• This topic has 58 replies, 34 voices, and was last updated 2 years ago by 5lab.
Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 59 total)
  • boosting home wifi help
  • karnali
    Free Member

    Whats the best way to boost home wifi (talk talk) so that it will get a better reception in teh extension, furthest point from router, so that a secon TV can be used for streaming tv etc?

    thanks

    Hoff
    Full Member

    No expert but had the same problem, router at the front of the house & no WiFi in the workshop. Bought a Tenda Nova MW6 mesh kit (as recommended on here) Easy to set up & works perfectly

    goldfish24
    Full Member

    Exactly the same here as the Hoff. Word for word.

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    tuboflard
    Full Member

    Mesh is what you need. Been a few threads on here over recent months and all come up with the same recommendation. I’ve recently put in BT mesh and wish I’d done it earlier.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    Yep Mesh system! As previously recommended to me on here.

    WBC
    Full Member

    Similar to above, recently stumped up for BT Homehub discs and wished I’d done it sooner. Internet works throughout house now including streaming TV, Zwift etc.

    5lab
    Full Member

    Another vote for bt discs. Cheap, work with every net setup

    Wally
    Full Member

    BT homehub and mesh disks over here too. They just work really well, even down end of garden in shed.

    MrSalmon
    Free Member

    I’m not an expert but I was under the impression mesh only helps if you can sort of ‘stepping stone’ the nodes between your router and the location you want to improve. In our case the router was already sitting at the closest point so we just got a booster instead.

    downshep
    Full Member

    I asked this question a few weeks back and was advised to invest in a Mesh set up. I bought a, Which? Best Buy, Linksys Velop 6600 system and it has worked a treat. Mrs can do MS Teams calls while the wean’s streaming Youtube videos. It never drops out and there are no blank spots. Well worth the outlay.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Bought a Tenda Nova MW6 mesh kit (as recommended on here)

    By whom?

    I bought a Tenda MW12 system. It was canine excrement, I sent it back.

    reggiegasket
    Free Member

    TP Link Deco

    Easy to setup, good app, great wifi performance, easy to add more discs, you can also plug components directly into them via cat5 (hifi streamer, TV etc.)

    adamo
    Full Member

    I opted for a 3 pack of Tenda MW5c which whilst being on the cheap end has been great. I would probably opt for something inherently faster / more powerful if I was trying to cover a bigger area but I’m in a pretty small flat, just with thick walls so I figured I’d be better off with more hubs, spaced close together to ‘stepping stone’ through as mentioned above.

    nbt
    Full Member

    I used an old router reconfigured as an Access Point, but I do have a network cable running from the main router to the point where I needed the AP. If you don’t, then Mesh is where it’s at

    b230ftw
    Free Member

    TP link Deco here. Works perfectly through solid stone walls (interior ones) in our house. Perfect wifi everywhere and it lets me manage them easily – wireless and wired connections. Love it.

    boombang
    Free Member

    I bought 3 BT Whole Home discs off someone on here, really really good.

    I gave those to my mum and bought a set of 4 mini-discs from BT for myself and the signal is nowhere near as good, even with the 4th.

    johndoh
    Free Member

    I’m not an expert but I was under the impression mesh only helps if you can sort of ‘stepping stone’ the nodes between your router and the location you want to improve. In our case the router was already sitting at the closest point so we just got a booster instead.

    I do not think this is the case – I could be sat next to our router (a Virgin SuperHub) and could get >100mbps one minute and 10mbps the next and the speed would be up and down all the time. I plugged in a cat5 cable directly and monitored it and as a modem it was consistently getting the >100mbps speeds so I got the TP-Link Deco (connected to the SuperHub now running simply as a modem) and we now get consistent and reliable >100mbps speeds throughout the house irrespective of how many devices are connected (and it was the same throughout lockdown with four of us concurrently connected).

    bails
    Full Member

    By whom? I bought a Tenda MW12 system. It was canine excrement, I sent it back

    .

    I’ve got a Tenda (I think MW6 too) setup which works really well. 200mbps out of the router when I’m standing over it but the speed drops off pretty quickly as you move away. The mesh gives a consistent (‘only’ 80-90mbps) speed all over the small but lead lined house, and still gives 30mbps at the top of the garden.

    JonEdwards
    Free Member

    We’re quite close to splashing out on a mesh system too. We’ve got a TP Link extender currently, but there seems to be some issue with the signal from the router reaching it – I keep getting a “no internet” error, despite having all the bars on my ipad, and as it has a strong signal from the extender, it won’t switch to the router. It’s also very marginal reaching the conservatory.

    I notice most of the mesh systems have some app associated with them. Is there something that’s simple plug and play that just makes good wifi everywhere without additional ****ery? I don’t need parental controls, we very rarely have guests, etc.

    I need to make 3 mobile devices and a printer work across 3 floors/4 bedrooms (the 2 PCs are cabled), out into the garden and ideally into the cellar. Feels like 3 widgets would be right? One connected to the router on the top floor, one on the 1st floor landing, one in the kitchen on the cabinets. They’ll all be within 10′ of each other as the crow flies and nowhere in the house will be more than 20′ away from one.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I’ve got a Tenda (I think MW6 too) setup which works really well.

    I could stand inches from a node and the app would go “what network?” and show all three nodes in red.

    It routinely went “connected, no Internet.” When it claimed to have no Internet, existing connections still worked; eg, I could be on a Teams call and it carried on working fine, I just no longer had web access. Disconnect and reconnect to the Wi-Fi and all it worked again instantly.

    The only DHCP configuration it gave was to change the third octet of the subnet. Forget reserving addresses or having space to set statics, so the printer changes addresses and I’ve to remove and re-add it to every client in the house. “Off” was not an option it offered even, so I couldn’t replace the lack of functionality with a RPi.

    Rubbish. And for a flagship product, shocking rubbish.

    5lab
    Full Member

    Is there something that’s simple plug and play that just makes good wifi everywhere without additional ****ery

    Bt whole home. Your router is still the router, the disks just replace the WiFi. There is an app but I think it’s all accessible from the web interface. Just set the WiFi name and pw and be done. I advised my 70 year old mum to get a set and she configured it by herself without calling me

    johnjn2000
    Full Member

    Foe me it ended up being the Google mesh system. never had a problem since installing, and everything before it was pants

    mogrim
    Full Member

    Is there something that’s simple plug and play that just makes good wifi everywhere without additional ****ery

    Same as johnjn2000, I went with Google Mesh and it’s about as close to plug-n-play as you can get. It’s made a huge difference, very happy with it.

    fazzini
    Full Member

    Another vote for the TP Link Deco’s here. Plus I really like the fact that at night the hubs have no light them so perfect for bedrooms etc.

    ta11pau1
    Full Member

    Another TP Link Deco mesh user, 5G router has pretty poor wifi, went from dodgy signal in one of the upstairs bedrooms and the kitchen, and no signal in the garden right by the house, to 80mbps right down the other end of a pretty big garden. Literally get full wifi signal everywhere in the house (and beyond) now.

    IHN
    Full Member

    Which TP Link Deco stuff are people using? There seems to be tonnes of (well, you know, a few) different ones

    peteimpreza
    Full Member

    Is this kit any good?

    petermav
    Free Member

    TP Link Deco – +1 for this one.

    stevious
    Full Member

    The only DHCP configuration it gave was to change the third octet of the subnet. Forget reserving addresses or having space to set statics, so the printer changes addresses and I’ve to remove and re-add it to every client in the house. “Off” was not an option it offered even, so I couldn’t replace the lack of functionality with a RPi.

    I lack the technical knowledge to know if this is a genuine criticism of the hardware or just a really modern poem.

    ta11pau1
    Full Member

    What’s your home broadband speed? And is it likely to increase any time soon?

    And how big is the house? Don’t underestimate the power of these things, I’m in a decent sized 3 bed with a good sized garden and 2 decos do perfectly fine.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    Another TP Link Deco M5 here. Awesome! Simple to setup and consistently good WIFI right around the house and into the garden. 3 units in a 4 bed detached, 2 downstairs and 1 upstairs.

    peteimpreza
    Full Member

    Whats the difference between a Deco E4 and a Deco M5?

    Apart from the M5 being £50 more and the size of the units?

    johndoh
    Free Member

    And the TP Link stuff has a great / easy to use app (I am sure other makes do too). I have assigned my kids’ devices to their own usernames on the app and I can simply switch off the wifi to their specific devices from my phone, ie, if Kid A is playing up I can switch off their wifi access but Kid B and the rest of the house still has wifi. I can also set filtering, time controls etc as well as get an overview of what sites they have visited/block access to specific sites etc.

    IHN
    Full Member

    I have to say, as good as the reports are of the units themselves from folks here, the TPLink website sets a gold-standard in bafflement…

    It’s basically this:

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I lack the technical knowledge to know if this is a genuine criticism of the hardware or just a really modern poem.

    IHN
    Full Member

    Right, so, assuming I’m thick and the TP-Link site is no help…

    We have a stone-built cottage, all the walls are, well, thick stone. Router is in the sitting room, on a windowsill which is at the back of the house, and the WiFi struggles to get from there to the front of the house due to configuration of said walls and the doors through them (which is, I assume, the only way the WiFi can get through). The room above the sitting room is fine (I assume it gets through the floor), the front bedroom is, again, iffy.

    To add complication, there’s also a separate annex where we work, which is c15ft across the yard from the back of the house, but conveniently the windowsill the router is on looks directly out at it.

    So, I think I need four mesh nodes, one by the router, one at the front of the house downstairs, one on the landing, and one in the annex. Does that seem right?

    If so, I assume I can just buy two of these sets?

    https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/networking/whole-home-wi-fi-systems/tp-link-deco-m5-whole-home-wifi-system-twin-pack-10189878-pdt.html

    IHN
    Full Member

    Purleeeeeeeaase…..?

    ta11pau1
    Full Member

    What’s your actual Internet speed?

    I highly doubt you’ll need 4, I’d start with 2 and you can add an extra one if you need more coverage.

    The one next to the router will more than cover the 15ft to the annex. And then one at the front of the house will cover upstairs and downstairs there.

    The levels of spec goes like this:

    Cheapest model will have 10/100 ethernet ports so you’ll be physically limited to around 70mbps max speed.

    Next models up with have gigabit ports but all traffic will go though the same wireless (backhaul – ie the data being sent between nodes) and the wireless to your phone etc, which will reduce speed of you’ve got a lot of devices.

    Next level up with have a dedicated WiFi backhaul chip which separates the background data transfer and the data going to devices.

    Unless you have 200mbps broadband I’d get these

    https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9180581

    Also check if your router has a setting for bridge mode or similar, makes things a lot easier.

    IHN
    Full Member

    Thanks

    What’s your actual Internet speed?

    A whole 12, and no, there’s no zero missing off the end there, of your interweb megawotsits. FTTC, but the cabinet is the best part of two miles away.

    The one next to the router will more than cover the 15ft to the annex.

    Yeah, the problem isn’t so much distance, but really thick stone walls (which the annex also has). The WiFi from the existing router already reaches in, but only very just, my thinking was it would need a boost from within the annex itself?

    Unless you have 200mbps broadband I’d get these

    Any particular reason? Aesthetically, and for an extra tenner, I think MrsIHN would prefer the M5s

    Also check if your router has a setting for bridge mode or similar, makes things a lot easier.

    Er, again, talk to me like I’m thick…

    sgn23
    Free Member

    Posts about Wifi always remind me of this thread which should never be forgotten and is STW at its finest. Sorry OP this may not actually help you fix your problem.

    Improving wife signal in house

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