 seconds or more and then re-power it up again. Our Virgin router needs this doing every month or so.
 
You can't (legally) replace the hub. It is against Sky's T & Cs. :(
Is that truly the case or does it actually mean they will not support another hub.

If you want to main support, one could always use their hub simply as a modem and do the rest yourself. That is exactly what I do with the talk talk kit.
 
To me, it sounds like a faulty router.

Unplug it, ring up Sky. Tell them you have no internet. When they ask you if all cables plugged into router and switched on say yes even though its turned off!! They will send you a new one in the post!
 
To me, it sounds like a faulty router.

Unplug it, ring up Sky. Tell them you have no internet. When they ask you if all cables plugged into router and switched on say yes even though its turned off!! They will send you a new one in the post!
Lol, surely they can see that nothing is connected.
 
hotwifi - I'll dscribe what kind of problems I had - and solutions tried:
I'm renting a room in a houseshare - our BThub is on one corner of the house on the ground floor, and my room is on the 1st floor on the far away point. I hadn't had problems with reaching wifi signal with my mobile, or laptop - the problem started when I bought PC - my dongle Wifi card speed was around 6Mbits/s instead 60 so:
- solution 1: Buy a TPlink network extender - was working perfectly for a month or more - but my BT router started changing Channels etc - and my lan extender started acting weird (loosing signal, coulnd't reconnect)
- solutuon 2: Buy other TPlink router with WDS bridge support - I bought one for ca 20£ - I bridged the WiFi connection - and a cable went into my pc - now evrything works perfectly

What helps: try to change your Wifi channel (not name) for the far away number from others
 
It's the router, I have the issue 38meg via Ethernet 20-21 via wifi. Known problem with the router, search google and you will find its to do with the power on the router not being shielded and interfering with the wifi.
 
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