Extending Gigaclear internet in the home

longwalks1

We live in a small village where the fastest internet we get is about 14Mbps, so pretty slow. (There is no cable supplier, only Sky). Gigaclear have been round and are almost up to the order amount to install their network and we cant wait, up to (obviously not guaranteed though) 1000Mbps. When its wired into the home, whats the best way to extend it to a few rooms from where it come into the home? If hard wired, what cable would you use, normal internet cable, or would it need to be something else?

And would a wireless router boosts its coverage throughout the house and garden, at similar speeds it comes in at?

Excuse the simple questions, am a bit of a technophobe (as you can tell)

NiftyDigits

14Mbps is not slow.

Are you going to pay £74 per month for your internet connection?

TheValheru

If you have a wireless router, depending on it's quality, you should be able to connect with any wireless devices (phones, tablets, laptops, etc) in quite a large radius from the router. This is dependant on the thickness of your walls, distance of rooms from the router, and quality of the router.

Should you want to connect some rooms via wired internet, you'll need an ethernet cable (thats the cable that normally comes packaged with the router). If you'll be getting 1000Mbps, you'll probably want a CAT 6 cable (they come in different categories), these will come in varying lengths, measure the distance first and allow yourself some extra (easier to hide the extra length than have to order another, longer cable and be stuck with an extra you can't use). The ethernet cables plug in to the back of the router, my sky router has space for 4.

The wireless speed will be similar to the wired speed, probably slightly slower, and less reliable depending on the distance you are from the router (signal strength).

If you wanted to extend the wireless range into the garden (should the signal not be strong enough), you could look at wireless repeaters, these boost the signal, in effect like placing another router.

Another option worth looking at is powerline adapters, these transfer the internet signal through the existing electrical wires in the house. You plug one in near the router and connect them with an ethernet cable, you then plug a 2nd adapter in in another room, and connect whatever device you want to be hard wired to the internet to it with an ethernet cable. (And so on with 3rd, 4th 5th, etc.) This saves having long ethernet cables stretching around the house.

longwalks1

Thanks TheValheru

Are the lengths you buy the lengths you have to have, what i mean is is it easy to trim to length required then fit a plug/re-terminate or is it too fiddly or needing special tools?

We have a wifi boosters upstairs currently but when its on it only seems to boost signal distance to the far back bedroom (the reason we bought it), but it causes problems if its on and we use wifi downstairs

I've looked at the powerline extenders, would they carry up to 1000Mbps do you think, even on different circuits?

TheValheru

No problem britishboy

There's a special crimping tool you need to re fit the wires in the eithernet cable to the RJ45 connector at the end, you can get them on amazon. As long as you note the order of the wires before you remove them, you can't really go wrong.

I'm not sure about the powerline adapters to be honest, I've not used them myself, it would be worth researching. There are certainly powerline adapters that claim to be capable of that speed. You can always send them back if they're unsuitable.

tonyh66

are you going to answer niftydigits questions? 14Mbps is definitely not slow, try 0.3Mbps which is what Im on. I would also not be paying £74 p/m ever.

longwalks1

tonyh66 wrote: »

are you going to answer niftydigits questions? 14Mbps is definitely not slow, try 0.3Mbps which is what Im on. I would also not be paying £74 p/m ever.

I am indeed, and yours at the same time. When we have 3 or 4 devices using it in the evenings it does slow down, enough to concern me as part of my salary comes from working online, and I need as fast a connection as possible.

0.3Mbps? Are you still on dial up?

jshm2

A lot of these ISP's promise XXXXMps and deliver little as it all depends on your line.

So if Sky/BT are offering you 14Mps then you can be pretty sure it's all you can get. Check what your exchange can handle.

As for changing Wired to Wireless. Yes you just connect a router to your cable modem and the setup is usually easy. To extend the signal you can use a Homeplug if it's just one room. Else a Wireless Extender if it's a zone.

ChiefGrasscutter

I am on a Gigaclear FTTP fibre connection.
The service level I have is 50/50Mbps upload/download which costs £39/month.
You can pay higher sums/month and get higher connection rates.
I get this speed level 24/7/365 - that is all the time on speed tests.
Ping times to google.com (USA) are around 5ms.
The only limiting factor I've found is the ability of the website to deliver the data to you and any slowdowns are due entirely to the website being over loaded or never having enough capacity in the first place.

Like many optical system suppliers, Gigaclear insist you use their own device which is a combined ONT (optical network termination) and router. (becasue they monitor it 24/7 for any problems)
No idea what supplier/model they are using now - mine is a Genexis Hybrid Live unit which has 4 off 1000Mbps rated RJ45 sockets.
I'm sure you can install add on routers and wireless access units in front of Gigaclear's unit but I'm not the best person to advise on this sort of thing.

I have extended round the house using reels of Cat5e plus a 1000Mbps switch making up my own terminations/sockets/plugs as I have the tools plus a network diagnostics 'thingy' to confirm the connections are correct and made etc but for me doing this sort of thing and getting the wiring sequence right is 'simple': for others maybe not.
The GC router's wireless aspect never has been very good I gather as the units do not have external aerials.
I've heard of people putting in an apple unit (airport express is it?) in front of the GC router as a wireless point.
Those people I know with large houses with the service and wanting a decent wireless throughout have been going for a professional solution from the likes of Ubiquiti, which uses multiple wireless access points which 'talk' to each other for proper handover between each cell with no hanging on and are hard wired connected to each other and thence back to the Gigaclear ONT/router.

Some have moved their voice phone to VOIP over the Gigaclear fibre connection thereby dispensing totally with the BT line - though I have not done this so cannot give any advice/comment.
Note though that many old alarm systems which are additionally constantly monitored over the phone line do not have the ability to connect over a digital VOIP line. So if you have one of these and were hoping to dispense wth BT totally you may be out of luck and have to retain the line solely for the alarm.

debitcardmayhem

read up on ip and protocols and synchronous and asynchronous. You don't say which devices you wish to use, whether they are capable of 802.11 ac or 1Gbps ethernet , shoot 14Mbps is a luxury for many(although ADSL2 and 884 kbps upstream doesn't give you much room for private VPN to use iplayer/ITV other on demand services from abroad, but that's another story). If you wish to stream 4K to multiple devices simultneously the 14Mbps is getting close to the bone. But unless you wish to download that plus multiple Windows 10 upgrades within 4 minutes what is your problem.

You really need to explain what you need and where it is falling down in your situation.