A question about those plug-in WiFi extender wotsits

The main router is in the lounge (front of house) and I’m looking to get better WiFi out in the garden (back of house) and in the garage (side of house, slightly detached) and am thinking about getting some of those TPLink-type plug-in Wifi extender wotsits.

Do the sockets that the ‘extender’ bits are plugged in to need to be on the same circuit/ring as the socket that the router is plugged in to? I ask as the garage sockets are on a completely separate circuit out of the main consumer unit.

Plus, indeed, what are my other options for getting better WiFi in the garage/garden?

They say yes, but in practice no, though i believe performance is throttled. I’ve got TPLINK ones running off different circuits and the internet is fine. Only thing i find annoying, is that the cheaper models are not “seamless” wifi, despite having the same broadcast names, so you can sometime pick up both signals and it freaks out.. The more expensive ones are proper seamless (like work) and are brilliant.

If you’ve got the budget it’s worth looking into the mesh WiFi stuff like Google Wifi

Yep. Works fine on a different circuit. My garage is on its own consumer unit into the main house one and it works fine. I’ve had issues with using the same name on both so I’ve just given it its own name and I just pick up the strongest signal. Seems to be OK but I haven’t tried watching a YouTube clip while walking to the garage.

Another mesh alternative would be the Amplifi stuff.

MESH – that’s what i was thinking Fuzzy..

probably worth having a read;

http://uk.pcmag.com/eero/87178/guide/the-best-wi-fi-mesh-network-systems-of-2017

OP, do you mean the extenders that use your mains cabling to transmit the Wi-Fi signal (powerline adaptors, I think), or the plug-in Wi-Fi repeaters?

I’ve got a TP-link Wi-Fi repeater type thing, like this:

and it’s a bit ‘meh’ to be honest, but is a few years old so perhaps things have moved on.
It instantly halves your network speed for anything connected to it, by virtue of how it works and it doesn’t seem very powerful.

I bought it to extend the Wi-Fi into our garage. I originally plugged it into the kitchen socket nearest the front door and it must only have about 15ft to transmit but the signal wasn’t very good.
I then realised that there is a socked in the understairs cupboard and because the garage is attached to the same wall, it would almost be directly adjacent to where I need the signal (but admittedly through a brick wall). This works much better and I get a good enough signal for Zwift & Spotify.

If buying again, I’d go for the powerline adaptors.

We’ve found the tplink thing above to work well enough for extending signal throughout parents house. But only occasional use when we visit, not heavy duty streaming etc. It’s certainly a cheap and easy thing to try.

OP, do you mean the extenders that use your mains cabling to transmit the Wi-Fi signal (powerline adaptors, I think)

Yep, them’s what I mean.

We’ve just brought the BT system that uses the power lines. It’s on sale in currys and comes with 2 x extenders. Really impressed so far. Wifi everywhere and really fast too. Very easy to set up.

I’ve got 2 sets of these I’ll be sticking on ebay this weekend if you’re interested.

I’ve moved to virgin media so don’t need them now.

Was putting them on at around £20 per per posted.

Slight hijack – what about Virgin Gary? You happy with it?. They did out area last year, I’m only just getting to the end of my current contract and thinking about giving them a go.

Netgear powerline wifi extender in my garage – works fine, just plug and go. Best giving it a slightly different name, as it’s easier to check what you are connected to – i.e. I can sometimes go in the garage still connected to the house, so the signal isn’t as good, with a different name, you can just force the switch over – e.g. moving laptop into garage for Zwift, if the signal is strong enough the laptop wont switch over to the extenders signal.

Its certainly fast, the way the tv planner works takes a bit of getting used to coming from sky, the youth says it’s better, I’m not so sure.

TV has some clever features though like if you fast forward between ads it shows a bit of the next part of the program just before it starts but just before the last ad ends. But some dumb stuff to – like you can’t do a mass delete of a group of program, I recorded the giro highlights, didn’t get round to watching most so had to delete each one individually.

Modem/router runs very hot though. I have it in a cupboard under the tv and need to leave the cupboard open which is a pain. So its fine if you don’t mind having electrickery boxes cluttering the place up 🙂

On the 200mb package and usually get about 130mb on mobile devices, tv/apple tv are plugged straight into the modem and it downloads stuff super quick.

Cheers for the offer Gary, but I need WiFi extenders and those are only Ethernet (unless I’m mistaken?)

Ah right, yes you need to run a network cable from these.

Slight hijack – what about Virgin Gary? You happy with it?.

Latest VM Wifi box is very good, better coverage than my old Apple Wifi box. We get 5.8 GHz coverage throughout the house with no need for repeaters. It also has separate 2.4 / 5.8 radios which you can configure independently and support band steering (tells laptops to use 5.8 rather than 2.4 if they connect to 2.4).

We get 5.8 GHz coverage throughout the house with no need for repeaters. It also has separate 2.4 / 5.8 radios which you can configure independently and support band steering (tells laptops to use 5.8 rather than 2.4 if they connect to 2.4).

Like I said it’s good 🙂

Its better and more reliable on the same circuit.
I have one on the same and the other on a different one and the one on the different circuit is unreliable. The one on the same I’m typing over!