Happy with speed but difficulty connecting around the house

[johnmyers87]

Recently signed up to a 200mb package with Virgin. Very happy with the speeds once connected, especially when near the router. Unfortunately if I'm not in the immediate vicinity of the router the connections constantly dips and I'm getting one bar (if I'm lucky) upstairs.

I also run a business from the outside shed (I know, professional). Which isn't actually that far from the router but I'm struggling getting more than one bar of connection on my laptop and phone from the shed. The house doesn't have necessarily thick walls so I'm confused why the router doesn't seem to connect around the house that isn't the living room.

I've also given up on online gaming in my room as my pings are 100-200 (even though speed tests say 150 -200mb). Impossible to play on. It's not really ideal for me to have a giant ethernet going throughout the house either. 

My question is, does those router extenders work? I've seen conflicting reviews that they don't really do anything. I don't need massive speeds when I'm connected. I just need to stay connected and for it to be stable for internet browsing. Looking into the TPLINK ones.

[g0akc]

The number of bars on a device isn't really a good measure of Wi-Fi strength.

I'd start by do a 'survey' of the property using a free Wi-Fi analyser app, also checking  for any clash with neighbour's wifi.

Various websites will show what's a good signal strength - measured in dBm

Close to the router you should get between -30 and -40dBm or maybe -50 - that's an excellent signal.

Signals down to -60 or so, even -65 should be usable and fulfill what you need.  See what you are getting in the rooms.

Extenders etc. can work to varying degrees.  You may however be better off with a mesh system.

[johnmyers87]

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@g0akc wrote:  MyAllSaversConnect

The number of bars on a device isn't really a good measure of Wi-Fi strength.

I'd start by do a 'survey' of the property using a free Wi-Fi analyser app, also checking  for any clash with neighbour's wifi.

Various websites will show what's a good signal strength - measured in dBm

Close to the router you should get between -30 and -40dBm or maybe -50 - that's an excellent signal.

Signals down to -60 or so, even -65 should be usable and fulfill what you need.  See what you are getting in the rooms.

Extenders etc. can work to varying degrees.  You may however be better off with a mesh system.

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Thank you for the explanation. It is clear for me Exactly what I needed!

[jbrennand]

See this re wifi
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To address the wifi issues, VM now supply “wifi Pods” (no longer doing cheap and cheerless “boosters”). However, their Pods are only free to customers on the 1GB, Volt (or old Ultimate Oomph) packages - is that you? If so they are worth trying - they should work for you.

You do have to call in to order the first one (cant do it online the website is borked) - or try the web-chat or Whatsapp functions (that has worked for some) - or just wait here for a VM person to respond in a day or two and they will sort the first one for you .

If not… you will be charged £5/month (note - BT charge £10/mo for their whole home wifi solution). It’s a simple solution and should work for you. However, you would soon pay off that cost by buying your own wireless solution that will be yours to own and use forever, although the VM Pods should be a simpler option.

You would need to get either a… (1) Mesh System, (2) Wireless router, (3) Wireless access point (4) A combination of (2,3).

£30-100 should sort it for most customers with an average property and usage.

__________________________________________________________________________-
For the external "office" the best solution is undoubtedly running an external grade ethernet cable from the Hub to out there and adding a wireless access point on the end of it like this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Wireless-Access-Business-WAC104-100UKS/dp/B01LWUJU8H/

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Re powerlines for gaming - see this -------------

My lad is a serious internet gamer who thinks wifi is the work of Satan and should never be used for gaming. Ethernet cabling your devices is always the best way to go, but running cable to his room was problematic. So he uses a pair of Solwise AC1200 powerline adapters. His PC/Xbox/PS3 can now all be "wired" - with short Cat6 cables – back to the wireless router downstairs and he gets a solid 60-70Mbps on our V200 package - he hasn't complained once in years!

Worth considering whether that will work for your house on your mains circuits, the two circuits must go through the same consumer unit/fuse box (most do) and be free of any "noise". You can also add a wifi access point alongside to boost that up there as well. Or some PA’s have built in wifi too - look at the TP-Link offerings.

See...

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/network-wifi/best-powerline-adapters-3490638/

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

[Tudor]

Glass can have a high metallic element in it so WiFi signals are reduced a lot.