Improve wifi in house...

TonyS_1980

Hi,

Want to improve Wifi and also connect to the Tivo box in our house.

We are in a modern built town house (3 floors) and the router is in the top floor, and Tivo on bottom floor. Have the Virgin media SuperHub2 router.

The powerline adaptors make a lot of sense. Had one in the past but I never got it working correctly.
We want something that has an Ethernet connection for the TIvo box, but also wifi to improve connections. Wifi probably won't be used that much.

Therefore is there a product that has Ethernet + wifi in one?

is it worth spending more now on a 'higher rating' adaptor, in advance of everything else catching up to it?

thanks for any advice you can give.

pappa_golf

yes the new powerline adaptors have both Ethernet and wifi , and are faster than the old ones , look on amazon , you can return if not happy

mgfvvc

My original AV200 powerline adapters struggled with a biggish house and electrical noise. AV500 adapters were a lot better.

Something like the Zyxel PLA4231 is reasonably priced. Solwise and Devolo have a good reputation but cost more.

Reggie_Rebel

Powerline adaptors used to have issues if they were on different rings, they could be better now I haven't used them for a while

thescouselander

I've got one of these http://www.tp-link.com/lk/products/details/cat-18_TL-WPA2220KIT.html

It's not bad but it did take a bit of messing about to get it working well. I'd definitely advise setting the Wifi to 20mhz bandwidth instead of 40 mhz because I don't think the transmitter is that powerful and a lower bandwidth seems to achieve a better signal strength. Its also worth experimenting with setting the wifi to different channels. Real world wifi speeds 1 room away are about 65 mbps or about 140 mbps in the same room.


Other than that the bandwidth over the mains seems to have settled down at around 170 mbps (on different circuits) so the full 100 mpbs is available at the physical ethernet port.

TonyS_1980

sounds like i need to get the higher speed ones (500+) but as long as a new model, and set up ok, they should work.
Thanks for the responses.

thescouselander

The higher speed ones may or may not result in a higher mains network speed. That is you'll only get the higher rate is conditions allow which is not at all guaranteed.

I'd recommend deciding how much you want to spend and going for whatever you can get at that price.

esuhl

Are you able to run a cable from the router upstairs to the middle or bottom floor? You could then have a second wireless access point to extend the range.