Wi-fi extender or powerline?

mamazaac · 15 March 2017 at 9:38PM

Have been doing a bit of research into boosting our internet signal around the house. To give you an idea of setup, our router (which does have 5GHz) is in our living room (only working phone socket in the house). Separating the router from our main pc is an internal wall, then a hallway approx 1.5m wide, then another internal wall and signal isn't great most of the time. Above this room containing the main pc, is my son's bedroom and he also struggles with slow speeds when connecting to the wi-fi from there.

Cost is a factor to a certain extent, though also of course need to spend enough to get the job done. Having referred to some reviews, I think I have narrowed it down to a choice of either this extender:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/best-wifi-extenders_round-up_Page-3

or the TL-WPA8630P model of this powerline:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/powerline-adapters/tp-link-av1200-gigabit-powerline-adapter-review-3610443/

On the basis that the powerline (which has its own wi-fi hotspot) would plug in by the main pc, my thinking is that my son could connect to this from his room rather than the main router, so in theory signal should be stronger as only one ceiling in between.

From what I have read, it wouldn't do much good putting an extender in either the pc room or son's room because the extender itself would need a better signal than that. It would therefore need to go in the bedroom above the lounge I think and I wonder if this would just create the same issue we currently have in reverse.

On that basis, I am thinking the powerline might be the best way to go, but would appreciate the views of people a little more technologically advanced than me. Thank you everyone in advance who offers their advice.

SouthUKMan · 15 March 2017 at 9:51PM

Out of your two options I would go for a powerline adapter any day. In my experience these are robust and give a solid connection, where as I've always had trouble with extenders. In my opinion extenders require a decent signal to start with in order to transmit on a decent signal, and they also add a level of complexity when needing to troubleshoot. Another idea you might want to consider is upgrading your wifi router. If yours is a basic one supplied as part of your broadband contract, then you are very likely to get a much stronger signal by replacing it with a 'brand name' router. Google 'replacement router test' - the top result is a link to a 2017 review by PC Advisor. I can't paste the link though.

mamazaac · 15 March 2017 at 10:51PM

SouthUKMan wrote: »

Out of your two options I would go for a powerline adapter any day. In my experience these are robust and give a solid connection, where as I've always had trouble with extenders. In my opinion extenders require a decent signal to start with in order to transmit on a decent signal, and they also add a level of complexity when needing to troubleshoot. Another idea you might want to consider is upgrading your wifi router. If yours is a basic one supplied as part of your broadband contract, then you are very likely to get a much stronger signal by replacing it with a 'brand name' router. Google 'replacement router test' - the top result is a link to a 2017 review by PC Advisor. I can't paste the link though.

Thank you SouthUKMan. I have had a look at the PC Advisor article. It is interesting that the MU-MIMO article cross-referred to says "Given that most people have a phone and a computer, that's already two devices. If you happen to have a laptop and a tablet, then you've already maxed out the amount of MU streams you can benefit from. This also means if you have friends or older non MU-MIMO devices connected to your router, then you'll again be throttling your bandwidth". The router I current have - specs here https://www.thephone.coop/media/588217/Router_TG589vac.pdf says that my router has MU-MIMO, so I wonder if that is what the problem is, that my old devices are incompatible and therefore throttling my bandwith.

£100 is really my limit and the only semi-decent one they refer to under that price in the article is the TP-Link Archer C7. Do you think this would be better than getting a powerline adapter?

were · 16 March 2017 at 1:18AM

Both, you get powerline adapters which you can wire the other end, and it can transmit wifi too.

Extenders/boosters need a good signal to start with. Powerline is the way to go and the ones with wifi are a bonus.

takman · 16 March 2017 at 10:40AM

You would get a better connection and it would also be cheaper to run an ethernet cable from the router to room with the PC. You could then connect it to a network switch and have the PC plugged into it and a Wireless Access Point.

Chrishazle · 16 March 2017 at 11:05AM

Like you, I also have only 1 phone point in the house - under the stairs - so until recently had both our PC's, plus our phones and the Sky thingy for catch-up connected via wireless. In changing from Sky to BT TV I got BT's mini connectors (gigabit powerline adapters) - 2 for £20 with the BT TV gear, another 4 for £25 off Ebay. They work really well, each has 2 ethernet connections, and were easy to set up. Only problem for me is that we have a 3 phase electricity supply, the router is on one phase and the living room on another, so there was a bit of pfaffing, but it all works, running 2 BT TV boxes (streaming HD BT Sport!), 2 PC's and our phones. After the fun I had with the wireless, even with BT's latest hub and dual band wireless dongles, the powerline adapters are great - I'd recommend you go for them!!

psychic_teabag · 16 March 2017 at 12:21PM

Can you give a little more details about your requirements ? eg what kit does your son upstairs use (desktop pc / laptop / tablet /...). Downstairs, is it just the pc, or also phone / tablet (or do they get sufficient signal from the main router) ? Do you need to stream video, or is it just for surfing the web and a few emails ?

Does poor wifi signal mean dropouts, or just low speed ?

Is the downstairs pc always on (and so could take part in the solution) ?

Ideal setup might be three powerline adapters : simple wired ones downstairs plus a wifi-enabled one upstairs.

Not sure I'd believe the ,anufacturers hype about all that mimo channel stuff. If you're happy with the bandwith you get from wifi when it's working (and it's just dropouts that are the problem) then it doesn't seem necessary. If all devices are connecting to the internet, the broadband is likely to be the limiting factor, not the shared bandwidth within the house. If there's a lot of internal streaming (eg from a media server in one room to multiple devices around the house) then internal channel usage would become more important.

I think I read that 5GHz wifi is great with strong signals, but the signals get attenuated more strongly by barriers. (So presumably you're not benefiting much from this ?) I wonder if it's worth trying an experiment of turning off the higher frequency channel, just in case things work better in a more stable simple configuration, rather than it repeatedly retrying to use the higher frequency ?

(I was lucky enough to find a bunch of powerline adapters in a charity shop, which vastly simplified my network. Previously had various subnets connected with re-flashed openwrt routers from freecycle.)

buglawton · 16 March 2017 at 3:06PM

This thread made me fish out my old WiFi repeater and check if it had an Access Point option. It does and Maplin still sell it, a few left at £15:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-300mbps-universal-wi-fi-range-extender-a24lf

So if you had a point-to-point poweline extension, plug one of these APs on the end remote from the router, you have 'local' Wi-Fi. It has it's own channel (so no need to interfere with your main one) and it's own Wi-Fi password. 2.4 gHz only on this cheapie. Would make a good solution for a home office at the end of the garden.

S0litaire · 16 March 2017 at 4:28PM

Anyone use Powerline Adapters on short (1m) extension cord compared to a adapter with a 5m or 6m cat6 cable?

The layout of the 3 sockets in my living room makes it very hard to fit a pass through adapter and a plug in 2 of them.

One is behind my sofa and the space is just enough to fit a standard plug.

The other is next to the Desk which my TV/Media PC is sat on and again the clearance between the socket and the table is just enough to fit a standard plug.

The last is on the other side of the room which would require at least 5m+ network cable to be routed around the room.

AndyPix · 16 March 2017 at 4:53PM

Hi, It will work - However you can expect some performance drop.

How much is impossible to say until you try it ..

Some people actually turn their wall sockets upside down to fit the oddly shaped powerline adapters in

buglawton · 16 March 2017 at 8:05PM

It will make little difference, the biggest losses are converting it over the mains and back. I've had one on the end of 15m of Ethernet cable and was still able to get 25 MB download speed.

Wi-fi extender or powerline?

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