I’ve just converted our box room into a nice little study so I can comfortably work from home.

The thing is the WiFi connection therein is absolutely terrible. I think this may be due to being in an extension to the rest of the house and the signal is being affected by the (formerly) external brickwork and/or internal girders even though the router is only at the bottom of the stairs.

Has anyone had any joy with using a WiFi signal repeater to help extend the range of their router? Any advice and recommendations welcome.

I would try powerline adapters with wifi built in. I have used extenders but the performance is pretty poor as they halve the speed as they have to send and receive at the same time. The physical obstacles will affect the reception from the extender anyway.

Do the powerlines have to be on the same ring main?

Powerlines work on the same consumer unit, even over split circuit. I have one in a garage on a spur.

As above, access point is better than repeater as a repeater will halve the bandwidth as it is literally ‘repeating’

Do you need WiFi? If just connecting a computer a wired powerline adaptor is cheaper, faster and more stable. WiFi versions are OK too though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0084Y9N3O/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1451476279&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=tp-link+powerline&dpPl=1&dpID=418ZLpKRboL&ref=plSrch

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00DHB2T44/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1451476279&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX220_SY330_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tp-link+powerline&dpPl=1&dpID=418G-LktvOL&ref=plSrch

I can certainly recommend the NETGEAR WN3000RP

Throughput isn’t amazing but perfectly acceptable for SMART TV and BBC iPlayer etc using the handy RJ45

As per @gravity, if you just need a work computer you can use powerline wired. I use TP link. I used to have a hybrid setup which was a TP link wired into an Airport Express unit I had already which then created a seperately named local wifi network

My wired connection on my TP link is faster than my fibre which gives something like 78Mbps on Speedtest, whereas WiFi only hits about 30.

Thanks for the speedy replies.

I would prefer WiFi vs some sort of Poweline solution as me and my wife might work from one of 3 or 4 different devices and it’d be a pain (first world problem or what!) to faff about with ethernet cables constantly.

Will look up the NETGEAR WN3000RP, thanks Digby.

no worries!

Full Duplex/wired/structured cabling will pretty much beat any WiFi offering due to the absence of a collision domain but this may well be ‘Overkill’ for most home implementations. Powerline is a good compromise but like most things it depends what your requirements are:

If you just need to check your email / browse the t’interweb then a WiFi repeater @ <£30 might be a reasonable solution. The limiting factor may well still be your internet connection.
If you need to do bandwidth intensive data/exhange activities within your home ‘LAN’ then it may be worth looking at a more scalable solution

works on the landing to get a signal to the attic room

I picked up a lidl repeater, and it works fine. Only tableting in the garden, not trying to game, download or run a remote desktop or anything like that. For browsing i cant say i noticed it being any different. Cheap.

I imagine power line units run through the earth cable, which would make me nervous as baby monitors that work that way can be used cross-house, all along the street. (though cant imagine they haven’t thought of that already, i suppose)

I’ve got one of these: NETGEAR EX6100-100UKS AC750 WiFi Range Extender (WiFi Booster)

Sitting half way between the BT box and the extender, I’ve just tried up/down speeds on speedtest.net connected to the extender and the BT router.

21 ish download, 9 ish upload on both connections.

No significant difference, a bit slower upload on the BT router compared to the extension, but I only did 2 or 3 tests.

The extension certainly doesn’t halve the transfer speeds, anyway.

Bought a £20 net gear wifi booster from Argos as I kept loosing signal in my new loft room. Easy to set up and works fine.

PLease god don’t get powerline adapters. Electrical noisy POS’s that shit noise all over yours and your neighbours mains.

I am running a fairly ancient repeater in attic – main box 2 floors down in a thick walled Victorian house and I’m currently downloading a 2.4Gb file and I reckon it’ll take me 7-8 minutes.

For general browsing I don’t notice any difference between my machine upstairs via the access point or a laptop downstairs via the main router.

As I say this is fairly ancient so no N or AC modes…

They do work somewhat. But there’s a cost: reduction in your effective bandwidth. I’ve tried them at home and in work settings. They’re not worth it. Lay some cat5, put in some Ethernet sockets, and add an extra wifi router or two. It is a pain but the results are a lot better than wifi extenders.

Tp link WiFi extender working great here.

Been looking at this myself recently and I’d suggest looking at something like a ubiquiti wireless access point either off a power line adapter eg. Solwise av piggy (which has a mains passthrough filter) or off a long cat 5 cable..
Power line would ideally want to be on the same ringmain otherwise they can be slow..

I think my flat walls must be lined with depleted uranium or something as I can’t get a decent signal in the bedroom which is next to the lounge where the router (Virgin media) lives. I put a repeater in various positions around the flat and it helps a bit, but not much 🙁

I got a TP link WiFi booster from Sainsbury’s about a month ago to see if I could boost the signal out to the detached garage. It works brilliantly for what I need. Saw them on offer yesterday for £16 so I’d say well worth a punt at that price.

Just replacing my TP-Link powerlines with NETGEAR ones as the TP-Link ones need restarting (by powering off and on) at least once a week. According to the tech guys at work it’s a know issue with the TP-Links, they all use NETGEAR.

Why not do it properly with a second wireless access point and connect it by a hidden ethernet cable to the main wireless router?

dannybgoode – Member
PLease god don’t get powerline adapters. Electrical noisy POS’s that shit noise all over yours and your neighbours mains.

Modulated signal over an already noisy signal anyway, but makes no difference to any gadgets you’ve got on the mains which all filter anyway. It’s not going to mess up your electrics, and few neighbours will have powerline so conflicts are rare.

WiFi repeater on the other hand will halve your bandwidth, cutting down to 25Mbps or often less in practical use, and introduces extra noise that your neighbours may not appreciate and could affect other wireless devices you have. You want less 2.4Ghz signals, not more.

I find it bad enough with a dozen neighbour’s WiFi about me, microwaves, other 2.4Ghz remote devices, and struggle to get a clear channel so generally sharing channel which affects signal a lot.

Myself though, if I want a clean signal and fast wired connection, then I use a Gigabit switch and Ethernet cable round the house. One WiFi router or access point located centrally for phones and tablets. Ideally try to use 5Ghz which is less congested, although doesn’t travel so well.