Boosting my WiFi signal

[Silkie]

Unfortunately I can't relocate my router so I was looking at other solutions.

Has anyone any experience with this type of device as it seems like it would be the most convenient option for me?

http://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/wireless-range-extenders/WN1000RP.aspx

[Synaphix]

The place I was renting before this in the countryside had those (huge barn conversion) and it seems to work with a great signal, but our net still sucked as you expect in the countryside. The landlord has expensive Linksys ones though if I recall around £120 each but still the same thing more or less as those!

Edit: http://www.maplin.co.uk/b-grade-linksys ... der-787903 is what he had, just under £50 each, the £120 was for the router but nonetheless they worked fine but you are best off reading reviews first of course or other opinions as what may work for some may not for others

[Kaelan002]

I know I'm not answering the question, but have you considered powerline adapters instead? Cheaper, and you'll get a better connection.

[Silkie]

At the moment I was mainly looking for a better wireless to cover the house for my tablet and phone but when I get things a little more organised I was going to run a cable to create a network point. The house has a useful little overlap on the two floors makes this easy once I do a bit of furniture moving. Then my PS3 can go wired and any future TV equipment can be served as well.

[Little_Devil]

I know I'm not answering the question, but have you considered powerline adapters instead? Cheaper, and you'll get a better connection.

I use this for connecting a second wireless adaptor upstairs. You get a very solid connection.

I have recently stopped in the middle of the countryside in Kent, at a massive old Victorian farmhouse, where they had a BT internet on one corner of the house, and an internet booster on the second floor, which boosted the signal enough to reach my room on the opposite side of the house. My laptop picked it up fine, whereas my pad could not get any connection.

Out of all ways of doing this, I would use the over mains route, rather than to bother running cables, and connect another wireless router upstairs.

Over mains is cheap, I use TP-Link, and rock solid.

[ApacheFlame]

Power line does depend on how your house is wired though. I have the netgear power line and BT gave us their preferred brand to get internet for BT vision to the other side of the house.

I am by no means an expert on household wiring, but there is something about our ring circuits that degrade the signal significantly between my bedroom and the living room. The house is reasonably big and the wiring antiquated I am sure, but all is not rosy in. The world of net over electricity circuits.

TL;DR: I use powerline and get crap quality at the other end, so YMMV.

[Synaphix]

Not sure how relative this is but it lists for newer models in the rest of it... http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-575 ... explained/

Cons of power line networking

Power line networking has a few drawbacks.

First, power line adapter devices need to be plugged directly into a wall socket; they don't work well, or at all, if plugged in a surge protector or power strip. This plus the fact that they are generally large and don't come with a power pass-though socket (though a few do) means they can be a hassle to use at the place where there is just one wall outlet, or outlets that are close to one another.

Second, power line adapters require standard 110v electrical outlets and the data signal between them depends on the quality of the electrical wiring itself. On top of that, improper wiring and circuit breakers can also negatively affect the performance.

Third, power line adapters' performance can be degraded by the noise that certain home appliances generate in the power grid. Examples of these appliances include motorized devices (fans, vacuum cleaners, washer and dryers), switch power supplies (AC-to-DC converter used in phone chargers), and fluorescent lamps.

And finally, using power line connections in an apartment building might lead to a security risk. As the wiring is connected, people living in other apartments could tap in to your network by using an adapter of their own. This is similar to using an open Wi-Fi network. However, all power line adapters come with a security feature to prevent this from happening (note that adapters from different vendors generally don't work well together with security turned on, so you'll be better off with adapters from the same vendor).

If you live in a home, you don't have to worry about your next-door neighbor being able to access your network. Power line signals can't cross a transformer, which is generally what separates street-side power connections.

With the above might explain your issue Apache but if I recall one part of the barn conversion we were in had the issue of signal loss due to older wiring which was being updated.

[ApacheFlame]

Sorry, that wasnt very clear. We have used powerline from two vendors at separate times, neither gave a good signal, although it is much better now that we plumb it through to the downstairs dining room (original part of the house) rather than my room which is in the extension.

My guess is that it is something to do with the old/new wiring, but could well be interference as it's a reasonable size house, lots of halogen lights/other plugged in things

[Synaphix]

Ah ok

[Little_Devil]

A few misconceptions going on here with the quote, which looks to be USA power lines, which are crap anyhow. The USA or customers who use the U.S system, would have problems. USA has black and white mains leads and in many places in the states, either line could be live, and they do change. Also there is a lot of latent noise on the lines which can cause problems, which comes from their mains supply delivery system, Depends where you live. Therefore extension cables are not advisable.
In the UK, we have Live, Neutral, and earth lines; Brown Live, Blue Neutral (Earth at the power station) and Green with yellow stripes Earth at your house. This Voltage and frequency system is standardised over the EU as well. It is very stable and has a Voltage of 220-240V at 50Hz. In the USA, they make the Voltage stable, and the frequency does drifts a bit, In the UK the frequency is stable, and the Voltage drifts a bit.

In older properties I would imagine there would be less of a problem than with newer properties that have earth leakage systems. This is because each of the circuits are on different ring systems. Example could be upstairs lights, downstairs lights, upstairs plug sockets, downstairs plug sockets. 4 different earth leakage circuits, each with their own filters, that can mess up a signal. Without earth leakage there is a direct link between all mains circuits through the wire fuses, even though they are on different rings.

Best thing to do is to check your fuse box. Old style fuses, probably OK, Trip switch type fuses, possible problems.

BTW Extension leads can be successfully used in the EU, as long as they are not filtered (not normal for them to be), but for general information purposes they have to say they don't work, because in the states they are hit and miss.

[Synaphix]

Fair enough! And interesting information - just out of interest, if you lived on farm land and between around 8 houses on different farm land in the area shared a mast for their wireless (however that works, assume its in one of the houses and it sends the wireless signal to each property as they have a dish that intercepts it then from the dish is wired into the house phone line where I used to live and he then plugged a router into it) he uses the powerline adapters to boost it from one end of the barn conversion to the other and the annex (HUGE property), would there be a better way rather than the powerline adapter for a midpoint between his router and the annex which is probably 30m away (its a barn with annex built on in an L shape) as I do keep in contact and I suggested the powerline adapter unless a better solution worked.

Sorry if that does not make any sense, I have not slept in awhile!

[Little_Devil]

Forgot to say, it also depends on what is plugged into the ring circuit, on your older property. Any electrical equipment that is quite old will generate noise over the power lines so older property is quite susceptible to this type of problem.
Modern day equipment has to be compliant to a lot higher standards even down to safeguarding against R.F. noise, so they are designed with a lot of power filtering. Older equipment did not have theses regulations, so even something as simple as a washing machine, would generate a fair amount of electrical noise all throughout a house with the older ring mains system.
I am quite lucky by way of the fact I have to know about these for the design work I do, so all the equipment in my house is adequately filtered despite the house have the old style wiring. Guess I took these things for granted when I said I use the TP links on the mains with no problems

Power-line adaptors do not have to go mid point, they go anywhere they are needed, and multiple adaptors can be used. Each adaptor has a separate channel it can work on, so multiple points can be used.
Repeater transmitters have to go to the furthest point that good reception can be maintained, which would be roughly mid point on a straight line.
The problem with any wireless network is the amount of walls the signal has to go through and at what angle.
I can't remember exactly what the apparent thickness's are through which material, but as the signal moves away from the perpendicular the attenuation of the signal increases rapidly to a point where the apparent thickness of the wall (as far as the signal is concerned) becomes astoundingly thick. This of course depends on what material the signal is going through at the time, brick having a higher attenuation than plasterboard. All depends on the type of material and at what angle the signal goes through that material.
As you can see if you are downstairs transmitting to upstairs at an angle, then there is greater attenuation than going to somewhere straight over your head.

[SkeletalBOB]

I have 200mbps Powerline adapters going to a DD-WRT'd old router which acts as both a hub for my laptops and projector and a wireless point in my room, works flawlessly. My house is a 1930's house with wiring that is a seperate ring for up and down. The ping and speed are more than acceptable over the powerlines with much better performance than wireless. I now have a few spare plugs for if I ever wanted to expand the network. If I did it again i'd get the 500mbps models just so I have some (possibly unnecessary) overhead. TP-LINK from Amazon, next day delivered, no problem.

[Silkie]

The age of the house is what worries me as far as the power-line kit is concerned TBH as it was built in the early 1950's and although the electrical side of things has been updated at some point I don't think it was very recently.

[Little_Devil]

There should be nothing wrong with the wiring system for a house of that age. As I tried to explain, it is what is plugged into the wiring system that presents problems.

These are usually spurious items like kettles, water heaters, washing machines, timer switches, Irons and by no means have long term effects, just being items you should be aware may generate electrical noise. More modern equipment like computers have to conform to modern standards, and do not effect the mains.

Even mains RCD switches may not effect the power-line adaptor so much, it all depends on a number of factors. The first is how the RCD has been designed, and the frequency of operation of the power-line adaptor.

With power line kits, it is a simple device that uses the mains as a carrier wave, so any filtering that goes on the mains, or power devices that generate noise, can effect its operation in many different ways. So many different variables can be added to this list that you can never tell, you can only take recommendations from people with similar home wiring.

The only way to really know if this system is going to work on your home mains system is to try it out.

[Silkie]

For the record I went with the Netgear WN1000RP and although I did have a bit of a problem at first it got solved by changing the VM Superhubs channel from 13 to 11. With the extender it greatly boosts the signal coverage which I think is due to the old covered chimney and some the fittings that may still be in place. Money well spent really.