Want to have full coverage in our house but our current netgear router (5 years old) only does just over half the house. The house has some thick internal walls and is quite long but only a room or two wide.

What is the best way to extend the wireless network to cover the whole house? The main incoming line is at one end but we do have extensions to more central areas.

One option would be to use powerline networking, plugging the router into the power system with another plug towards the other end of the house with a repeater plugged into it.

With a kit like this (which appears to integrate the repeater and the powerline plug), perhaps:

http://www.ebuyer.com/254253-d-link-200mbps-powerline-wireless-n-kit-dhp-w307av

I have no experience of this particular kit, but use the dlink powerline stuff and it works great.

I used the powerline stuff in my last house and had ethernet and wireless running in the basement and all the bedrooms as well as the usual rooms.

It’s great kit.

I moved house a few months ago, so no longer need most of it, send me an email if you want it.

I have:

2 powerline plugs (plug one into your router and the other will give you an ethernet connection anywhere in the house)

+

1 wireless plug (much better than a normal “extender”, just plug this into a socket wherever you want wireless. I had mine in the basement, no need to be anywhere near the range of the other wireless in the house).

Put router in middle of the house? Coverage won’t get edges but likely to cover most requirements. A newer router with longer range?

ah, Sarawak ! I miss the jungle

powerline stuff is good, as they ^ said

Homeplugs. Work a treat

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en-GB&redir_esc=&client=ms-android-htc&source=android-browser-goto&v=133247963&qsubts=1344882372079&action=devloc&q=homeplug&v=133247963

As above, home plug, maybe with a wireless repeater. I have it in a situation like yours, but because our house is an old house with a large extension I don’t get full band width from the devices. But it still gets my full internet signal, only an issue for big file transfer (films), and only because there are two circuits to the house.

The house is old with 2 fuse boxes so not sure the whole house is on the same circuit!

Our house is quite long, tried home plugs but the results were terrible – old/poorly wired circuits around the place.

In the end I drilled a couple of holes and ran a network cable down the outside of the house then added a second wireless router at the rear. Works a treat.

wok-fi

We just got a better router designed to cover a small office so it covets all 3 floors and right into the garage. Bit hit and miss though as there is no way to tell before you buy.

another vote for powerline kit.

We have a long barn, 15m short length of L-shape, 25m long length. 400mm thick walls meant the signal from the office in the corner of the short length wouldnt penetrate into the long length. Brand new radial wiring.

Tried a Netgear repeater which was a bit woeful (after trying an abysmal d-link one).

Powerline just works, although I found DHCP/IP management a bit weird for some devices initially but seems to have calmed down – more by fluke than anything Ive done to it…

I have one device by the router, another in the corner bedroom to supply the Vodafone sure signal box which can transmit/receive down both lengths of the house from the corner and finally another wifi repeater device at the other end of the house.

I get seamless roaming across the two wireless signals when wandering around with my tablet.

Might be upgrading to a higher speed version sometime to be able to add a Windows Media Centre extender to push TV/video to a room without an aerial. The slower hardware is perfectly fast enough for internet etc, but I gather it’s not quite up to serving fatter HD files.

Can you run two routers on the same network?

Yes I did the two routers running on the same network with the same SSID. The laptops worked fine and switched from one to another. The IPAD would be inconsistent.

I went across to Infinity and the BT router covers the whole house so now back to a single set up.

peterfile, you have mail!

I’ve got a Belkin wireless booster thingy that can help. Its yours for postage.

Tomaso – interested in that. Do you have a link so I know what is it. How well does it work?

Never used it but will dig it out tom0rrow and see

Can you run two routers on the same network?

Yes, but you only want one of them doing the routing bit, the other needs to be configured as an acess point. So on awnser to the OP,

Look up setting up a wirless acess point on google, buy another router and an apropriate length of cat5 cable, run said cable between routers, set up router B, enjoy wifi coverage.

Can you not just run a length of Cat 5 or 6 from the router to the other end of the house, then put a wireless access point (don’t need another router as such, and a WAP will be cheaper) on the end of it?

Andy

Edit: just noticed the post above says the same thing. Have had to do this in a shared house and it worked pretty well; trick is hiding the cable though you can get flat Cat 5e which could go under the carpet

or just use the Home plus to replace the cat 5 cable, as I assume theres no reason you couldn’t run the 2nd router (wifi access point) off a “home plug”?

or just use the Home plus to replace the cat 5 cable, as I assume theres no reason you couldn’t run the 2nd router (wifi access point) off a “home plug”?

You could, but a 30m Cat 5e patch cable is a damn sight cheaper than homeplugs, and doesn’t tie up sockets or use any power.

£12.60 from your friendly, Horwich-based electronics emporium

Andy

Andy I don’t doubt it & have done it in my own flat.

Running cat 5 cable round the house might not please some ppl or their partners (mine wouldn’t stand for it), so I was merely suggesting the home plug is another way to do it without the unsightly mess.

Running cat 5 cable round the house might not please some ppl or their partners

Flat cable should go under the carpet though; I agree Cat 5 trailing up the stairs isn’t a great look…

Andy

My new house was causing problems for my BT Home Hub. It was an easy fix with the two Homeplugs from my BT vision box and a second BT home hub which was sent to me in error, all I had to do was reconfigure the second BT Home Hub as an access point (very simple after a quick google). I now have full wifi round the house and right down to the summerhouse at the end of the garden (I am awesome).