BT Infinity Poor Wireless Range

S0litaire

Their "range" depends on the surrounding environment.

In modern houses the plasterboard and wood internal walls should let the majority of wi-fi signals to pass though.

In older pre-fab houses the concrete breeze block or brick internal walls block some of the wi-fi signals.

In very old building (like the flat I live in!) the stone internal walls block most of the wifi signals. So just 20 odd feet away I'm down to 20% signal strength!!

Mr_Toad

S0litaire wrote: »

Their "range" depends on the surrounding environment.

In modern houses the plasterboard and wood internal walls should let the majority of wi-fi signals to pass though.

In older pre-fab houses the concrete breeze block or brick internal walls block some of the wi-fi signals.

In very old building (like the flat I live in!) the stone internal walls block most of the wifi signals. So just 20 odd feet away I'm down to 20% signal strength!!

I feel your pain!

I live in an old Manor House, built when Henry VIII was king, and the walls are four foot thick, designed to stop canon balls, getting a WiFi signal through them is near impossible. I use home plugs to give a wired connection for the desktop and also to give WiFi in the rooms required for the laptop, phones and tablet.

kwikbreaks

bod1467 wrote: »

I'm waiting on Infinity being installed. (BT are not covering themselves in glory at the moment. The HomeHub4 was supplied quickly, but they're being incompetent idiots in creating - then cancelling - the engineer appointments ... plural because I'm on my 3rd messed-up appointment).

That's Openreach for you. I ordered Infinity and the lead time was 3 weeks. On the day one engineer arrived and installed the phone line but it was a no-show by the Infinity installer. The next available install was another 3 weeks. As I'd cancelled cable for two weeks after the Infinity date I had a choice - wait and be without internet for at least a week and possibly an indeterminate time until Openreach bothered to show up or cancel and call VM to tell them I was staying. I decided to stick with cable as they offered me a discount and cancelled Infinity.

nickcc

Sorry but have to vote in favour of BT. Had free upgrade to infinity and Wifi speed on ipad usually 38 Mbps, on laptop can only get 20Mbps unless I use Ethernet through powerline adapters which then gives me roughly 38 Mbps. Never had a problem with wifi range or speed with either ipad or laptop and that's with the infinity junction box sited about 200 metres away and overhead wiring to my house. When I read about all the problems that users of of other Internet service providers seem to suffer from then BT seems to have been one of my better choices. If I were suffering from the same poor customer service that you must be I think I would be making contact with the area manager and bypass all the numpties that appear to be passing the book.

martindow

Thank you for all of your replies.

It's an Edwardian house quite narrow but long from front to back. The wireless is definitely inferior on the new router even when it is moved or raised on a chair.

My experience of phoning BT has been a dismal, feeling life force draining away so I'm inclined to cut my losses and get power line adapters.

As it is for a Mac does that limit the choice of adapter?

S0litaire

don't bother with the Phone help.
Better option is to jump on the BT's forum : http://community.bt.com/
You tend to get access to the support people with a lot less hassle and without the long phone waits.

Mr_Toad

martindow wrote: »

Thank you for all of your replies.

It's an Edwardian house quite narrow but long from front to back. The wireless is definitely inferior on the new router even when it is moved or raised on a chair.

My experience of phoning BT has been a dismal, feeling life force draining away so I'm inclined to cut my losses and get power line adapters.

As it is for a Mac does that limit the choice of adapter?

No it doesn't, the network doesn't care what type of device you connect.

Make sure the Power line adapters you get are fast enough for Infinity. Prior to me upgrading I was using 200 Mb/sec ones and once I had Infinity they were maxed out. I was getting 75 Meg at the router but only 50ish via the 200 adapters.

I replaced them with 500 Mb/sec adapters and now get 75 Meg everywhere.

usignuolo

How is the average householder supposed to know this sort of stuff? Shouldn't BT be diagnosing it?

JJ_Egan

usignuolo wrote: »

How is the average householder supposed to know this sort of stuff? Shouldn't BT be diagnosing it?

In effect you are buying a mass produced one size fits all service .
Custom networking wifi and equipment to suit individuals is easily obtained at a price .
House surveyed users requirements factored in equipment sourced and ISP decided on .
Worth for some spending a couple of hundred others want as cheap as possible .

jje

kwikbreaks

usignuolo wrote: »

How is the average householder supposed to know this sort of stuff? Shouldn't BT be diagnosing it?

BT is an ISP providing a service with a wireless router thrown in. Most ISPs offer no guarantee of wireless range or speed and will only offer basic generic advice. That suits the majority. If they started to offer in depth wifi support the price would have to rise considerably.

At what point do they stop? Perhaps you think they should throw in full fledged computer tuition for their customers too? How about the customer who wants to set up an FTP server, web server, and webcams? Maybe some advice on Apache for running that webserver?