Hi All

Looking for some advice from those who know about how WiFi works

I am currently struggling to get WiFi throughout my house.

I do have quite a big house and it is also an old house with quite thick walls which I suspect is part of the problem.

I have 2 telephone sockets one at either end of the house so I can't put my BT hub in the middle of the house.
I have tried a range extender but it does not extend the range far enough. I did think of putting 2 extenders in series, but been told this will not give a good connection

Does anyone have suggestions on how I could get a signal though out the house

Thanks
Andrew 56 TDV8 Vogue SE
9 Freelanders, 2x 2002 TD4ES, 2001 TD4, 2002 1.8GS, 2000 XEDI, 2x 2000 1.8ES, 2004 1.8 & 2000 1.8 GS (rolled)
91 Lotus Carlton (sold)
90 Lotus Elan (BRG)

Something like this ?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA4220KIT-Pow...B01LXOZ4EN 2011MY 4.4TDV8 Autobiography Baltic Blue
TVR Griffith
Alfa Romeo Mito QV

Can you run Cat 5/6 cable from the vicinity of one of the sockets towards the other end (s) of the house? That's the best solution as you can add extra Wireless Access Points to give you the coverage.

If not, take a look at mesh networks as another option but you might need to experiment to see how many nodes you need. 2016 Skoda Octavia VRS Estate
<gone>2009 FF Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue</gone>
<gone>2015 BMW 520D SE (not my favourite car)</gone>
<gone>2009 D3 HSE Galway Green</gone>

A Cat5 run is always going to be best, but if it’s really not possible take a look at some of the mesh kit.

I’m running UniFi kit here and it’s been rock solid to date I only ran it in a mesh for a few weeks until I got the Cat5 runs in so no real feedback on the mesh side.

I soldered some Cat5 onto our old TV Aerial cables and pulled them up into the roof, this enabled me to get to where I needed to be and once in the roof ceiling mounted a couple of AP’s.

Haven’t watched live TV in years so decided to pull them out. Sold - Bell a 2015 MY16 Loire Blue Autobiography 4.4 SDV8
Previously George a 2007 MY07 Java Black VSE 3.6 TDV8
Previously a 04 MY04 Defender 90

I live in a small modern house, tried the TP links. Initially very good, but kept dropping out so needed resetting etc. Got fed up of that, in particular son did as he would drop out mid game. Now got some Nova mesh jobbies. Better, but still not great. So much so sons computer now hardwired into router. No matter how good your home system is, if your router and provider are a bit rubbish then nothing can really make it effective.

I have Netgear Orbi that works pretty well. You can add more satellites if you need them

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Protectio...amp;sr=8-3

I am with RR2B with this, but if you have a BT system then use

https://shop.bt.com/products/bt-11ac-dual-...-B15P.html

It can be plugged in to a mains socket (half way in the house) and will relay& boost your home wifi signal.

Also get the most up to date BT hub 6 if you are with BT.

Also split your Hub so you have 5GHz and 2.4GHz, use 2.4GHz for longest distance from Hub (in the Garden) and 5GHz if you are close to it (same room and its faster).

Using 5GHz at the furthest point from a hub will slow you right down with intermittent connectivity. 2018 SE SDV8 4.4 Byron Blue

As a first step. you could try simply improving the Access Point. Disable the Wifi on the BT Hub and hard wire it to a "proper" WAP. A lot of people like Unifi, personally I switched to Mikrotik. Others are available. Preferably mounted on the ceiling.

I have one of these at the top of the stairs: https://mikrotik.com/product/cap_ac and one of these outside https://mikrotik.com/product/wap_ac. Unifi do a long range access point though I'm not sure it makes a huge difference: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016K5A06C/ref...1V7CSJK746

I wouldn't describe our house as "large" though. Typical 4 bedroom Victorian era so a lot of solid walls. I get good coverage almost everywhere. The only thing that's a bit marginal is the smart thermostat controller at the very extent of the house in the utility room. I'd like to add another WAP towards the rear but haven't figured out a sensible way to route the cable.

Note that most of these WAPs are PoE so don't need a separate power source nearby - they get the power over the ethernet cable (either from a router that supports it or an injector placed near the router). 2016 Skoda Octavia VRS Estate
<gone>2009 FF Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue</gone>
<gone>2015 BMW 520D SE (not my favourite car)</gone>
<gone>2009 D3 HSE Galway Green</gone>

Would agree with Alistair - a whole home or "mesh" system would probably work for you. I had the same problem and the extenders did f-all to help it (actually made it worse for mobile devices that tried to switch between hub and extender).
I went for a Tenda 3-node mesh system but I'm sure the Orbi one is just as good. I have 2 downstairs at the "extremes" of the house and one upstairs near the middle and have great coverage now. As an unexpected bonus, I now have a great wifi connection in the garage too and both and front and back gardens. 2012 RR Westminster TDV8
2008 Audi S5 4.2 V8
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Gone...
2007 RR Vogue SE 3.6 TDV8
2005 Ford Focus LX tdci 90
2006 Mazda RX-8
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1998 BMW 523i
...

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the advice, I am not that technical so please bear with me

RR2B - yes it was extenders similar to your link - but BT 300 ones

MikeO - Yes I can run cable, but I was hoping not to as there is a choke point where I have run other cables and was hoping not to have to run more and I will probably need to drill a couple of the walls

TJH 1985 - I am not sure what 'Mesh kit' is, sorry really a novice at this. Can run cable, but would like to avoid it

archermav - thanks useful to know on the reliability as I will be using the network as part of home office so need it to be reliable

Alistair - looks good and maybe explains 'mesh' to me, but expensive it I can't get it to work

Kot - The extenders are similar to the ones I have that are not working. Is the HUB 6 much better than a HUB 5? How do I split my Hub?

MikeO - I assume the device just plugs into one of the ports on mu HUB it I switch off WIFI? Is Height likely to help me as I could go up into the loft? I think it is the design of my house that may be the problem as it 5 bedrooms with 4 in the main house and 1 plus the study above a triple width garage (later extension)

Flexfly - thanks, still a little unsure on mesh systems as I am not clear on how they work. I am 30m from wall to wall which I think is pretty wide for a house.


I can get hold of some cat5 cable quite easily, so if I run some of that from end to end in the house and wire in a couple of 'proper' WAP(Mikrotik/Unifi) does that sound like I should get coverage?

Thanks
Andrew 56 TDV8 Vogue SE
9 Freelanders, 2x 2002 TD4ES, 2001 TD4, 2002 1.8GS, 2000 XEDI, 2x 2000 1.8ES, 2004 1.8 & 2000 1.8 GS (rolled)
91 Lotus Carlton (sold)
90 Lotus Elan (BRG)

Height is useful but not a panacea. I wouldn't go into the loft as the signal will have to travel through the celling as well as walls and it all attenuates the signal so probably wouldn't bring a benefit.

You could combine the BT router near one end of the house and run a cable to a WAP near the other end. The WAP may take a little bit of setting up. If you have an old router you may even be able to repurpose that as a WAP. 2016 Skoda Octavia VRS Estate
<gone>2009 FF Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue</gone>
<gone>2015 BMW 520D SE (not my favourite car)</gone>
<gone>2009 D3 HSE Galway Green</gone>

If you want to test out the WAP approach without shelling out on Ubiquiti or Mikrotik, something like this for £15 would prove if it works or not (I think)...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085M4ZJ2L/ref...3AGF?psc=1

Probably easier to setup too 👍 2016 Skoda Octavia VRS Estate
<gone>2009 FF Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue</gone>
<gone>2015 BMW 520D SE (not my favourite car)</gone>
<gone>2009 D3 HSE Galway Green</gone>

Are your walls stone? Down here there's a high iron content in the stone and thus makes each bit of my house a reasonable Faraday cage. One wall is almost 9ft thick so the signal just barely makes it through.

I started running Cat5 cabling around and it's made such a difference but then I do have a convenient lift in the middle of the house to serve as trunking.

Don't use the 5Ghz band but stick to 2.4GHz as it will propagate better. Ed

One more vote for net gear Orbi system. 5 bed house. 3 orbis have successfully supported two teenagers and two adults working from home for the last 12 months with Netflix, PlayStations , teams lessons and Netflix calls all at the same time. Never needed to touch it once installed however took a bit of messing at first to get it working correctly.

Although still with bt it replaced their hopeless WiFi. 2013 L405 AB 4.4SDV8 Luxor/Ivory, 2007 Vogue TDV8 Epson Green/Sand, 2008 Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue/Sand, 2003 Vogue 4.4 LPG Epsom Green/Sage, 1998 Vogue SE 4.6 LPG Epsom Green/Cream

One more vote for net gear Orbi system. 5 bed house. 3 orbis have successfully supported two teenagers and two adults working from home for the last 12 months with Netflix, PlayStations , teams lessons and Netflix calls all at the same time. Never needed to touch it once installed however took a bit of messing at first to get it working correctly.

Although still with bt it replaced their hopeless WiFi. 2013 L405 AB 4.4SDV8 Luxor/Ivory, 2007 Vogue TDV8 Epson Green/Sand, 2008 Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue/Sand, 2003 Vogue 4.4 LPG Epsom Green/Sage, 1998 Vogue SE 4.6 LPG Epsom Green/Cream