Wifi weak

JANEVANS02

I live in a cottage which has some thick walls and have had trouble with using my old laptop wireless through my new BT hub 2, struggled on for over 12 months with continually loosing signal mainly during evenings then it would be ok for a couple of weeks then start again so decided I would buy new laptop and new pc because BT said problem was not with their equipment and must be my equipment old and not up to standard.

Installed new PC and laptop and problem with laptop is worse so have contacted BT by telephone and internet where they have accessed my machines and reset router saying it will be ok now but needless to say still the same.

Spoke to BT Sales who say if I upgrade to hub 3 it will work but as I connect my telephone to hub 2 it may be more difficult but decided to try, however sales said I would have to pay to upgrade unless if I contact BT technical help they may send me one free so contacted them only to be told hub 3 will not solve my problem which is caused by me having some thick walls in my property they suggested I purchase a range extender but did not give any advice as to which one !!

I am no good at technical and do not know what to buy or from where, I do not want to spend out more money and still end up with a problem.

Any help would be much appreciated as I have already spent £400 on new laptop and £450 on new PC to no avail.

pullenuk

Is the router in the centre or the side of the property?

JANEVANS02

On the side but I live in a 2 bed cottage not a large mansion so it would not be too far if you were to go in a straight line.

pullenuk

I would get a wireless access point for the other side of the cottage. Set it up with the exact same wireless settings as your router. Use a powerline or homeplugs to connect the two together, that uses your electrics to form a cable connection between the two. What it does is similer to mobile phones gives two wireless coverages which your devices will see as one big network and roam between them. I recommend at least 200mbps homeplugs

Dont get a wireless extender, the speed of the wireless cuts in half on the extender. Depending on your speeds you could see a fair bit of slowdown. As the wireless extender has to go wireless to the router then wireless again causing delays.

penrhyn

I concur, homeplugs are the way forward.

macman

Use a set of Homeplugs. £30 and job done.
Your 'new' HomeHub 2.0 came out about 5 years ago now, how can it be new? BT have supplied the HH3 for a couple of years now.
It would have been much cheaper to buy a decent router instead of a new laptop and PC! You don't have to use BT's cheap equipment just because you're on BT broadband.

JANEVANS02

Thank you everyone for info but unfortunately I am a complete idiot where technical things are concerned so could you please tell me where I could buy the homeplugs and which ones are best also pullenek said to get a wireless access point for other side of house what is this and where do I get one and do I need a technical person to fit it.

Sorry to be such a nuisance.

macman

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004INVKP4/ref=pe_217191_31005151_3p_dp_1

They are self install-just plug them in.

closed

before spending money on anything, identify the issue.

where is the router in relation to the equipment, is there a phone extension, are neighbours nearby using wireless/microwaves/video senders.

can you move the router closer to where you are wanting wireless?

have you tried moving it around to see if the signal strength improves

can you use any equipment wired instead?

what signal strength are you getting

which channels are in use by you and your neighbours

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_network_view.html

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

are you sure the issue is wireless and not some other connection issue?

have you got any other routers in the house

JANEVANS02

Sorry to be so long getting back to you but 2013 is not going to be my year more problems !!

In answer to your questions :-

BT socket is in dining room plugged into that is lead which goes to room next door [office] approx 10 feet from socket and into my hub in back of hub I have plugged in a BT Inspire 1500 telephone and in room directly above I have the cordless second phone which goes with this telephone unit.

The PC in office works fine with hub but I have used a laptop in my lounge for a few years without any problem but in the last 12 - 18 months it had problems so I thought it was my laptop because BT said it was not their equipment so I purchased a new one which works intermittently for instance mainly in the evenings I can be sat in lounge using it and suddenly I loose the connection if I pick it up and walk say approx 20 feet towards hub it works again, however the other night I lost connection so just put laptop on seat next to me and suddenly I heard an email come in so it had connected itself again but usually I have to walk towards hub to connect it and once connected I can go back to my seat and it will work again for a while.

I live in a old cottage which was converted into 2 flats so do have someone living above part of my property and they have a BT homehub 3 which I believe is sited above the room next to where my hub is.

If I move the hub out of the office I am worried my PC and printer / copier which is operated wirelessly through my hub will not work properly so moving it is not an option really.

cannot really use equipment wired.

If I take my laptop to where it usually works [20feet from where I want to use it] go into connect to network I am offered the following :-

BTHOMEHUB 2 SHOWS 2 BARS SAYS FAIR

BTopenzone-H SHOWS 2 BARS SAYS POOR

BTFON SHOWS 2 BARS SAYS FAIR

BTHOMEHUB 3-PRJC SHOWS 1 BARS SAYS POOR [guess this is my neighbour upstairs]

Not sure what you mean by"which channels are in use by you and your neighbours"

Gone to the links you showed but not sure what I am supposed to do !!

Not really sure the issue is wireless but cannot understand why one minute I get 4 bars strength then suddenly none thought that meant it was a wireless issue but as I said I am a complete novice when it comes to this.

No I do not have any other routers in the house.

macman

So if have a BT hub directly above you then it's more than likely that it's running on the same default wireless channel, which will cause interfeence and slow everything down. So the very first thing to do is install InSSIDer on your laptop and check what channel you and your neighbour are running on. If they overlap, log into the router interface and change the channel.
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
Why am not surprised that BT didn't suggest this when you first reported the issue. It's hardly uncommon.
This may not be the problem, but if it is it's free and takes but a few minutes to resolve.
NB: you need first to ID your own hub-the SSID will match that marked on the label on the hub, unless you've altered the default.