Extending wireless range in the home?

economiser

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

Ah OK. Probably worth the expense in that case.

Yes, BT are the only people who can move a master socket. You can do extensions yourself, of course.

When you say only BT can do it is that for legal or physical reasons? I moved mine but I will admit it was many years ago (maybe they were still the GPO then). Didn't realise there were any problems in doing it. It works OK.

Victor_Delta

Thanks for all these ideas and suggestions.

The router is on the ground floor in an office with the phone socket and the main household computer. Other family members use their wifi laptops on the first and second floors. House is of standard construction materials and Router is a Belkin F5D7633-4 UK.

V

espresso

Victor_Delta wrote: »

Thanks for all these ideas and suggestions.

The router is on the ground floor in an office with the phone socket and the main household computer. Other family members use their wifi laptops on the first and second floors. House is of standard construction materials and Router is a Belkin F5D7633-4 UK.

V

Have you tried changing the angle of the aerial so that it is horizontal rather than vertical?

ukmike

Beat me to it espresso! My Bt home hub router works best with the ariel at a 45 degree angle.

wacko911

Mains networking is a relatively new technology. Instead of laying new cables your existing mains wiring is used. Each device on the network simply needs an adapter which is plugged in to a power socket and then in to your networked device. This means no messy re-wring and also makes the network easy to expand.

Early mains networking products have a relatively low speed (14Mbps) and while this should be sufficient for sharing broadband, I really recommend going for the fastest available when you purchase, such as the 85Mbps product. If you think speed is likely to be an issue, then it might be best waiting for the new version 2 boasting speeds of up to 200Mbps, comparable with the speed of a wired Ethernet solution.

85Mbps ones can be found on eBay for about £25 ea delivered.

buglawton

When I had a problem getting a signal in one corner of the house, I made a reflector out of silver foil and placed it behind the router to reflect the signal towards the weak spot. Worked brilliantly until I finally replaced the old router recently with a Netgear one that has 6 internal aerials and does not seem to need such a boost.

A_Nice_Englishman

economiser wrote: »

When you say only BT can do it is that for legal or physical reasons? I moved mine but I will admit it was many years ago (maybe they were still the GPO then). Didn't realise there were any problems in doing it. It works OK.

Having searched, I cannot find a reference to this actually being illegal*,but the wiring up to and including the master socket belongs to BT so you would be interfering with their property. If you caused a fault they would charge you to put it right. It would be quite difficult to cause damage to their equipment in the street or at the exchange but if you did they could probably sue you.

So to be on the safe side I would always leave the master socket where it is and run an extension.

* that doesn't mean I'm saying it is legal

richyrichuk

itm2 wrote: »

I had the same problem with a Netgear wireless router - the signal would be very weak upstairs, and non-existent in the garden. I looked into extenders, aerials, etc, then decided to upgrade to a high-power Buffalo model and the difference in coverage is phenomenal - all3 floors of my house now receive a good signal, as well as the whole garden. The router is situated on the ground floor.

The best news is that these things are now less than £40:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=236425&sourceid=2019

my god its that strong? i need something simlar to that. to cover a building shaped like a L about 10 by 18 meters with only 1 solid wall, and the rest fake. might get 2 of these and use 1 as a repeater.

is it both a ADSL and cable router in 1?!!?!?

Omertron

richyrichuk wrote: »

is it both a ADSL and cable router in 1?!!?!?

No it's a Cable/DSL router *NOT* and ADSL router.

richyrichuk

Omertron wrote: »

No it's a Cable/DSL router *NOT* and ADSL router.

sorry sorry, just realised what i put. my heads not on. sound like a rite muppet now