Wifi Strength

Majic

I've been with BT for years and have their standard Broadband package. They keep offering me Superfast fibre 2 which I keep turning down, not because of the cost but because I am concerned about the strength of the wifi.

Could someone explain the difference in strength between standard and Superfast. I work in an office and the BT Home Hub version 3 is right next to me. I am concerned about upgrading to a stronger signal. Is there much difference and if so what could I do to about the router/hub, move it somewhere else. Presumably would need an engineer round to sort out?

Thanks

TadleyBaggie

Whether the broadband is delivered by copper or fibre should make no difference to the WiFi signal strength.

Majic

But is it not the case that with fibre, you have a hub more powerful than Home Hub 3 and therefore the signal in your house is much stronger. Else what would be the point?

J_B

Majic wrote: »

I am concerned about upgrading to a stronger signal.

Why are you concerned about a "stronger signal"?


Have you considered using another ISP rather than BT?

Majic

I don't particularly like Wifi although I need it for my job. I don't like sitting next to a hub that is pumping out a signal around my house. I spoke to BT about this and they told me Superfast would result in a new hub and a much stronger signal from it. I'm looking at how to minimise this

onomatopoeia99

There maximum power that can be broadcast without a licence on the frequencies used by wifi routers is strictly limited and they are all the same, all broadcasting at the maximum. BT's adverts about "most powerful wifi" are cobblers, but they are allowed to get away with it, as they argue that they provide the best wifi signal and most of the public don't understand what a watt (the scientific unit of power) is.


If you're concerned about your body being damaged by the electromagnetic waves that the router floods into your home, then use an ethernet cable and disable the wifi on the router.

[Deleted User]

I'm presuming you don't use a mobile phone then?

Enterprise_1701C

Majic wrote: »

I don't particularly like Wifi although I need it for my job. I don't like sitting next to a hub that is pumping out a signal around my house. I spoke to BT about this and they told me Superfast would result in a new hub and a much stronger signal from it. I'm looking at how to minimise this

If you don't like sitting next to the hub, why not just get a longer cable and move it? If you have it plugged in via a filter you can actually put it in any phone point you have in the house/office, if it is plugged into a socket that has the broadband connection in the top half and the phone socket in the bottom half then you would need to get this moved, although BT should be the only ones that handle that as it is the incoming line.

JJ_Egan

Home Hub 5 does have much better signal and HH 6 even more so and even better on the new HH7 .

vacheron

Electronic Engineer here.

Radio signal power is proportional to the inverse square of the distance from it.

This means that if you double the distance between yourself and your Home Hub, the WiFi radio energy you are exposed to decreases by a factor of 4. If you move 4 times the distance away you will only be exposed to 1/16th of the energy.

However, WiFi signals work in 2 directions, so if you are using a laptop connected wirelessly, the transmitter in the laptop will be of an equivalent power to the transmitter in the router in order to send its signals back successfully.

So, lets assume you are 3meters (300cm) from the router but your hands are 10cm from the transmitter in your laptop, this means your hands are receiving 900 times more radio energy from your laptop than you are receiving from the WiFi router which is 30 times further away.

There are literally millions of microwave radio transmissions passing through your body right now, both natural and artificial from earth and space.

Your laptop, (and every single electrical item you own) is transmitting microwave energy whether it has WiFi or not, so don't give a second thought about a single low power router.

thorganby

Majic wrote: »

I've been with BT for years and have their standard Broadband package. They keep offering me Superfast fibre 2 which I keep turning down, not because of the cost but because I am concerned about the strength of the wifi.

Could someone explain the difference in strength between standard and Superfast. I work in an office and the BT Home Hub version 3 is right next to me. I am concerned about upgrading to a stronger signal. Is there much difference and if so what could I do to about the router/hub, move it somewhere else. Presumably would need an engineer round to sort out?

Thanks

No you don't need an engineer, simply make yourself one of these and you can look the part as well.