Wifi Extender Questions

martindow

I’ve got a BT Smart Hub 2 which gives download speeds of around 70Mbps nearby but drops off severely as you go through my long narrow house and doesn’t work at all at the back. I’ve been looking at different extenders and it seems mesh systems are best to avoid having different names to connect to. Is that the correct conclusion?

Can anyone recommend which makes and models I should go for please? To get from front to back there are three fairly solid brick walls in the way as it’s an Edwardian house. Is this going to need more than one device to give coverage of the whole building?

Is there any advantage in using the BT discs to match the BT router?

Oscar2020

I have the BT Wholehome mesh system with first disc linked via ethernet cable to the router then the second place further through the house. This is due to it being an old cottage with very thick walls and it works fine. I have the big BT discs not the ones that only work with BT and I believe the big ones are better than the small ones brought out later. Had them more than a year now. There are now cheaper mesh systems but when I got mine it was on offer and about £100.

Oscar2020

Incidentally I'm with Plusnet and the person who suggested the system is with Virgin and had no end of problems and now has internet in his garage as well as through the house.

JJ_Egan

OP can you not move the router .

martindow

JJ_Egan said:

OP can you not move the router .

I could do but I'd rather not.  There are only phone sockets at the front and the back rooms of the house. At the moment we have the router at the front upstairs above the room with the TV which works well. 

I would prefer to find a solution that didn't involve wiring requiring to be chased into the walls or having cables trailing around.  In any case I suspect that with the router in the second or third room out of four there would still be problem reaching the furthermost parts of the house. 

Thanks for the replies.

[Deleted User]

You could also consider powerline wifi extenders if you have decent wiring and should the mesh have issues with thick walls.

Oscar2020

I had powerline extenders and it was OK but not great for one bedroom getting through two feet thick stone walls.

martindow

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The walls aren't particularly thick but they are brick rather than stud walls which I imagine wifi passes through more easily.  I had decided that powerline extenders were inferior as they required separate logins, but that mesh used a single login - is that correct? 

When you talk about 'decent wiring' dahj does that mean powerline extenders should be on the same ring main?

It's all a bit difficult as I don't want to spend a hundred pounds plus only to find it doesn't work very well.

Oscar2020

I'm on a FB Group called Amazon Alexa UK users group and all the Mesh systems are often mentioned there and cheaper than BT.

Chino

Mickey666 said:

to be installed in the attic as well (two of them actually).

How did you contrive to have two attics? Is your house two properties knocked into one?

Croft12

@martindow

My tp link powerlines have no login need they are just paired with each other out of the box.

The ring is tricky and the answer is maybe/depends!

Ideally you have all your house plugs on one circuit and one fuse. Less ideally you have plugs on difference fuses (slower) and the worst is if you try to jump across a master and secondary fuse board. (the worst but will work for some)

Your results will very much depend on distance and the number of power lines you use. [ My kitchen plugs on a different fuse circuit to the room plugs still gets me ~100mbps but thats well down on the BB speed.]

If you order online you can normally try and return goods....