need stronger UPC horizon wifi signal

Slaacer

Hi, was browsing a number of post on boosting wifi signal from a horizon box but didn't find a clear answer that would suit me.

Have the horizon box on 120mbps when connected to the modem with an ethernet cable, but the box being in our bedroom not convenient.

Have consistent 35-45mbps download from pretty much anywhere in the house. to be honest not super fast but ok for my need.

Have to move to my shed in the back garden (brick shed) so I can concentrate on my work away from the disruptions in the house. I get a signal but just - speed test gives me 3-4 mb best 8mbps with latency of 9ms. this is using a TP-ling range extender plugged in wall (only 2 bars out of 5 for signal reception at the range extender). obviously I get all the 5 bars on my laptop as I suspect this is what I get from the TP extender.

I can work ok but it seem to weak to do a skype or webex call - keeps on dropping.

My horizon box is in our upstairs bedroom at the rear of the house near the windows and the shed is 10m from the house with nothing to distort the signal in between. run a wifi signal check from my phone in the shed (my wifi signal showed up -42dbm) not too sure what it means but it is the strongest signal with only much weaker signal around so don't think there is much to interfere with my signal.

Any idea on what I can use ? (a signal booster?) or another range extender one in the house too ?

your help/advice will be greatly appreciated
G

ED E

Repeaters like that arent great, and they slow things down.

Is the shed fed from the same mains "fusebox"? If so Powerline Adapters AKA homeplugs are what you want. One goes beside the modem, the other in the shed, and it sends the signal over the mains sockets already in your walls. Plug and play. You can have the 2nd one broadcast wifi from that point.

If its got its own fusebox these wont work, then you'd probably be best to fit a wireless access point to a window sill facing the shed and wire that back to the UPC modem.

bk

First would it be possible to run an ethernet cable from the house to the shed, that would give you the best and most reliable performance.

Another option might be ethernet over power adaptors if the electricity in the shed is on the same circuit as in the house.

While there are never any guarantees with wifi, I've had a lot of success buying a new, high quality, wifi router and using it with UPC. I'm getting 70mb/s all over the apartment.

Try using the less noisy 5GHz frequency. The model I bought was the TP Link Archer C7

You can also use two of these routers as a pair (one in the house, the other in the shed), using the new, high bandwidth 802.11ac to get higher performance. The latest 1900AC models are the best for this, but two of them would set you back close to €400!

You can also look into using directional antennas on a upgradeable wifi router to improve performance to the shed. Note the antennas on the Archer C7 can be easily replaced by larger, higher power ones that can help with range.

Slaacer

Thank you ED and BK for your quick response :-)

I have the shed wired to our main fuse board in the house but it has its own fuse obviously so would the plug in one work you reckon ?

I had dismissed the ethernet cable as I thought there was a length limitation to ensure quality of the signal and here from the room to the shed it would be c15m to come down the back wall through the garden and in the shed. if that's an option I would probably need to get such a cable made up - what kind of business would do them ?

option 3 if I was to get the archer c7 do i just plug in an ethernet cable at the back of the horizon box or do I need to call UPC to disable the wifi from their horizon box ?

Before the horizon I had a good old modem (no wifi) connected to a linksys power router to generate the wifi signal and never had any issues to get the signal from the front to the house in the car while watching the kids or in the shed at the back. ok it was slower but more stable !

thank you for your responses :-)
G

Slaacer

would these be what you're talking about ED ? here

bk

Slaacer wrote: »

Thank you ED and BK for your quick response :-)

I have the shed wired to our main fuse board in the house but it has its own fuse obviously so would the plug in one work you reckon ?

It should work so, but a good idea to buy them for somewhere with an easy returns policy. Yes the one you linked to above of them.

Slaacer wrote: »

I had dismissed the ethernet cable as I thought there was a length limitation to ensure quality of the signal and here from the room to the shed it would be c15m to come down the back wall through the garden and in the shed. if that's an option I would probably need to get such a cable made up - what kind of business would do them ?

The length limit for ethernet is 100 meters or more, so it shouldn't be a problem for you.

You don't need to go to a specialist company, you can get premade cables on amazon. The following ones are specifically designed for outdoor use (waterproof, etc.):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OUTDOOR-EXTERNAL-cat5e-Network-Ethernet/dp/B009U81SQI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1400595378&sr=8-2&keywords=outdoor+ethernet+cable
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OUTDOOR-EXTERNAL-cat5e-Network-Ethernet/dp/B009U81EFI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400595378&sr=8-1&keywords=outdoor+ethernet+cable

If you plan on burying them, then best to put them in some ducting, can be picked up cheaply in and gardening store and you should also leave a string in the ducting, so that if need be you can easily pull a new cable through in future.

Slaacer wrote: »

option 3 if I was to get the archer c7 do i just plug in an ethernet cable at the back of the horizon box or do I need to call UPC to disable the wifi from their horizon box ?

I don't have the horizon box, but yes, it should just be a case of plugging the router into the back of the horizon box. You shouldn't need to call UPC to do anything.

Slaacer

OK went to PCworld tonight to get the archer c7 - they didn't have it in stock so the guy I was talking to there recommended a netgear wifi range extender ref WN2000RPT - told him I would be willing to try if he was ready to take it back if it didn't do what I was looking for and accepted.

went home just set it up and he seemed to know his product, as although I had to start the install 3 times as I could see the netgear network SSID but when connecting to it it wouldn't launch the browser automatically - even when trying manually to go in the setup section it wouldn't connect... But on the third time (third time lucky I guess!) it worked and the setup browser opened and I could finish the install quickly.

I positioned the extender by the window of our bedroom (where the Horizon box is) so that the signal would be the most direct to the shed as possible and walked to the shed to try the connection.

Still got 2 bar and c8mbps download on the horizon wifi network but when I switched to the new "boosted up" netgear wifi network now setup I got 4/5 bars of reception and 20mbps download, 9mbps upload and 15ms latency.

This is more then double what I had previously in the shed - happy :-) now I need to see the difference it makes on skype or webex conf calls. But already this netgear extender is giving me more bandwidth than before with the TP-link equivalent.

My back up plan should this not be sufficient is to go with the 20m ethernet cable as you recommended. Actually found a supplier in Dublin in the cablemonkey off Kylemore road.

Hope this will help other people in a similar situation - thank you BK and EDE

bk

To be honest, I'd return the wifi extender and buy the Archer c7 from Amazon instead.

That wifi extender is actually rather limited. You will likely get far better performance in both your shed and throughout your entire house with the c7.

That wifi extender only extends the 2.4Ghz frequency, it doesn't work for 5GHz, nor will you be future proofed for 802.11ac as you would be with the c7.

While a little more expensive, the c7 would be far more powerful and versatile, I'd expect to get speeds of about 70 to 80mb/s in the shed with the c7. Also I'd order the c7 off amazon.co.uk

As for buying ethernet cable locally, be careful that it isn't just standard ethernet cable. You should get shielded ethernet cable designed for outdoor use. Again the links I posted on amazon.co.uk might be a better bet.

Bog Standard User

best option is to disable wifi & dhcp on horizon box and buy a decent wireless n 300mb router and use that for your networking needs instead and just used the horizon box as a tv stb/modem only

Slaacer

I have no issues so far but I think I'll invest in the archer c7 in time alright if you say it is that good.

Would I be able to connect the Archer C7 directly on the horizon box then. i presume the connection btw the c7 and the horizon is by a ethernet cable through one of the port on that back of the box ?

bk

Slaacer wrote: »

I have no issues so far but I think I'll invest in the archer c7 in time alright if you say it is that good.

That is great, if it works, it works. I was just pointing out, that for only €20 more the Archer would be a more comprehensive solution. But if you are happy that is fine.

Would I be able to connect the Archer C7 directly on the horizon box then. i presume the connection btw the c7 and the horizon is by a ethernet cable through one of the port on that back of the box ?

I don't have a Horizon box (just UPC broadband router, no TV service) but yes, it should be a case of just a case of using an ethernat cable to connect the Archer into the network ports in the back of the Horizon box.

There maybe some setting changes you need to make on the Horizon and Archer boxes (DHCP, disable wifi, etc.), others here on boards can probably help with those and it should be pretty straight forward.

sticker

My parents are really suffering with the poor wifi from the New Horizon box. I see a lot of products listed above, Can anyone tell me of a simple device to extend the wifi to other areas of the house?

Would a plug to plug connector with an ethernet cable to a new wireless modem do the trick or is there something simpler out there?

Thanks.,

bk

sticker wrote: »

My parents are really suffering with the poor wifi from the New Horizon box. I see a lot of products listed above, Can anyone tell me of a simple device to extend the wifi to other areas of the house?

Would a plug to plug connector with an ethernet cable to a new wireless modem do the trick or is there something simpler out there?

Thanks.,

Well you could just buy a high quality wifi router like the Archer C7 or C8 and directly connect them to the UPC modem, without bothering with the powerline plugs.

That would be a simpler and cheaper solution. The C7 or C8's have vastly better wifi performance then the UPC modem, so they may well be able to reach the parts of your parents house that the UPC modems wifi can't reach.

If it turns out they still aren't good enough (which I doubt), then yes you could also buy powerline adaptors and move the C7 or C8 to the other end of the house. So that the UPC modem wifi covers one end of the house and the c7/c8 the other end.

However I'd try the c7/c8 on their own first, as I expect they will be good enough for yours and most peoples needs.

sticker

bk wrote: »

Well you could just buy a high quality wifi router like the Archer C7 or C8 and directly connect them to the UPC modem, without bothering with the powerline plugs.

That would be a simpler and cheaper solution. The C7 or C8's have vastly better wifi performance then the UPC modem, so they may well be able to reach the parts of your parents house that the UPC modems wifi can't reach.

If it turns out they still aren't good enough (which I doubt), then yes you could also buy powerline adaptors and move the C7 or C8 to the other end of the house. So that the UPC modem wifi covers one end of the house and the c7/c8 the other end.

However I'd try the c7/c8 on their own first, as I expect they will be good enough for yours and most peoples needs.

What about this - instead of boosting from the same area, relocate the fix to the area of the house that is effected by poor signal?

http://www.pcworld.ie/product/netgear-wn1000rp-universal-wifi-range-extender-white/312265/402.0.3

bk

sticker wrote: »

What about this - instead of boosting from the same area, relocate the fix to the area of the house that is effected by poor signal?

http://www.pcworld.ie/product/netgear-wn1000rp-universal-wifi-range-extender-white/312265/402.0.3

You can try that, but generally speaking range extenders are a poor solution compared to having a good strong wifi signal in the first place.

Most people (myself included) have reported fantastic improvements in wifi performance from moving to a C7/C8.

sticker

bk wrote: »

You can try that, but generally speaking range extenders are a poor solution compared to having a good strong wifi signal in the first place.

Most people (myself included) have reported fantastic improvements in wifi performance from moving to a C7/C8.

Bought it and it seems to be doing the trick nicely - Strong wifi in areas that were very poor previously.