Rural Internet - would a Wi-fi Extender help?

Ace135

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Last year a phone engineer came to the house as I had some issues with the landline and broadband. He commented that outside on the street the signal he could pick up for internet was about 100 times what was available in the house and asked if this drove me mad, I replied yes but that I had accepted it to some extent as live in a small, rural village and line into the house is still copper wire. I think the signal in the house is about 1.3-1.6mbps. The engineer recommended I go to a phone shop and ask about mobile 4G/5G broadband with a wireless router I think he suggested. when I went to EE the guys just laughed at how low my signal was (not unkindly, they just couldn't believe it was so low apparently!) and didn't really offer much in terms of a solution. Someone has since suggested I get a TP link Wi-fi booster - but there are lots of models on the market and I think I have read the mesh systems are better, but beyond that I am unsure if this would help. There are no dead zones in the house as such it is just that the signal is low, even if sat right beside the router. So any guidance on what might help, if anything would be great. I do manage to use a laptop in the house but it can be pretty slow at times. Thanks for any suggestions or advice, I am not a techy person. I am in my final 12 months of a TalkTalk contract and currently have a router through them which is called a "technicolour". I am unsure if I could replace this with another router or whether a booster / extender would be best. 

Vitor

A Wi-Fi booster or mesh system will not help here. They only spread the connection you already have and cannot increase speed. If you’re getting 1–2 Mbps sitting next to the router, the bottleneck is the incoming line, not Wi-Fi. Changing the router won’t fix that. Your only real upgrades are mobile broadband (ideally with an external antenna) or satellite. Copper DSL speed is fixed by distance and line quality.

flaneurs_lobster

Three are marketing a 5G Home Broadband solution with an external "hub", cursory read shows it has a 30-day  money back guarantee (what the terms are and what's included - dunno).

https://www.three.co.uk/broadband/home-broadband/5g-outdoor-hub

Looks like you need to do the install yourself, but it doesn't look too onerous.

What would be ideal is if you can test the Three signal with a phone (preferably with 5G) to see what the coverage and speeds are like at the possible external hub sites. 

oldernonethewiser

If the hard wired option to your property is limited then mobile broadband, as suggested above, may be the only solution.  An extender/mesh will make no difference to the speed that arrives at your router.  

Are you able to test the speed with a device directly connected by wire to the router?

ButterCheese

Good luck with getting a 5G router.  I'd just advise to be very careful with the return policy etc.  I must admit I tried one probably 10 years ago, it was no faster than our internet so I sent it back with no hassle.  But do look out for the small print and any hidden clauses.  

If the signal from your phone is still not good, it may be that the 5g router is also not good.  Another option is skylink (which I think uses satellites instead of 5g masts) but it's quite pricey, something like £70+/month

JSmithy45AD

Perhaps it's just me but isn't the OP mixing up a mobile signal with their broadband and/or WiFi speed?

flaneurs_lobster

JSmithy45AD said:

Perhaps it's just me but isn't the OP mixing up a mobile signal with their broadband and/or WiFi speed?

Seems to me that they are distinguishing between their copper-based broadband and a mobile signal as an alternative but perhaps they would like to confirm?

Rob5342

The connection is only going to be as fast as the slowest link, if the bottleneck is the cable coming to your house then a different router wouldn't improve it.

Was he measuring the speed when connected to the cable in the street, in which case there is something seriously wrong with your wiring, or was he saying that the mobile data speed he got on his phone was much faster than your wired connection?

If you are considering mobile broadband then then first thing to do is install the Ookla Speedtest app on your phone and see the speeds you get in various parts of the house.

Ace135

Hi thanks for the replies and flaneurs-lobster has it right. I was advised that using mobile broadband instead might be a better alternative to my existing set up and to put it upstairs in room where laptop is. Someone else suggested an extender but I had my doubts - which you all have helpfully confirmed thanks. 
I don't know exactly what he was measuring outside Rob5342, from memory I think he said the available signal was 100 times as much out on the front road than in the house and this was due to no fibre / only copper wire currently bringing signal into house so he suggested the 4G 5G router as an alternative. 

flaneurs_lobster

Ace135 said:

 so he suggested the 4G 5G router as an alternative. 

Do you have a smartphone? 

Rob5342 said:

If you are considering mobile broadband then then first thing to do is install the Ookla Speedtest app on your phone and see the speeds you get in various parts of the house.

That app's good, but rather complicated, wants to send data when it's not actually open and tries to sell you stuff.

Turn wi-fi off on your phone and just go to fast.com in a browser on your phone, 

Testing is a good suggestion (if you've got a reasonable data plan on your mobile). Try it at places you could practically put a mobile router (you need to plug it in) but if possible near windows. I'd add trying it outside (as a benchmark/sanity check) and at points where you might be able to site a device like Three's external "hub".

Bear in mind that your mobile provider might not have the best coverage for your location. Trying with other network SIMs, maybe in friends/family mobiles, would be useful. The coverage maps that the network operators have on their websites are very broad brush and are not really useful at the individual dwelling level where other local factors are important (construction material of  house, other buildings, geography, trees etc.

Depending on just how rural you are, those maps might show if you have no coverage at all from a particular network.

JSmithy45AD

Ace135 said:

Hi thanks for the replies and flaneurs-lobster has it right. I was advised that using mobile broadband instead might be a better alternative to my existing set up and to put it upstairs in room where laptop is. Someone else suggested an extender but I had my doubts - which you all have helpfully confirmed thanks. 
I don't know exactly what he was measuring outside Rob5342, from memory I think he said the available signal was 100 times as much out on the front road than in the house and this was due to no fibre / only copper wire currently bringing signal into house so he suggested the 4G 5G router as an alternative. 

There's no way I'd have thought that a short run of copper from the street to your house could drop the signal by that much. If that is what he was meaning then that would indicate (to me at least) that there's a bad connection somewhere. It does sound as if you've perhaps misunderstood what he was saying. have you checked with your neighbours at all? It's possible that they've gone through all of this themselves and have got a solution already.