wi fi extenders

arciere

Linton wrote: »

Your statements may be correct. Ideal obviously is hardwired ethernet. However in its absence my real-life experience is that the extenders do the job much better than Powerline. The reduction in speed is minimal - perhaps 1-2 Mb/sec out of 50-60. The ping figure is the same. In my case I am purely concerned with access to broadband, so if the main router is down it does not matter what happens to the wifi.


Why would you want to change the SSID, the router etc any more often than once every few years? To reconfigure the access points is a minute's work at most. Hardly a deal-breaker.

If you only look at your home setup, then you could argue that ANY wifi repeaters are a waste of money because your wireless access point can cover all your house without problems (it's just an example).
Your router can break, you might want to change ISP, lots of variables.
I have been installing WiFi systems in homes and commercial buildings, WiFi repeaters are almost never considered because of the implication I mentioned earlier.
Does that mean that they are useless? No, of course not. But they are probably only suitable in 5% of the situations, with the other 95% being wires and powerline adaptors.
(what problems did you have with your powerline adaptors?)

greyteam1959

I have just done a way with my Powerline adaptors.
I have struggled on with them for about a year or more then outed them.
They were plugged into a downstairs ring main & an upstairs ring main & they were constantly dropping out.
Maybe 5 or more times someday at really annoying times.
Put a wifi card in my desktop for £14.99 all sorted.
I now have a pair of Powerline adaptors going cheap................

Linton

greyteam1959 wrote: »

I have just done a way with my Powerline adaptors.
I have struggled on with them for about a year or more then outed them.
They were plugged into a downstairs ring main & an upstairs ring main & they were constantly dropping out.
Maybe 5 or more times someday at really annoying times.
Put a wifi card in my desktop for £14.99 all sorted.
I now have a pair of Powerline adaptors going cheap................

Exactly the same experience as me. Also with the adaptors on different rings.

Replaced the Powerline adaptors with a different make- no improvement.
Replaced the PC ethernet interface - no improvement.
Replaced the router - no improvement
Replaced the PC - no improvement
Replaced the house - no improvement


A wifi card in the PC did not get a strong enough signal. Switched to wifi extenders - everything works fine.

JEN22

Im confused now. I have router connected to my tp link via ethernet in the wall socket in the lounge. I have another tp link in the kitchen do I need to connect it with another ethernet cable into the tv or can I simply just plug it into the socket


sorry im not tecky at all

debitcardmayhem

JEN22 wrote: »

Im confused now. I have router connected to my tp link via ethernet in the wall socket in the lounge. I have another tp link in the kitchen do I need to connect it with another ethernet cable into the tv or can I simply just plug it into the socket


sorry im not tecky at all

Tell us which models of tp link you are using , your thread says wifi extenders but they may just be powerline adaptors. Did the pair come with two ethernet cables?

grumpycrab

JEN22 wrote: »

Im confused now. I have router connected to my tp link via ethernet in the wall socket in the lounge. I have another tp link in the kitchen do I need to connect it with another ethernet cable...

Depends what you've got. If its the right pair (NOT wifi) then you have to use another ethernet cable.

If they're like the left pair then you can use wifi OR ethernet cable.(the bigger unit does both.)

Undervalued

Linton wrote: »

Exactly the same experience as me. Also with the adaptors on different rings.

Replaced the Powerline adaptors with a different make- no improvement.
Replaced the PC ethernet interface - no improvement.
Replaced the router - no improvement
Replaced the PC - no improvement
Replaced the house - no improvement


A wifi card in the PC did not get a strong enough signal. Switched to wifi extenders - everything works fine.

Well I'm glad it worked for you but my experience was the opposite. I found a WiFi extender next to useless for the reasons I explained earlier. However Powerline adaptors (TpLink in my case) worked well providing they were on the same ring main. My house has three separate ring mains and plugging an adaptor into a different ring was fairly poor (although still usable).

As a guide my cable broadband generally gives a download speed of about 110 MBS measured on a computer plugged directly into the main router. Using a pair of Powerline adaptors to cover a distance of about 40ft, but on the same ring main, gave a speed of just over 60 MBS. It could probably have been better still but, due to the house layout, the Powerline adaptor connected to the main router had to be plugged into a spur mains socket and not one directly on the ring main.

If the computer was plugged into a adaptor on another ring main on a different floor the speed dropped to around 20 MBS.

JEN22

I have the one on the right

grumpycrab

JEN22 wrote: »

I have the one on the right

If you mean the pair on the right, then there's no wifi (** better if you quote the model number to confirm **)

This makes things really simple - unless you actually wanted wifi! But your TV must have an ethernet socket.

Linton

JEN22 wrote: »

Im confused now. I have router connected to my tp link via ethernet in the wall socket in the lounge. I have another tp link in the kitchen do I need to connect it with another ethernet cable into the tv or can I simply just plug it into the socket


sorry im not tecky at all

You need to connect your kitchen tplink to your TV by another ethernet cable. The power socket on the tplink is provided so you can plug in the TV without using up another socket point.