Wireless boosting query

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Right, so i want to move my office out of the small bedroom upstairs and into the converted garage downstairs. Im currently running a cable from the router upstairs and into the back of my PC. Thats fine and doesnt really get in the way.

However, see floorplan. I dont really want to run a cable from the router around the house and into the new office. I was thinking of simply drilling a small hole through and running a cable. See red mark on plan. R is where the router is. Im on the BT 900 Mb/s plan and its good. I can get a wifi signal in the new office but its weak.

Whats the current state of play with wireless boosters these days. Are there any out there that would support a cabled speed. I know they are always a bit slower but i dont want to lose too much speed in going wireless.

What would be some good solutions before i get the drill out. One issue with drilling is that there is a socket in the rough area of where it would come through so i dont want to electrocute myself!

 
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Wirelessly you need a mesh set up where you add nodes to it. Wireless speeds are getting faster and faster. You could get home plugs and transmit through your mains circuit and get reasonable speeds. But you'll never beat an ethernet cable straight from your router.
 
I faced the same issue many years ago, with a very weak signal at the opposite corner of the house from the router (where the BT master socket was). I tried a better router, which was pretty much plug and play to replace the BT one (an Asus RT-AC5300 now long discontinued). This gave a stronger and reliable signal without needing to use any boosters, home plugs etc. However, when covid arrived on the scene and we were all working from home, I discovered that my wifi signal was barely enough to copy with video zoom calls, without moving the laptop closer to the router. So I bit the bullet and got a local company to run cables through the walls and loft and install ethernet ports in each room - total cost was about £600. I installed a cheap netgear 8 port switch in the loft to connect everything to and wired up everything that could be, such as the laptop, Sky box, smart TV, desktop PCs etc. thus leaving the wifi channels for mobile devices such as phones and ipads.

The wired connections offered the full speeds available from the router - now on the BT 900 package. The mobile devices worked better without everything else sharing the wifi channels.

Last year in the Amazon Black Friday sale, I got a bargain on an updated version of the Asus router which supports 10G ethernet and installed that. The older one I deployed to the loft and connected it via an ethernet cable in mesh mode, so we now get download speeds of 200+ in most of the back garden.
 
yeah id probably do that and put sockets in rooms, but we're moving next year probably so dont want the hassle :) Ive just been looking at Wireless 6 routers, didnt even know that wireless standards had changed, and they seem pretty fast but there are still a lot of walls to get the signal through. I might get one of them and a suitable card for the pc and see how it goes. I just really begurdge paying for 900 and being stuck with half of that on wireless.
 
Unreliable has been my general issue with them. I have a tenda one which is off an ethernet hub and that is pretty decent. The wireless boosters that boost an actual wireless signal tend to be a bit hit and miss. I had a pair of Asus mesh things and they were useless. Constantly just disappeared and didn't boost at all and if anything made wireless devices flip flop between about.

If you are going to stay where you are then wired is vastly better. Wire in a hub into the new office so you can link a wireless access point in there and use wireless if you want but it's also then got the option of having the PC wired as well. I find having a second wifi network is better than trying to repeat the main one. I have two now. One from the Tenda for the car and things on one side of the house that get a weak signal from the main router. The router covers most of the house and into the garage. That is repeated to the porch as the porch seems to be a dead zone no matter what you do. I think that is a TPLink one and hasn't been awful unlike the several others that have gone before it.

I do wonder if Asus routers are the issue with wireless repeating and somehow foul it up?
 
srichards said:
Unreliable has been my general issue with them. I have a tenda one which is off an ethernet hub and that is pretty decent. The wireless boosters that boost an actual wireless signal tend to be a bit hit and miss. I had a pair of Asus mesh things and they were useless. Constantly just disappeared and didn't boost at all and if anything made wireless devices flip flop between about.

If you are going to stay where you are then wired is vastly better. Wire in a hub into the new office so you can link a wireless access point in there and use wireless if you want but it's also then got the option of having the PC wired as well. I find having a second wifi network is better than trying to repeat the main one. I have two now. One from the Tenda for the car and things on one side of the house that get a weak signal from the main router. The router covers most of the house and into the garage. That is repeated to the porch as the porch seems to be a dead zone no matter what you do. I think that is a TPLink one and hasn't been awful unlike the several others that have gone before it.

I do wonder if Asus routers are the issue with wireless repeating and somehow foul it up?
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If you have a mesh system you need to have that as the only WiFi source - so (unless the router WiFi is specifically part of the mesh) disable WiFi on the router, and have the primary mesh unit sitting hard-wired to the router.
 
Get the drill out, one 6mm hole and easy to fill later.
Run the cable under the edge of the carpet (beware gripper strips).

Quick and easy, guaranteed to work :)
 
I had a project to attach my CCTV box in the loft to my router downstairs. A cable wasn't realistic.
I bought a pair of plug-in devices that transmits the wired network connection over the house mains wiring.
The CCTV box has been working over this connection flawlessly for several years. It's fast enough for video transfer, but I can't recall what the data rate is.. Maybe there's new and fast versions now?
 
If it’s a modern house run some Powerline Network plugs through the electrical supply - quick, easy, and decent speed.

I have a 24 port switch in the loft and a mesh system, time and investment - works a dream - no issues anywhere in the house and if it can be wired, I have done as this keeps the WiFi uncluttered but also gives you the speed of a wired connection with no issues.

New house, spend some money and get it done properly - if you can wire a plug it’s simpler than that, it’s just the mess and the time. Decent cables and a decent switch will be probably £100-£200 - the mesh WiFi - that’s pricey - I have had a tp link one, was rubbish, got the ASUS AX6800 think is the specific one, have switched it on and off again manually I think once in about 3-4 years - it just works - cost me £350 think it was - time saved messing about - priceless - just my two penny worth
 
Mesh FTW. Just checked mine and it's running at 468 meg over wifi. That's BT Whole Home in the same room as one of the dishes. I pay for 450 from Virgin. 2.4 GHz devices stay on the Virgin router, everything else on the mesh.

The other option (which I've done for the desktop and X-box) is to run a cable round the outside of the house. Some people here advised me and with some weatherproof Cat6 and a connection tester it was a couple of hours work. If you're in Kent I have some cable left over.
 
ive decided to go the cheap route and just put a network socket on either side of the wall and run a cable through it. Bit neater than just drilling a hole :) At least its made me aware of these new wireless 6 and 7 standards.
 
AshleyC said:
ive decided to go the cheap route and just put a network socket on either side of the wall and run a cable through it. Bit neater than just drilling a hole :) At least its made me aware of these new wireless 6 and 7 standards.
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Trust me - if you're going to wire a network socket, get yourself something like this


(I think mine was even cheaper). It can save you _hours_.
 
AshleyC said:
ive decided to go the cheap route and just put a network socket on either side of the wall and run a cable through it. Bit neater than just drilling a hole :) At least its made me aware of these new wireless 6 and 7 standards.
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Be aware that the newer 5 and 6Ghz bands offer higher bandwith and less congested channels, but the signal strength can be weaker than the older 2.4Ghz frequencies particularly if the signal has to go through walls. It's only recently that wifi 6E devices have become more mainstream, with Apple only starting to use it last year with the iphone 15 Pro models. The forthcoming iphone 16 is expected to be the first to use wifi7. It's only really of benefit if your router and fibre connection are capable of faster speeds to your ISP. EE started rolling out 1.8Gps connections this year, but in real world use I doubt you would see much benefit (if any) over a wifi 5 connection and 900Mbps internet.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Trust me - if you're going to wire a network socket, get yourself something like this


(I think mine was even cheaper). It can save you _hours_.
Click to expand...

I've just ordered that as there are a couple of really long but possibly dodgy lengths of cat 5 knocking about the house (y)
 
JonathanRyan said:
Trust me - if you're going to wire a network socket, get yourself something like this


(I think mine was even cheaper). It can save you _hours_.
Click to expand...
Completely agree - in a previous house I ran cable from a socket I installed near the BT Socket up into the loft, then down into a back bedroom I used as my office - the version of that gadget I had meant I could easily check everything as I went, and fix any errors easily.
 
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