[Closed] Upgrade my wireless - router and range extension

Answer is almost certainly mesh. Choose your budget but I’ve seen good results from Tenda stuff (This for 140) though their lower spec stuff seems to work well too. Also Netgear Orbi seems to get a good review for a bit more ££.

I recently bought a TP-Link PoE access point. It is ceiling mounted and is pretty decent.

My children gave it the thumbs up when they worked out they could finally get 100Mbit/s download speeds from the intertubes.

I recently upgraded our wireless network using the Netgear Orbi kit. It's a bit over your budget (approx £180). My setup and situation is similar to yours. I've put my ISP supplied router into modem mode and let Orbi do all the heavy lifting. Currently have 24(!) wireless devices all bumbling along nicely and have had zero drop-outs. My second Orbi satellite is upstairs which connects wirelessly to the main Orbi base which is next to the router (connected via ethernet)

I did a fair amount of research. I nearly went for the Ubiquiti Alien kit but watching some youtube reviews shown that the Orbi was faster over longer distances. What's good about the Orbi is that it has a dedicated wireless backhaul connection between each of the units - basically its own wireless highway to transfer the traffic between the satallites without any of the connected devices taking up the same bandwidth. Nearly all the others I looked at must be wired in order to have the same backhaul.

However even my Orbi setup won't quite reach all the way down to the garage, which to be fair is at the bottom of the garden. I've just got a cheap TP Link powerline adaptor running in there as it's only me who uses it for Alexa and things.

I think my only critism would be the setup, although it was 'easy' it was faffy - I spent a good hour or two setting it up just the way I wanted it, doing a firmware upgrade, making sure the satallite had a strong connection to the base (there's the official mobile app you install which tells you) but it was time well spent. Zero complaints from anyone since!

Thank you all.

MESH looks a good possibility but also intrigued a bit by the idea of sticking in some power line adapters for critical locations / max speed and then hard-wiring the bandwidth hungry stuff (Xbox, and the two work laptops) to take the pressure off the wireless.

I've got a modern RCD/trip consumer unit and 3 ring mains - will a Powerline signal pass through that from one ring to another? Just thinking that Router/modem is on the ground floor main ring, spare room/my desk is on the upstairs ring and the Xbox is on the extension ring. Google is inconclusive so far. 😀

if the Xbox and lappies are all streaming from the internet rather than something in your house then the limit will be the internet and not your wireless. I'm not sure powerline devices are much faster than modern wireless anyway

+1 for Orbi. Pricey but works well.  Having its own backhaul channel means more bandwidth for your devices

if the Xbox and lappies are all streaming from the internet rather than something in your house then the limit will be the internet and not your wireless

I think the issues we're having are possibly more around signal attenuation (blockwork internal walls and distance) and a crap aerial in the superhub. I did some testing earlier today on connection speeds to the hub on the WiFi and I'm getting 200MBps sat next to it and about 50-60MBps at the Xbox (and 40-50MBps at my laptop) with the connected devices effectively idle. That's half our download speed. We're not needing our full 100MBps during the day when the Xbox is off but the flake/stability factor is an issue and if I can take that away with wires that could be attractive.

Probably shouldn't have described the work kit as bandwidth hungry it's more a stability/no risk requirement and even the one 10 feet from the router has been getting kicked off WIFI occasionally.

Of course it could be breaks in our internet connection but all the cleaning up of settings today suggests we still have a signal strength problem.

We used to have a powerline setup which i was never that impressed with, now have a tp-link deco three node mesh and its ace. Also running from a virgin hub.

Just bought a 2 piece Deco (live in a long 2 bed flat). I was using a powerline adaptor and so far I'd say it's marginally better at my desk in the back bedroom. Barely an improvement and I'm considering whether to keep it. I was hoping for it to to reach in to the garden (according to the website sqft reach, it should), but it doesn't. I don't want 3 in my flat I've got enough stuff plugged in as it is.

YMMV of course, as it seems to above. Might be because I'm on 350mb so the c100mb I'm getting at my computer I would deem slow.

We have Plusnet and since I've been WFH for a while, and the Wifi doesn't reach the room I'm working in, I used power line adaptors to get the network 'up there' and then one of the TPLink wireless routers set on access point mode. It gives decent WiFi speeds and offers a ethernet access point for my work computer which was prone to dropping off WiFi.

Only downside is that it doesn't do 5Ghz Wifi. Cost me less than £60 all in (including the powerline adaptors - but I already had those, so the router was £15).

Having had enough of moaning kids, I spent £70 on a three piece Tenda mesh set. So one is connected to the modem and then the other two around the house. It works really well. You can monitor what devices are connecting off which hub and it's sometimes surprising the path the signal takes; it definitely favours long distance over going through brick walls.

With a bit of experimentation, it turns out it works best with all three spread out downstairs, and now we get full wifi in the garden and good signal over two stories.

Virgin router here and BT mesh, it's brilliant. 2 units in the house and one hard wired in the summer house, get really good speeds all over the house and 20m away right at the back of the garden, money well spent.

We have Plusnet and since I’ve been WFH for a while, and the Wifi doesn’t reach the room I’m working in, I used power line adaptors to get the network ‘up there’ and then one of the TPLink wireless routers set on access point mode.

Ah, now, this is an idea. We're about to move from EE to PlusNet broadband, so I'll soon have a redundant EE HomeHub router. What I really want is better WiFi in the garden, so could I have the old router by one of the back windows set as an access point and use powerline adaptors to 'hardwire' it to the new router? Do I even need the 'hardwire' bit, can it be a repeater?

Ah, now, this is an idea. We’re about to move from EE to PlusNet broadband, so I’ll soon have a redundant EE HomeHub router. What I really want is better WiFi in the garden, so could I have the old router by one of the back windows set as an access point and use powerline adaptors to ‘hardwire’ it to the new router

You could. If you give it the same SSID tho you might run into trouble. It won’t auto-switch but it should work. It’s what I do for my shed which is *just* out of range of our Orbi setup (fab BTW!). I have some old TP-LINK adaptors - one plugged into the Orbi (but you could just plug into your new router) one end plugged into an old BT router in ‘AP’ (not bridged mode).

Run Zwift etc off that and while Speedtest tells me it offers a lot less than direct into the Orbi, it’s fine for that.

We've got a couple of powerline adaptors. Got it as when I started WFH my laptop kept dropping of the wifi. One end plugged into the router on the downstairs ring, the other plugged into the laptop on the upstairs ring. Generally getting a solid 50mbps which is fine as our internet is only 80mbps and we don't transfer huge files across the LAN

Have an old wifi router and thinking of using another powerline adaptor at the other end of the house and adding a second wifi hotspot. If I use the same SSID and password as the main router but a different channel devicesshould mostly hop between them ok is my understanding. TBH it will mostly be used for using the phone whilst on the toilet so 4G would probably suffice, but kinda want to try it out for fun.

I have home plugs on different rings working successfully, I do see a performance hit between rings but it’s not significant

Given you’ll need that for the shed anyway it might be worth trying them before mesh solutions

I am another VM SH3 user with teh same issues. I tried power line adapters but never really worked well (suspect crap wiring around the house). Tried network extenders, just about worked, but low speed and hated having 4 networks around the house. Finally (and after a lot of reading) went for a mesh solution - in my case Netgear Orbi. It is not cheap, but it has solved the problem. High speed WiFi around the house using a single SSID. It does require a little bit of effort to set up but once up and running it is brilliant. The other night two son's were streaming movies, I was on a Facebook live session with an extra stream and my wife was on a Zoom call - no issues at all.

Over the last 4 years I've tried countless power lines , range extenders etc
I now have a box full of them and drained my bank account in the process.

My experience , it all depends on your house build , thickness /type of walls etc.
I eventually gave in and ran a cat6 wire from router externally around the house, bought the TP link deco mesh system things are sorted now.
Some things I have noted along the way
1- if you have an old house with solid walls then wifi extenders are as good as useless.
2- power-line is ok if you have it all on the same ring main, if however you have an upstairs and downstairs ring or the house has been extended added to etc then they will not function to max capacity.
3- the range on any wifi gear ,mesh included does not live up to the manufacturers claims when walls are involved.
4- I now think that each piece of wifi gear needs to be able to "see" the others to function as well as claimed.
In an ideal situation wires are best , if not then mesh is a good option but you need more units if you have house with solid walls .

Good luck

Would def suggest look at mesh ...Would say same as someone earlier ref Deco ended up doubling up to 6 for a 4bed house 3 didn't cut it but the twelve months been running probably had to reset max 3 times and reckon related to storm voltage spikes...use a power connector for main pvr/stream meanwhile 2 students on line lectures and one simultaneously on x box mrs antigee non stop zoom all ok and we are limited by cable for 100m from fibre in the street with max 80 to 90 mbs download ....made my life a lot easier

Has anyone tried the Google Nest Wifi mesh gear? It's a bit more expensive, but you get Google Home speakers with it, which I quite like for a bit of Spotify action while I'm cooking/reading.

This one: https://store.google.com/es/product/nest_wifi_specs

I'm another happy Netgear Orbi customer, which has been stable and fast enough that the dedicated powerline adapters for the Playstation in the upstairs bedroom are no longer required. We have 20 to 30 devices connected throughout the house without issue.

I did consider the Google Wifi at the time (two years ago I think?) as it was on offer, but was put off by the numerous issues on the Web with users of Sky Q and the Google Wifi, so plumped for the Orbi which seems to always do well in "real world" speed tests. If you haven't got Sky Q then the Google Wifi seems to be well regarded and slightly cheaper

For the person who ran cable outside did you trunk it or did you get UV stable network cables? I've got about a 35m run (it's about 9m indoors) as I've got to go along the full length and width of the house but if I could bring out, round and plug into an access point I could end up with a very good connection.

Our consumer unit is split in two, turns out we have 4 ring mains split across the two breakers. Thinking powerline will possibly sort the study/spare room as they are same "side" of the CU.

Sorry for all the questions.

I solved this problem in our large victorian (lots of bricks) house by running a wire (LAN) from Router 1 (the standard sky one) out of the house and up to the back of the house first floor and then back in where it connects to a second Tenda router. So we have 2x wifi networks in the house (sky and Tenda).

This works 100x better than the various power line and range extender options we tried which were all pants.

The Tenda one is great - bought a slightly old model on Amazon for ~£40 and it is a great bit of kit.

There is such a thing as external cat5 or 6 but it does not come with the ends so a special tool is required to fit them.

I already had an internal cat 6 extension coil with factory fitted ends so I used this , I used a plastic flexible conduit to cover it rather than trunking. The stuff you see in cars which is split Down it length.
I also got a netgear 5 port gigabyte Ethernet switch for the extension, I have deco ,TV , Sonos
And various other things plugged into it.
Works a treat

@superlightstu

If you haven’t got Sky Q then the Google Wifi seems to be well regarded and slightly cheaper

Cheers, will definitely have a look at it then. It's quite a bit more than the Tenda stuff though. Hmm.

If you can run a cable definitly take a look at Ubiquity Unifi Access Points. They are one of the best things i've done to my wifi around the house, everthing is on one SSID and changing AC's is seemless. You can get them all setup before they are sent to you, all you have to do is plug them on to you cat5 cables and away you go.

Thanks all.

Going to try a Powerline and second router (with its own SSID) to feed the back of the house. That will put the Powerline onto the same ring as the modem/primary router and I can hardwire the console, a printer and back room TV. It also gives me a chance to try the powerline plug on the other ring and see if it works or not. Later I might drill the walls and run Ethernet straight through but I've been told no drill until the basic principle is proved!

With more than half the heavy lifting wired up hoping we will gain some capacity on the SH3 for rest of the house. Looked hard at the MESH option but I'm worried as the repeaters will both be the wrong side of the walls that seem to be causing the current problem so I'm trying to get past them using cables.

I upgraded to mesh last year (Deco M9plus 2 node) which in theory was more than man enough to cover my whole house and my garden but I tend to find claims often fall short in the real world so my plan was to go for 3 nodes, and add a third at a later date once I was happy with the setup. However i'm finding the 2 node system is more than man enough. In lockdown with the entire family on the internet all day with upto 20 devices connected at any one time we never struggle for bandwidth and Netflix and streaming works fine alongside everything else using the network. No hard core gaming going on, but for normal domestic use it is fine. I will still get that third node I think as i'd rather over do it, but no rush to get it.

Previously I was running an Airport extreme and Airport express as a range extender and that setup worked fine for about 10 years, though coverage in the garden was a bit sketchy but that setup was starting to get a bit old and tired.

Has anyone tried the Google Nest Wifi mesh gear?

I have this. Three units dotted around the house. Works flawlessly now, but took a couple of days to 'bed in' (I think the system has to monitor the signal and work out traffic to optimise itself).

I went with Google as its selling point was zero faff. The downside is that it's evil Google, but I turned off all the speakers and smart stuff.

Virgin Hub 3 here. I bought a TENDA - Nova MW3 Whole Home WiFi System from Currys. It was recommended on here but didn't work well in our house. In fact it made it worse. So I got a TP-Link Archer C7 router for next to nothing from Argos and it works a treat. Better range and good speeds.
Make sure you change your Virgin Hub's name and password first when you install your new device so you can set that one to the old settings meaning you don't have to change every other ting in the house. I've no idea how I'd reset the smart meter and the Ring doorbell is a nightmare to do anything with.

We're on Plusnet too, router is in the same room where we wfh and the wifi is horrendous. We have 5 devices linked so no where near as many as some others. We've tried all the tricks to make it better, different SSID names, unsyncing the channels etc but it still drops connection. Plusnet have said there is nothing wrong with the line and suggested a different router or mesh network.
I plan on getting the Tenda Nova to see if it helps, cheaper than the routers they suggeted.

I have this. Three units dotted around the house. Works flawlessly now, but took a couple of days to ‘bed in’ (I think the system has to monitor the signal and work out traffic to optimise itself).
I went with Google as its selling point was zero faff. The downside is that it’s evil Google, but I turned off all the speakers and smart stuff.

As above but with 2 units, way faster and more reliable than the the VM SH3 on its own.

 

Bookmarked like, really need to sort out our crappy Superhub

Bookmarked like, really need to sort out our crappy Superhub

Ditto - just 'upgraded' from their Superhub 2 to the Superhub 3 which seems to be slightly worse particularly in reaching the back bedroom which I use as an office. Tried the plugin TP Links but couldn't get them to work due to the electrics. Looks like I will be getting a mesh system soon.

Another Orbi user here.

What’s good about the Orbi is that it has a dedicated wireless backhaul connection between each of the units – basically its own wireless highway to transfer the traffic between the satallites

This is why I went for it.

There’s also rj45 hubs built into it as well,I’d done the power link stuff and various hardwired but the orbi’s definitely the dogs.

VM SH4 in modem mode connected by patch cable to an Asus RT-86U.

This in turn connects to a Gb switch which in turn connects to 2 Asus RT-67Us. All connected with cat6 or cat7 cables. They’re in what Asus calls ‘AIMesh’ mode. This makes device movement between routers pretty seamless. Unlike my previous AirPort Extreme setup where handoffs were rare so you’d end up at -70dB on 2.4GHz connected to a distant router despite having another router in the same room

We have the hub and main router in the living room. 1 RT-67U in a room next to the kitchen. And the other upstairs in the furthest bedroom. Coverage in the house is good.

Playstations are plugged in rather than wireless to reduce ‘laaaag’.

If I hadn’t already had the Asus router I’d have gone for another mesh system:

Netgear orbi

bt whole home

in that order. I’d still try and connect them with wires rather than wireless backhaul but the triple-band mesh systems seem pretty good either way.

I found the VM SH3 and SH4 were OK routers for stability and coverage in a small area but a couple of Victorian walls attenuate signals very well. And setting up port forwarding and DHCP assignments is a lot easier with some other machines like the Asus.

I got a mesh system with 6 hubs. As we had recently rebuilt our house I had the opportunity to instal Cat 6 to every room, so was able to hard wire the mesh, which made a tremendous difference. I dont think it would have worked very well [for us] otherwise as the distance between the discs was too far, with walls interposed.
But now we have stable wifi everywhere, including the garage for Zwift.