Question Simple, cheap way to extend 500Mbps WiFi? :)

[molko999]

I have recently had SKY (UK) 500Mbs FTTP installed, I chose to have it installed into the dining room at the rear of the property so the router/modem (supplied by SKY) could sit on my desk with a wired connection to my computer to maximise speeds.

I also do laptop refurbishments at my desk and this also gives great WiFi speeds sat next to the router, usually close to the maximum 500Mbps.

WiFi speed in the living room is around 70Mbps, somewhat lower than the 500Mbps maximum, I expected this hence getting the installation done to where I will use it the most in the dining room. 70Mbps is perfectly fine but it would be nice to make more use of the higher speeds if I'm sat on the couch with a laptop downloading etc.

So the question is - is there a cheap and simple way to increase the WiFi speed in the living room?

My main goals would be -

1. Seamless connection - hopefully not having to connect to a separate WiFi network in the living room
2. Cost - As cheap as possible
3. Speed - Hoping to achieve 300/400/500Mbps if possible
4. Wireless - Wireless would be preferred but I'm not adverse to running a LAN cable round a few doorways from the dining room to the living room.

Any help would be much appreciated, mainly I'm a dab hand at computers but very much a novice when it comes to networking/WiFi!

Router/modem is SKY supplied SR203
Dining room & living room are on the same floor, maybe 10 meters apart (dining room>hallway>living room)

Thanks

 

[Ralston18]

Would powerline adapters be viable?

Dependent on the electrical circuits but could be a via solution somewhere between Cat 5e wiring and wireless.

Coax could be used as well - any coax runs between the rooms? MoCA.

Also remember that wireless uses two frequencies and various channels within each frequency. You may be able to improve on the 70 Mbps wireless speeds by experimenting with other less used channels within each frequency.

Sometimes just moving the wireless router a bit can make a difference. Do some experimenting.

Still overall thought: wired if at all possible.

 

[kanewolf]

I have recently had SKY (UK) 500Mbs FTTP installed, I chose to have it installed into the dining room at the rear of the property so the router/modem (supplied by SKY) could sit on my desk with a wired connection to my computer to maximise speeds.

I also do laptop refurbishments at my desk and this also gives great WiFi speeds sat next to the router, usually close to the maximum 500Mbps.

WiFi speed in the living room is around 70Mbps, somewhat lower than the 500Mbps maximum, I expected this hence getting the installation done to where I will use it the most in the dining room. 70Mbps is perfectly fine but it would be nice to make more use of the higher speeds if I'm sat on the couch with a laptop downloading etc.

So the question is - is there a cheap and simple way to increase the WiFi speed in the living room?

My main goals would be -

1. Seamless connection - hopefully not having to connect to a separate WiFi network in the living room
2. Cost - As cheap as possible
3. Speed - Hoping to achieve 300/400/500Mbps if possible
4. Wireless - Wireless would be preferred but I'm not adverse to running a LAN cable round a few doorways from the dining room to the living room.

Any help would be much appreciated, mainly I'm a dab hand at computers but very much a novice when it comes to networking/WiFi!

Router/modem is SKY supplied SR203
Dining room & living room are on the same floor, maybe 10 meters apart (dining room>hallway>living room)

Thanks

Run an ethernet cable. Then add a second WIFI source in the living room.

 

[bill001g]

There is no magic wifi solution the signal is being absorbed by things in the path including the water vapor in the air.

I am somewhat surprised you get 500mbps on any kind of wifi. Now if it is wifi6 and you sit right on top of the router you might get it. Are you sure you are using a sky203, that is a 802.11ac device from what I can tell and it is unlikely it would be able to run much over 300mbps.

Switching to wifit6 or wifi6e though likely will not make any difference because your problem is the signal is being absorbed by the walls etc. Problem is you can't just change the router to wifi6e you would need to change your laptop nic also.

First is this really a big problem. How much downloading are you doing. Most people download something like a game and then play the game. The download is only a tiny part of the time compared to playing it. When you have some huge download could you not just walk down the hall let it download faster and then go back.

In any case you just need another wireless router that can act as a AP you can put in the other room. It needs to be connected by some kind of wire, ethernet being the best. If you have coax cables in both rooms MoCA is a good option that is very close to ethernet in performance. In either case you just connect your AP to either of these connections.

 

[molko999]

There is no magic wifi solution the signal is being absorbed by things in the path including the water vapor in the air.

I am somewhat surprised you get 500mbps on any kind of wifi. Now if it is wifi6 and you sit right on top of the router you might get it. Are you sure you are using a sky203, that is a 802.11ac device from what I can tell and it is unlikely it would be able to run much over 300mbps.

Switching to wifit6 or wifi6e though likely will not make any difference because your problem is the signal is being absorbed by the walls etc. Problem is you can't just change the router to wifi6e you would need to change your laptop nic also.

First is this really a big problem. How much downloading are you doing. Most people download something like a game and then play the game. The download is only a tiny part of the time compared to playing it. When you have some huge download could you not just walk down the hall let it download faster and then go back.

In any case you just need another wireless router that can act as a AP you can put in the other room. It needs to be connected by some kind of wire, ethernet being the best. If you have coax cables in both rooms MoCA is a good option that is very close to ethernet in performance. In either case you just connect your AP to either of these connections.

Yes definitely sky SR203, just checked the back. Speed test on iPhone 12 just came out at 498Mbps, but I am sat at my desk, probably within about 2ft of the router!

 

[molko999]

Run an ethernet cable. Then add a second WIFI source in the living room.

A second hand router would work for this? Is there anything I need to look out for? I can pick up a duplicate of the router my ISP sent me locally on Facebook for £20, is this likely to do the job?

Thank you

 

[molko999]

First is this really a big problem. How much downloading are you doing. Most people download something like a game and then play the game. The download is only a tiny part of the time compared to playing it. When you have some huge download could you not just walk down the hall let it download faster and then go back.

In any case you just need another wireless router that can act as a AP you can put in the other room. It needs to be connected by some kind of wire, ethernet being the best. If you have coax cables in both rooms MoCA is a good option that is very close to ethernet in performance. In either case you just connect your AP to either of these connections.

It certainly wasn't a big issue, just it would have been nice running at maximum speed without having to head back to the dining room.

I decided to try a second router connected with ethernet cable. I read that trying to use a second ISP router would be problematic at best so went with this Tenda AC19 AC2100 - £24 on amazon and 20m of CAT5e ethernet cable - £12 on amazon

So far so good, speed is 450-500Mbps sat across the room from the router, I have to log into the router as a separate WiFi network, not sure if its possible to get around this but I'll keep looking.

 

[bill001g]

You generally can set the SSID the same if you want. I tend to like everything different so I can control exactly where something connects. Some times devices are "too" smart and will decide they like a connection to a distance radio source rather than the one in the same room. Also if you were to set the 2.4 an 5 radio the same...which many routers do by default now days...the end device might pick the stronger 2.4 signal even though the total throughput on the 5 would be higher even with a small number of errors.

So called "seamless" roaming only kinda works. These are setting in the end device not the network that control it and some device are determined to hang on to a weak signal. They really have no way to know another better signal exists because they are using the radio to transfer data rather than scan for networks.

 

[molko999]

You generally can set the SSID the same if you want. I tend to like everything different so I can control exactly where something connects. Some times devices are "too" smart and will decide they like a connection to a distance radio source rather than the one in the same room. Also if you were to set the 2.4 an 5 radio the same...which many routers do by default now days...the end device might pick the stronger 2.4 signal even though the total throughput on the 5 would be higher even with a small number of errors.

So called "seamless" roaming only kinda works. These are setting in the end device not the network that control it and some device are determined to hang on to a weak signal. They really have no way to know another better signal exists because they are using the radio to transfer data rather than scan for networks.

Ok with that info it sounds like keeping with different login details would be much better anyway.

Thanks for your help!