WiFi pod location

[rossbaker3]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice please!

I live in a 3 bed semi-detached Victorian property and currently have:

• a Super hub 5 router with 1 GB broadband in the lounge
• a TP-Link power line adaptor at the rear of the property in the dining room which connected to the router via ethernet (basically acts as a wifi access point)
• a virgin wifi black pod in the upstairs hallway to boost the signal to the bedrooms.

When I first received the wifi pod, I was getting high speeds, often over 100Mbps and sometimes over 200mbps in the bedrooms, however, recently I have been getting anywhere between 20 - 40Mbps, even though nothing has changed in terms of the set up. The pod is also showing as fair / poor on the VM Connect app and I've tried resetting it / refreshing the wifi but it hasn't improved anything. It seems odd that this would have started performing poorer but I have spoken to Virgin today and they have advised they will be sending me another wifi pod so I was after some advice in terms of where I should locate it to hopefully boost the signal up to the one upstairs. The trouble is, I am limited in terms of where I can locate it so I have a couple of options:

• on top of the kitchen cabinet units
• plugged into a socket behind the kitchen door but it will need to sit on the floor. 

Both these locations are about 25ft from the router in the lounge and will be located almost directly beneath the existing wifi pod upstairs. In the kitchen, the new wifi pod will also be about 25ft from the TP-Link power line adaptor as well. I wondered if anyone is able to provide any advice on locating it on top of kitchen cabinets and also if it will make a noticeable difference having one located directly beneath the other? 

I have provided some plans below to show the layout to give some idea but it is not to scale! I have added the 2 locations I have identified for the new wifi pod and the second plan shows the upstairs where the existing pod is located.

Many thanks in advance for any advice / suggestions anyone can provide!

[Adduxi]

The problem with Wifi is the property itself, and the surrounding area. It may well be the next door neighbours have recently installed "something" that is interfering with your Wifi.  I can understand your reluctance around running cable, but it is the only answer that is stable from interference. Also don't forget cable can be used externally, e.g. I ran a Cat 6 cable from a family members Hub, through the wall and up into the loft.  From the loft I dropped it down into a bedroom. The external run is hidden behind a drainpipe.  So perhaps think outside rather than worry about cables all inside?  Just food for thought 🙂

[rossbaker3]

Thanks Adduxi, that’s a good suggestion and one that I could consider doing. It would be nice to have a stable set up. We did that with the cable to the back of the house but hadn’t considered going up and through the loft

[Adduxi]

Yes, it was a nice solution at the time.  I have a single story property and the loft has plenty of Cat 6 cables .......  😉

[jbrennand]

I recently did te same using the "airbrick" in the room with the Hub and the one in upstairs bedroom - running cable around the house.  Using external grade Cat6a cable with no terminators meant it was a doddle.  The ethernet plugs are also then easily fitted using the £15 kits available from the usual places.