Help with Gig1 and extender

[tasiro]

Hi,

I recently switched over to Gig1 and a new hub 4, it can’t really be moved from where it is at the moment. Downstairs while next to the hub I’m getting around 540 mbps but upstairs via a net gear extender I’m only getting 25-40 mbps. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about if a better extender would help boost it to its full potential? I can’t currently get the virgin boosters as they’re not available and I’m really not too sure so I thought I’d ask for help on here.

[carl_pearce]

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@tasiro wrote:

Hi,

I recently switched over to Gig1 and a new hub 4, it can’t really be moved from where it is at the moment. Downstairs while next to the hub I’m getting around 540 mbps but upstairs via a net gear extender I’m only getting 25-40 mbps. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about if a better extender would help boost it to its full potential? I can’t currently get the virgin boosters as they’re not available and I’m really not too sure so I thought I’d ask for help on here.

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Are you willing to speed a budget to use your own kit?

You can put the HUB into modem mode and buy a mesh kit or router.

[jbrennand]

Carl is correct.... getting your own better quality equipment is the solution to improving speeds upstairs

5-600 near the Hub is the best you will ever get on a single device on a wifi5 Hub4 - you might get two devices simultaneously getting ~500 each to get close to 1GB

[tasiro]

I tried to reply earlier but I’m not sure it went through.

yes I am willing to spend out to get the full potential from what I’m wanting from the gig1, as I’m a big gamer as well as it being used by multiple people in the house at the same time.

I do live in a very old house with thick walls so it’s always struggled. But if you can recommend anything I can do to get it to its maximum power it would be a great help! As I said 40mbps upstairs really isn’t doing it for me, I just need a bit of help as I’m not too knowledgeable on how the mesh kits or routers work.

Thank you!

[carl_pearce]

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@tasiro wrote:

I tried to reply earlier but I’m not sure it went through.

yes I am willing to spend out to get the full potential from what I’m wanting from the gig1, as I’m a big gamer as well as it being used by multiple people in the house at the same time.

I do live in a very old house with thick walls so it’s always struggled. But if you can recommend anything I can do to get it to its maximum power it would be a great help! As I said 40mbps upstairs really isn’t doing it for me, I just need a bit of help as I’m not too knowledgeable on how the mesh kits or routers work.

Thank you!

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One thing to keep in mind is as soon as you use third party kit with the HUB 4 you'll lose some of your available speed due to the 1Gbps ethernet ports, so limited to around 940Mbps across all your devices instead of potentially 1086 - 1143 Mbps. There are ways around it, however it starts to get expensive! The HUB 5 is being released this year which will overcome this limitation due to having a 2.5Gbps port which some third party devices also have.

Essentially you put the HUB into modem mode, so everything with the exception of internet connectivity is enabled.

You then connect one ethernet port from the HUB to the third party kit and that deals with all the routing that has been disabled on the HUB, including WiFi.

There are loads of options available, depending on budget.

Keep in mind it doesn't matter if you have an all singing and dancing WiFi 6 router if the device itself isn't capable. You need to check your device specs also.

[tasiro]

Do you think I should just wait for the hub 5? Instead of paying out now? In the long run I guess it would be better? 

[jbrennand]

Good advice from Carl. The best way to deal with it in an old stone walled building will always be to run ethernet cables from the Hub or your own router (possibly through a GB switch with 5-8 ethernet ports) to various points in the house and attach wireless access points (with GB ethernet ports) on the end of them.

You can do that now in readiness for the Hub5 - use the highest spec ethernet cable Cat8 I "think"

That depends on how easy it will be to get those cables run in your house. But think laterally - for example some could be run externally if getting them outside is easier e.g. I could use perforated airbricks to do that here. Or under floorboards through the attic etc.

If its a problem then a good Mesh may work - but make sure you get a Tri-band model with Wifi6 - the third band will be used to for the backhaul to reduce the effect of speed drops over the hops.

[tasiro]

I have one Ethernet cable running from the router, which is pretty much the only one that is possible from where it is in consideration to the rest of the house and my bedroom. I think I’d have to go for some kind of mesh and I’ll look for the tri band model as you’ve suggested.

Thank you again for the help.

[Tudor]

If you are satisfied with your WiFi downstairs all you need is to buy a Wireless Access Point for upstairs and connect it to the VM hub with an Ethernet cable. If you also need wired connections upstairs just get a cheap 5 port network switch, £10 to £15.