BT Broadband Extender/Booster

Barnes1988

Hi all.

We have BT Broadband at our house and we receive speeds of around 70mb. We live in an older build house and so we have thick walls. We spend a lot of time upstairs in a room the opposite end of the house to where the hub is (downstairs).

I have spoken to BT several times and they have said that all they have to do is ensure we are receiving the speed we pay for. I have asked them to provide us with some discs to extend the signal but they aren't willing to do this.

We have previously had a Belkin booster at the top of the stairs which was ok but our signal in the upstairs man cave and the bedroom is terrible. I have a TP Link extender with one connected to the hub and the other connected to the PS4 which works great but connection to our phones and smart TV when upstairs is shocking.

So, which extender or booster do people recommend to help us please?

I did also look into BT Complete Wifi but I'm not willing to pay an extra £10 a month for this.

I would massively appreciate any help.

Mat

MarkE19

I use a kit similar to this to extend my WiFi throughout the home
                                                https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WPA8630PKIT-V2-Passthrough-Powerline/dp/B07349P1TX/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_147_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=23X3VXYNZ4ZKHJH7VBGK                       
This uses the house wiring to get the signal back to your router (aka Homeplugs) and gives you WiFi in any room. Not a cheap solution but it works well for me.

If you can run a network cable upstairs then a cheaper option would be something like this
                                                https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Gigabit-Controller-Software-EAP225/dp/B01LRQW0GM/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1CKIT1DJNV7KB&keywords=tp link access point&qid=1568743867&s=computers&sprefix=tp link access ,computers,164&sr=1-4                       
Mark.

EndlessWaves

ISPs work similarly to electricity companies. They provide the service down a wire to the house but don't have responsibility for distributing the service inside the house. Would you expect British Gas to install new electricity sockets if your back rooms didn't have them?

You've got a homeplug/powerline connection to your PS4 and it sounds like it works pretty well. You don't say where the PS4 is, but if it's in or near the dead zone then you can plug a wi-fi access point (such as the second product Mark linked*) into that directly. If your homeplugs don't have sufficient ethernet ports then a network switch will provide extra and they can be had for under a tenner.

mushii

Hi Mat. The best advice that I can give you is try and get a cat 5e/6 cable from where your router is downstairs to upstairs in the loft. This may seem like a ball-ache but this will allow you to use any one of the plethora of cabled wireless access points available to to provide full coverage wifi upstairs.

Clients always baulk at this suggestion, but in an age where everything runs on wifi, do it once and do it right. You will not look back.

Alternatively you can look at buying any one of the mesh systems that are available on the market, but dont expect it to be cheap.

Greg Hook

Yes, as said it isn't BT's (or any providers) responsibility to make sure your whole house gets WiFi other than yourself.
Unless you choose the BT whole house WiFi plan.

Powerlines are probably the best bet if you can't go the wired Ethernet route.