Improve Wifi

a l e x

I’ve just moved house and having a few WiFi issues. Annoyingly the internet comes into the house in the living room. The kitchen and conservatory are at the other end of the house and WiFi signal is very poor. In the bedrooms at the opposite end of the house to the living room the WiFi signal is pretty much none existent. What’s my best option for improving the signal? Will one of the range extenders work or are they not very good? Any better options?

Thanks.

psychopomp1

What router are you currently using? if its an ISP supplied one, it won't have the best wifi coverage (ie won't be of a high wifi spec) so It might be worth investing in a better third party router for wifi. Something like the Netgear D7800 is a great option or if you want something a bit cheaper then the TP Link VR900v2 is a good cheaper alternative. Having said all this, even the best router in the world cannot change the laws of physics so you may need a wifi mesh system or additional access points if you have thick walls. I would try an alternative router first to see how you get on - buy it from Amazon so that you can return it hassle free if necessary.

bubblegum57

Mains socket with wifi extender might help

https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-2g-13a-sp-switched-wi-fi-extender-socket-2-1a-1-outlet-usb-charger-white/8865V?tc=VT7&ds_kid=92700030947269139&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249401&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1248181&ds_rl=1249481&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-c_iBRChARIsAGCOpB2HO0Jit7GfTlg4DJ1pH6rGoxiwIOww-n7wPWV5ybeZfrx_VeRaaWsaAh8xEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Chester

If you're not getting any WiFi service in the opposite bedrooms, then you're looking at much more than just a different router as a solution.  However there are several ways of improving the situation:  PowerLine WiFi extenders, WiFi mesh, cabled access points, listed in increasing order of performance and unfortunately cost.

Most of this depends on budget, how reliable you want your home network to be, and what applications you're running over it.  It's entirely up to you, but the more information on this we have, the more tuned the answers will be.

_Dragon_

I get poor wifi in both bedrooms so what I'm doing is wiring tvs etc then buying a wifi acess point to place in one of the bedrooms, my daughter hogs all the wifi at the moment with her phone and ipad plus PS4 add that to poor wifi not a happy home lol. So hard wiring her tv and PS4 should make things better for everyone.

MarkyPancake

Whilst wired devices will reduce the wireless noise, the bandwidth is still being shared with multiple devices. So, it might be worth looking into using QoS as well.

Chester

QoS based on what though!?!

mickevh

For the purposes of clarity, and bearing in mind that you are likely talking with a few experts and professionals via this forum, let us be clear that "Wi-Fi" and "Internet" are different things albeit that in public discourse, the two terms are often (erroneously) used interchangeably.

The reason for my making the distinction (apart from my minor OCD) is that solutions for fixing a Wi-Fi coverage issue and for fixing an Internet bandwidth hog could be different and unrelated. Kinda like a patience presenting at A&E with a broken arm and a nasty cut in one leg. Fixing one won't address the other even though the patience happens to be presenting with multiple symptoms and if they were both caused by the same accident.

MarkyPancake

You could give less priority to gaming traffic and more to streaming traffic and so on.

Chester

And thus begins the in-house civil war!