Extending wifi in farmhouse

[An Gof]

I have a problem getting a wifi signal in much of my house. The problem is the thickness of many of the walls. So I'm looking for a solution to extend the range but have become confused with the different options available. There seems to be extenders, mesh systems etc.etc.
Does anyone have experience of what has worked well for them in houses where some walls are 3 foot thick. In an ideal world the solution will be cheap as well

 

[Mur Huwcun]

We have a similar problem here, luckily we ran cat5 data cables to every room in the house when we gutted the place and built an extension. We now have our main router in the lounge with another router other end of the house. Both are connected by one of these data cables.

I had to google a few bits in order to set the second router up differently in order for it to bounce the signal from the other router rather that work as a primary router. The only difficulty we have is we can’t roam around the house and maintain constant wifi as one has to drop and connect to another. Will need to have another fiddle over Christmas.

 

[jimred]

Mines worked well with simple powerline adaptors. Mainly use the wired ethernet connection which is excellent but WIFi is also good.

 

[Pigless]

I have a problem getting a wifi signal in much of my house. The problem is the thickness of many of the walls. So I'm looking for a solution to extend the range but have become confused with the different options available. There seems to be extenders, mesh systems etc.etc.
Does anyone have experience of what has worked well for them in houses where some walls are 3 foot thick. In an ideal world the solution will be cheap as well

Try tplink website, fill in your house details and it tells you which suits. Did ours last week and got power line extenders but much better than the old ones. Most systems don't like stone walls.

 

[Blue.]

I ran a cat5 from my router up into the attic then plugged it into an engenius extender/bridge.

 

[chickens and wheat]

Tenda mesh wifi works well for us, got sick of the WiFi repeaters/powerline extenders clashing/jamming and just not reaching.

Sold the old kit for good money on ebay never looked back. 6 tenda boxes give one Shared WiFi signal over the whole house.

3 of the more expensive tenda6. And 3 of cheaper tenda 3

 

[milkloss]

We have a ubiquiti mesh system. My chap that does all the phones maintains (if necessary) it off site at his office and it’s the best thing we’ve had in the house. we can now walk around the house without switching networks etc.

 

[br jones]

Who is your broadband with ?

 

[Tomr10]

Put the rooter as high and in the middle of the house as you can. Most providers offer a free booster now also

 

[Chris F]

Lots of tech guys I know use Tenda - they do different sized and power systems:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=tenda+...819749&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_8z5j2bijjx_e

Go for the highest space one's with thick walls. Although you can't beat direct cable.

 

[Properjob]

Get Sky Q, sorts out all TV issues too, all the mini-boxes act as mini-routers plus you can get booster boxes for wifi using the same system. Does mean Sky internet and TV though, they are better than BT though.

 

[A1an]

Tplink WiFi extenders. I live in an old house with 3ft thick stone walls, I couldn't be arsed running cables so went for extenders. If you set the extenders up to copy the main routers SSID and password there's no reason to have to sign in to different networks throughout the house.
I've got nearly 60meg at router but by the time it's been relayed a couple of times it's down to 10meg. Still plenty fast enough for everyday use. It's the TL-WA850RE I use. There are better ones out there but they are cheap as chips and work well enough. There are also endless YouTube tutorials on installation and setup.

 

[Father ted]

Get Sky Q, sorts out all TV issues too, all the mini-boxes act as mini-routers plus you can get booster boxes for wifi using the same system. Does mean Sky internet and TV though, they are better than BT though.

If you can get Sky Broadband in your area then maybe.

 

[Properjob]

If you can get Sky Broadband in your area then maybe.

You can get Sky broadband through the entire Openreach network, can you not, maybe I am wrong?

 

[JeepJeep]

We've a deadspot at the back of the house indoors with EE broadband. We never had the problem with BT.

We had SkyQ installed in various rooms and the next broadband will be with Sky as the Q boxes work as boosters.

 

[Father ted]

You can get Sky broadband through the entire Openreach network, can you not, maybe I am wrong?

We can’t where we are.As to be BT.(Fibre)

 

[bravheart]

Ok I’ll try this here, touched on it before and thank anyone that responds.

old farmhouse, thick walls, copper wire bb etc.etc. BT plug, router currently in one corner of the house, would now like to get the signal to other distant corners of the house without losing the WiFi signal area we currently have.
Don’t think powerline adapters would work well and probably burn out through an old fashioned wire fuse box.
Trying one of these plug in signal boosters atm good boost but seems to be dropping the WiFi signal after a couple of minutes and takes just as long to reconnect making it pretty much unusable.
So suspect daisychaining a few of them wouldn’t be any better.
Are some makes better than others?

Is there a difference and is a proper mesh system better at holding the signal and reaching the far corners without dropping out/reconnecting?

Tplink WiFi extenders. I live in an old house with 3ft thick stone walls, I couldn't be arsed running cables so went for extenders. If you set the extenders up to copy the main routers SSID and password there's no reason to have to sign in to different networks throughout the house.
I've got nearly 60meg at router but by the time it's been relayed a couple of times it's down to 10meg. Still plenty fast enough for everyday use. It's the TL-WA850RE I use. There are better ones out there but they are cheap as chips and work well enough. There are also endless YouTube tutorials on installation and setup.

If I’m starting at somewhere around 3meg on a good day will the drop in power be too much.

Would Running cat5 cable to the other end of the house from the router then a WiFi signal booster (or mesh) be more stable

Any other way?

 

[chickens and wheat]

I ran a cable from office, down cellar then up into living room
Mesh box on end of cable, and a short cable from mesh to tv.
I think any repeater or mesh should be placed a distance from interference, tv etc

The kitchen mesh and alexa didnt seem happy near the microwave, shame that as it was a tidy install.

Mesh isnt perfect but much much better than repeaters

 

[upnortheast]

Mesh systems work by being able to "see " the next unit in the chain. If out of range they will also work through a wired connection
If you can run cat5e or cat6 cable to an access point that will be the most robust solution with less speed drop
Neatest job is to terminate it in a wall socket then use a short patch cable at each end

https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6-cable/22-excel-cat6-utp-external-cable-ldpe-outer-sheath.html

https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6-...html?search_query=cat+6+wall+socket&results=7

You can use an old router as the access point at the far end. Just need to go into the settings & turn off the DHCP server, your main router is doing that stuff. Also incoming plug into one of the yellow ? sockets, not the ADSL one

 

[Ukjay]

Get Sky Q, sorts out all TV issues too, all the mini-boxes act as mini-routers plus you can get booster boxes for wifi using the same system. Does mean Sky internet and TV though, they are better than BT though.

Really - Ours has struggled with the current thunderstorms.