I need to replace the ISP provided router. Any recommendations for a strong signal Wifi with at least 4 Ethernet ports?

My house is 1910 with thick brick walls, solid floors and a seemingly wifi absorbing plaster. I have had the desktop, play station and smart tv connected via Ethernet, the phone line comes in the front of the house, next to the tv and the desktop is in the back room. I did install a Ethernet cable from the router, out the front wall, up over the roof and then in to the back room for the desktop. (Easiest route) Then use the wifi for phones and iPad.

The Ethernet cable outside has degraded the outer sleeving and started to leak water inside the cable down in to the router. It’s now rather flakey but still working, sort of.

Thanks.

My advise would be to use an Apple AirPort Express (or two, depending on signal), and some Home Plugs.

Excellent signal throughout the house – which has brick internal walls. The AirPort is placed at the “centre’ of the house, for maximum signal throughout, and connected via HomePlug.

We have loads of Apple products in the house (3 iPhones, 2 iPod Touch, 2 iPads, 1 MacBook, and 1 Hackintosh), so the AirPort made sense to me.

Today Ive added a second AirPort Extreme to the one we already had, so we now have one at each end if the house and a single roaming wifi network. Also got an airport express but that’s just for AirPlay music to a stereo.
The extremes will not connect you to the broadband so you’ll need a router for that – frankly any old thing will do (I use an old netgear 834 without wifi and it does fine) as the wifi is more important.
You could replace the old cat5 cable with cat6 – it had better weather protection.

We have an Apple Airport Extreme, faultless service for many years and covers the entire house.

Re Cat 5/6, there’s no difference in weather protection. You can buy outdoor grade cable which has an extra UV stable sheath. We use km of the stuff at work.

In the great tradition of stw “recommend me” threads I’m going to recommend the one what I’ve got, of the 3 I had last year, the best overall and the one which didn’t die is the TP-Link Archer C7

I use Draytek routers for all our home based staff. They’re reliable, easy to configure and support LAN to LAN VPNs. Mainly 2710ns.

That said if the issue is range then swapping out the router may not neccesarily help – as above your problem may be better addressed by using a combo of powerline adaptors (home plugs) and a WiFi extender / repeater. We’ve set up just that sort of solution for some of our staff who live in rambling old farmhouses with very poor signal penetration. You really shouldn’t need to be running external ethernet cables unless your electrical wiring is quirky.

Ebuyer had a killer deal on powerline adaptors last week – these were going for £6.99 a pop. Still a decent price:

http://www.ebuyer.com/500310-trendnet-powerline-200-av-nano-adapter-tpl-308e

Again, A reccomend for what I have…

2 years of faultless service from a TP LINK TL-WR1043ND, £40. Very strong signal all over the house, fast, reliable, USB port etc… it just works.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002YETVTQ/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

do you need a router or a ADSL modem + router, because none of the apple kit will work as a ADSL modem.

I have TP link something or other ADSL modem doing the modem bit and an apple airport express doing the wifi bit.

I went from using a BT-Home hub with a second as a slave on a powerline adapter to a one powerfull unit to rule the house.

I went for an Asus Black Knight which is powerfull enough to reach the whole house. I’ve backed this up with wired connections to the most data heavy stuff and performance is brilliant. Its been worth the effort of running the cables.

I’ve yet to do it but something I liked about the Asus unit is that I could detach one of the three antenna and run it with an extension cable to any problem areas (I plan to do this to get a signal down the bottom of the garden at the summerhouse next summer).

I would replace your Ethernet cable with some outdoor specific cable and seal it where it enters the house.

Highly recommend DrayTek modems/wifi routers, running faultless here at work for many years, but they are expensive. I can also recommend TP Link, they are cheap but work extremely well.

I go by the rule if it has an Ethernet port then use it, if it doesn’t then use WiFi.

Breaking the tradition of recommending what I have, I would steer you towards one of these as the main router/modem/switch. Then replace the ‘leaky’ cable with proper outdoor grade cable and use powerline adaptors if necessary

I’ll follow the pattern and recommend what I have, but only because it’s the best ADSL modem/router I’ve had – Billion 7800n. Given the thickness of your walls I suggest using that as your primary connection with the Powerline/Homeplug devices if necessary to reach any specific locations that are out of range,

Regarding the Ethernet cable going over the roof, never a good idea.
As you have already found the outer will split letting in water and interference, even if you get Cat6 which should have UV resistant outer its still not abrasion proof and it will move causing rubbing and eventually will fail.

Better option is to get yourself some powerline adaptors and do away with the external cable totally.
Plenty of choice on EBUYER

Remember in a ideal situation the router would be mounted as centrally as possible within the home to give the best wireless coverage, its not always achievable but something to be considered and don’t do what most people do and leave it on the floor behind the PC and cupboard your already effectively ruining your wireless range with nothing more than poor positioning.
Combine these with a decent wireless router, loads of decent recommendations already and to a degree its depends on your budget.
I have a Netgear N300/ DGN2200 and thinks its pretty decent for the cost (around £47).

Thanks for all the replies.

The cat 5 cable went over the roof mainly because routing it around the gutter / eaves line of the house would have meant scaffold to get access. Unable to do it from a ladder. The cable was properly sealed going through the wall with a j bend to stop water ingress, but the water was leaking inside the outer sleeving and out of the crimped connector into the router.

It needs to be a modem router with good wifi signal. I think anything you have recommend will be better than what I have ATM. The desktop could really do with being hardwired, so will have a look at the power line adaptors.

Re Cat 5/6, there’s no difference in weather protection.

In hindsight of course you’re right – I was working on the basis that the 50m of Cat6 I’ve just bought came with the extra weather protection.

All this ‘my single router covers the entire house’ is pointless. It all depends on the size and build of the house – wifi signals are going to travel much further through a modern house with partition walls than they are in an older house with brick internal walls. Our house is older and has been extended quite a bit over the years so that some of the internal walls are actually thick external walls – so for my situation two routers with a roaming network is required to keep the children and wife happy!