Improving wifi downstairs

soupdragon10

I have my BT homehub upstairs as this is where my main usage is. However I need to use my laptop downstairs and the wifi signal is poor and keeps cutting out.


What would be the best way to improve my signal downstairs (I do not want to relocate my homehub).


Budget is a consideration as I do not have a lot of spare money.

danthemoneysavingman

you could try bridging to another wireless router, have a look for your hub and some details here perhaps:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bt+home+hub+bridge+mode


if possible, you can get another router for very little cash indeed.


or you could try a powerline solution, can get this for 12-15GBP often

Euphoria1z

1. move your hub as far away from its current position as possible (like to the other side of the room or middle of the room or something) and then check to see if it improves the signal downstairs.


2. change your wireless signal frequency on the hub (ask Bt to guide you through this) to see if it makes a difference.


from bts on website


For best overall coverage throughout your house, put the Hub somewhere in the middle
It's also better to put it on a table or a shelf, rather than on the floor
Ideally, try and keep it away from other electrical devices
If you've got a BT Home Hub 1.0 or 1.5, then make sure the Hub's antenna is pointing straight upwards

doningtonphil

we have a bt home hub 3. we recently had a garden office built and the signal would not reach outside. We bought a netgear powerline wifi extender (you have lead from your router into a plug in device which you plug into a 3 pin socket near your router. You then plug the second device into a location somewhere near where you want wifi to be) The outlet also has a network socket on it as well so you can 'hard wire' a device into your network.


Bizarrely, despite our office being outside (our cottage has thick stone walls) and a few metres down the garden, the wifi signal i get when sat next to the bt home hub is STRONGER from the office wifi than it is from the hub!!!!


I am sure there are all sorts of settings I could change to make the homehub work better. I paid 50 quid or so for the netgear, probably others are cheaper, but it really was 'plug and play' and seems a lot faster

danthemoneysavingman

a couple of powerline options from HUKD:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/tenda-p200-200mbps-mini-powerline-network-adapter-twin-pack-with-free-5-port-switch-1904941
and
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/tp-link-tl-pa211kit-av200-nano-200mbps-powerline-adapter-twin-pack-14-98-amazon-1906050

if that's a good solution for you

cheddar_caveman

Why don't you want to move the hub? We use PowerLine adapters and they work just fine as we had the same problem.
The BT hub is downstairs and ethernet cable connects to our free view box and a power line adapter. Upstairs we have our desktop ethernet cable connected to the power line adapter. We also have a wifi printer upstairs which works fine. The wifi is a bit weak upstairs but we mostly use laptops etc. downstairs.