Poor wifi coverage

[RobD1967]

I live in a 4 story house with brick walls and am struggling to get wifi coverage throughout the property. Extenders have caused issues with "Connected without internet" so Virgin tech told me to turn the extender off - something to do with a SSID conflict??? Extenders using the electric wiring of the house are also a no go as the wiring is on several different circuits.

I have hard wired ethernet in the house so I currently go out of 3 sockets in the virgin hub and into the 3 ethernet wall sockets which are wired to my cellar, top floor and lounge, then out of the wall in those rooms and into smart tv's and that works great. It's wifi where my problem lies.

I have an unused Netgear Mesh extender X6S AC3000. Can I take an ethernet cable out of my wall socket (linked to my Virgin Hub) plug it into my Extender (in my living room)? Will this effectively then send the internet to the extender for the extender to then boost the Wi-Fi in that area or am I in could cuckoo land? And if this is possible what settings do I need and which port on the hub do I need to go in and out of?

Or should I put the Virgin hub into Modem Mode and buy an Access Point to give me the wifi coverage I need?

Any suggestions gratefully accepted

[carl_pearce · Accepted solution]

Yes, the netgear should do what you suggest. Any port on the HUB will do. It appears you'll have three spare ethernet ports to use for wired devices also.

Essentially you'll setup the Netgear to use the same SSID (Network name) as the HUB. This means that wireless devices should 'roam' without having to enter two SSIDs.

You are at an advantage where you have ethernet available in other areas of your home!

[RobD1967]

Many thanks. The only problem I want to avoid is "connected without internet" which was caused (according to the virgin engineer) by the fact that the Netgear had the same SSID as by Virgin hub. Once I turned off the hub I lost wifi coverage but the connected without internet (which caused huge problems every day) disappeared. 

[carl_pearce]

There is nothing wrong with two devices transmitting the same SSID, as long as they aren't both trying to be a router, which the Netgear would not.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey RobD1967, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear this.

I'm sorry to hear you're having an issue with your WiFi connection. There are so many things that can influence a WiFi connection some of which include but are not limited to, a fish tank being in the same room, walls being built with concrete instead of brick, it could even be that your next door neighbours router is interfering with yours. Due to this, we are only able to offer limited help. Please have a look here: https://virg.in/wifisos

The Hub's location could also be causing the coverage problem so we do need to check the positioning of it. Can you please ensure the following:

> Out in the open

> Next to the TV not behind it

> Away from large bodies of water (e.g. fish tanks)

> Away from baby monitors and cordless phones

> Away from microwaves

Think of the Hub as a radio, and WiFi as the sound - the further away you are from the radio, or the more obstacles that are in the way (walls, electronic devices etc.), the quieter the radio & the poorer the WiFi.

If that doesn't help, if you have the Hub 3, you can download our Connect App which will allow you to scan areas of your home and will offer help. You can view more information on that here: https://virg.in/connectapp.

From here you could also get a pod. Cheers