Question WiFi Dead Spot in One Room

Oasis Curator

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My cable router (from Virgin ISP) sits behind the TV, on a stand that has a PC under it and next to all that is a subwoofer. We've recently got my Wii out and put that next to the router too!

Yep, not the best place but the next best place is on the floor.
Did try it on a windowsill next to all that but made no difference.

There is one room, which I'm beginning to think was build with shielding in mind, that doesn't really get a strong signal. It's barely 1 bar on the phone. With little effort, it'll disconnect completely.
Between this room and the router as the crow flies, there's a large chimney and door. The room doesn't have particularly thick walls though.

Next to this room (and further away from the router) is another room that I have a TP Link AV600 in. As far as I'm aware, that takes internet through the electrical cables in my house and provides a wired connection to something, as well as pumping out a bit of WiFi?
I guess it's not a WiFi extender in that it picks up the existing signal and boosts it but uses the internet it gets through the plug socket?

I think this will be the only way to get some WiFi in the first room.

I did try buying a tplink Ac1200, which got my WiFi speed up from 43Mb to 100Mb (the latter is the max of what I get wired), which was great but really disappointed with the reach of it.
It was sitting on top of the sub next to the other router but the room is the opposite direction of all that.

I may try it again but in a new position.
I don't really want to have to buy 4 new network cables (the ones I have connecting everything to the current router are only short - 1 metre or so) unless there's a nifty gadget I can plug both ends of a cable into?

Any advice?
Sorry it's a little long.
 
It takes almost nothing to block wifi. Your microwave oven puts out 1000 times the power on the same 2.4g but you can see though the front glass and it legally can leak only a tiny fraction of the power a router uses.

Using a powerline units with a radio at the remote end is generally called a AP rather than a extender. There are better powerline units than the av600. Those units in paticular irritate me the most, tplink just renamed the av500 units didn't even change the part number. They were trying to pretend they are based on the newer av2-600 standard. Those units are now called av2-1000 and av2-2000 and work much better.

You can also use moca units if you have tv coax. These can run at actual gigabit speeds.

You can just buy a rj45 couple to connect 2 cables into a longer one. Best to buy from a local store if you can get it, they are so cheap the shipping costs greatly increases the costs.
 
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Oasis Curator

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So...

Virgin Media man came round.

The tech said our WiFi was fine and to be fair, it had settled down.

But the upstairs rooms now don't seem to get it as strong. My phone reports strong WiFi but the Alexa app (when setting up a speaker) says it's quite poor and we do suffer drop outs occasionally.

He suggested a Mesh network.
Put one next to the router and then the others should work fine. He said Mesh networks rebound the signals off the electric cables round the house.
Do they?
I'm a little dubious as he said the power lines weren't that good and the reason I wasn't getting good WiFi out the back of the house is because they're on different ring mains. This is rubbish as the wired connection is as good as a direct connection to the router.

Gonna try the other router I bought again to see if that improve the WiFi upstairs.

There may be a potential to put a small router in the loft and connect with cables but I have to try and pull through a network cable instead of a TV coax (I know toy can get converters but they're quite expensive.)
 
What a bunch of crap. Wifi doesn't use the electrical wires it is send through the air......and tries to get through the walls. Mesh is just the trendy word for people that want to sound smart but are actually stupid. Mesh is just another name for wifi repeater. It takes in a wifi signals retransmits out a wifi signal. You would only do this when you have no other options. It takes careful placement of the units to make it work. It is not like many people think that you just put a bunch of boxes in the remote rooms and it works by magic.

Powerline networks is to some extent affected by poor wiring but the newer av2 units work much better in many houses.

If you can get a ethenet cable run it will be your best and chepest option if you ignore your labor costs. Moca is only slightly more than quality powerline units. The moca units that are very popular with people are called gocoax. You can get 2 units for about $120. In theory they have a network bandwidth of 2.5g but they only have gigabit ports. They actually do get gigabit speed for most people.
 

eldridgep2

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To be honest I agree with the Virgin guy a MESH network is the best way to get Wi-Fi all over your house. (not the part about bouncing signals around your electrical cables that's total BS)

I've tried stronger strength routers and powerline/homeplug adapters and they are rubbish in comparison. MESH networks rely on multiple wireless access points to create a resilient network where all points talk to each other and if set up correctly if one WAP goes down traffic will be routed via another part of the network. They are smarter than just repeating your wi-fi there is all kinds of roaming technology and beamforming etc that goes on

At home I use a dead cheap TP-Link M5 setup but I work for a MSP and support businesses and there we use OpenMesh/Datto, Meraki, Ubiquiti, Ruckus etc. Takes a bit of investment I have 3 WAP's for an average sized UK 3 bed semi detached house and I have full coverage and get about 80m down into the garden as I have the upstairs WAP on a windowsill.

If you do have a dead spot caused by a chimney breast then just make sure your WAP's can see around it i.e. if WAP1 and WAP 2 are on opposite sides of the chimney put WAP 3 in a position so both WAP1 and WAP2 can see it and data will flow between them.
 

Oasis Curator

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Thanks.
Might try one then (although Amazon must get sick of me sending stuff back!).

The Virgin Media guy did say put one Mesh next to the router and use the other two around the house.

One could go upstairs as there is a signal up there but anywhere between 10 and 40 (out of 100!), so hopefully that'll be good up there.
Ideally, one would go out the back of the house, but the WiFi as it is doesn't reach there so would have to go closer.

Just a lot of money though.

Can you get WiFi dongles that clip into a cat 5 wall port? This may be an option if I can pull through some cables.
While it won't solve downstairs, it'll improve upstairs no end!
 
Thanks.
Might try one then (although Amazon must get sick of me sending stuff back!).

The Virgin Media guy did say put one Mesh next to the router and use the other two around the house.

One could go upstairs as there is a signal up there but anywhere between 10 and 40 (out of 100!), so hopefully that'll be good up there.
Ideally, one would go out the back of the house, but the WiFi as it is doesn't reach there so would have to go closer.

Just a lot of money though.

Can you get WiFi dongles that clip into a cat 5 wall port? This may be an option if I can pull through some cables.
While it won't solve downstairs, it'll improve upstairs no end!


You can just plug a cheap router into an ethernet port upstairs or into your upstairs av500.

You'll get a different wireless network ssid up there but it will work.

Mesh can work well but require some thoughtful positioning for best performance.

I use the mw5 now, they're about the cheapest I'd go, perfoemance is good but then again I'm only on a 60meg BT connection.

4k video and steam link streaming is not an issue through these.
 

Oasis Curator

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To bring this to a close, bought the TP-Link Deco M4 (3 pack) units today.
Hooked them up and so far, so good.

Out the back I'm getting 90MB (wired PC to the Deco unit) so quite a large jump from the 10MB I was getting. The Deco unit is about 15m from the first unit but now it means I should get good WiFi in the Garden. Doesn't quite reach upstairs as well as the router did by itself but I didn't really do much testing as I had the third Deco unit for up there.

Compared with Powerlines, night and day no question!