WiFi extender

eastcorkram

Have just installed, and connected to, a tp link range extender, as despite their claims, our so called brilliant WiFi from VM is pretty rubbish upstairs. Pretty small 3 bed house.

Anyway, have just set this up, while close to the router as instructed, and then moved it to the bottom of the stairs. 
I note that my phone is now connected to this all the time, even when I'm three feet from the router. I'd imagined I'd be connected to the router as before, then connected to the extender once out of range. Though technically there shouldn't be an out of range in a house this small. Is it normal to be connected to the extender all the time?
Secondly, does each device have to connect to this separately? So for example when my wife gets back from work, she should reconnect to the extender? Same with her iPad etc etc?

Neil_Jones

The idea of the extender is to extend the signal.  If that provides stronger signal over the one from Virgin's router then devices will use that one all other things being equal.

Extenders create new wifi networks on their own.  What you probably wanted was a repeater:

https://www.hellotech.com/blog/difference-between-wifi-extender-and-wifi-repeater

facade

I have a TPLink  too, mine will work as both. I have it set up as an extender, plugged into the ethernet.

I have a vague recollection that if you give it the same SSID and password as the main WiFi that it works as a mesh, but I have mine set to a different SSID (different for each band too, so I have 3 differently named WifI networks). I know the virgin hub has 2 bands, and both are the same SSID.

Anyway, my 'phone is a motorola G9 and although you'd expect it to switch between WiFi networks to always be on the strongest, it doesn't seem to. Just now it was connected to the TPLink, even though it is about 3 feet from the Virgin hub, and looking at the wifi menu, the Virgin hub has a stronger signal. Manually selecting the Virgin hub forced a change, and it now stays connected to it.

Possibly when I come back home, the TPLink is the winner as I'm walking up the drive, and then it has no reason to switch because the signal is "good enough"