Wi-fi extenders: same or different SSIDs?

Currently setup with same SSID as router (Virgin fibre) but I’m not convinced that the overlapping signals aren’t causing issues. I’m tempted to give them distinct names eg West, East, 1stFloor.
Whaddya think?

Got 2 range extenders tp-link that use the elec.. I use the same SSID on virgin and it does cause issues with 1 device, an old laptop. Everything else seems good. When i used different names it was just a pain.

Thanks – I’ll have a closer look at individual devices.

I would use the same SSID but make sure you have channel differences between the main network and the extender.

We’ve gone the powerline route and have the remote wireless access point with the same SSID and password; most stuff switches seamlessly between the two.

Get a wireless mesh and find out how well a wireless network should actually work!

As above, wireless mesh is the way to go. I’m using Google WiFi. Not cheap but literally set it up a year ago and not touched since. Full speed broadband through the whole house.

I agree with the mesh advice.

I did what you’re doing for a while. 2 networks with the same name and password. It sort of works but the devices on the networks don’t really know when and how to hand off onto the stronger signal so you can find it on the weak signal despite being in range of the stronger one. So it can get irritating.

Look at the ubiquiti unifi kit. I use the acpro now and it’s much much better. There are some comprehensive reviews online.

Mesh. Definitely. My inlaws have a range extender and we’re constantly having to turn one off or disable/enable wifi to force stuff to move. Without mesh you can’t get roaming between the APs so it’s a massive pain basically.

Also agree with with mesh advice. I’ve got a traditional Powerline/extender set up at home and I use separate ssids so I can manually force the use of a particular access point, otherwise the useless thing point blank refuses to roam to the nearest AP.

Fitted BT mesh x3 last week and wish had done ages ago. It’s easy to set up and fast and reliable compared to my experience with Wifi netplugs (forever having to reset and slow) and an extender (slow). Curry’s did the set for £170 which was a bit eye watering but I offset it by changing supplier (Curry’s have a service to do this – I wait with redidation given being without internet for 2 weeks last time) as my rate had just gone up . Been a revelation so far.

Thanks I’ll have a look at mesh options.