What's the best alternative to a Virgin Pod?

[Rossyjim]

I have M200 and a Hub3. I don't live in a very big house (three bed terrace) but the kitchen and the spare bedroom which is above the kitchen are WiFi Blackspots. The router is in the lounge at the front of the house. The wall between the kitchen and lounge appears to be quite thick and so the signal doesn't work well. 

I tried a TP powerline adopter, but for some reason when I plug this into the router it throttles the wifi speed. 

I then agreed to get a virgin intelligent wifi pod, but this doesn't work very well either. If I plug it in in the kitchen it will work <50% of the time and regularly drops. If I plug it in in the lounge (there is a socket next to the wall with the kitchen at the opposite end of the lounge to the router) it doesn't seem to provide much wifi signal in the kitchen. 

Virgin recommend getting another pod, but I resent having to pay another £5 (plus VAT) a month for these pods and wondered if there was a better solution. 

Please keep answers simple, I am not very technically proficient! 

Thanks! 

[Andrew-G]

There's a range of alternative fixes here, several of which require inconvenient things like cable runs through the house, or some moderate technical knowledge to setup.  All potential solutions involve spending money in some form. 

Personally I'd say that for the described situation, a system like my TP-Link Deco M4 (currently £100 for a three unit system) would be a good and permanent solution.  Buy online, and if it doesn't fix the coverage return it within the supplier's statutory two week no-fault returns period (with the "A" company I think you have a full month).