Home wifi improvement

budhabob

Hi folks,

Firstly I like tech, but I don't necessarily know an awful lot about the key components to make it all tick.

Working from home these days and our WiFi is struggling. Setup at present is a standard virgin wifi router with tplink powerline extender in the kitchen .

We have a good bit of smart tech:3 x nest cameras, nest heating, tplink smart bulbs / plugs.

At present the wifi tends to drop at times and struggles for full coverage (70year old house with mostly solid block walls).
So I'm looking for advice on what is my best solution? New router, mesh, or....? We had the house rewired 4 years ago so this can't be invasive solution or I'd be shot.

Thanks in advance,and sorry for the ramblings.

niallb

What speed is your main internet connection?

Three nest cameras is quite a load as they stream 24/7 to the best of my knowledge. Can you attach them to a different wireless network than the one you're using to work? Basically the more you can get off the wireless network the better. If you're stuck with the equipment you have, you should make sure that all the Smart Home stuff is connecting to the 2.4GHz network on the Virgin router and leave the 5GHz network free for the work devices that need the space to work well. If they don't already have separate names, rename the 5GHz one and forget the original one on your phone and laptop.

Powerline adapters give very varied results - is it just for an ethernet connection, or is there a wifi access point at the end of it?

What kind of work are you doing from home and are you using your local computer for it or using it just to remotely connect in to your original work computer. If you're working remotely and so are all of your colleagues some of the delay could definitely be at the work end!

budhabob

Cheers Niallb.

Correct re the Nest Cameras. Never thought of separating out on the existing set up, could try that.

As for the powerline adapter, its for its wifi and ethernet.

I have no problem purchasing new kit if its (1) easy to set up / use (2) reliable and (3) improves the current situation.

I think we're 100mb with Virgin.

The Nal

Where in the house is the router?

budhabob

The Nal wrote: »

Where in the house is the router?

at the front of the house, next to the connections and TV.

The Nal

budhabob wrote: »

at the front of the house, next to the connections and TV.

Theres 90% of the problem. Best to find a way to have it in the middle of the house if at all possible. Wifi signal is great in your front garden and in the middle of the road if that helps!

If you have 100MBs, you'll lose 50% ish of that on wifi if there are a few walls etc, and with an extender, you'll lose a further 50% ish (usually more) so you're down to 20-25MBs now on wifi before you even use a device.

Do you have ethernet ports anywhere near your laptop?

In an old house, I ran an ethernet cable in along the skirting boards.

nelly17

If you have a second router - connect the Ethernet port of your Virgin Router to the Home plug and set up the second router plugged into a home plug where you want to improve coverage. Disable DCHP on the second router and setup a different wireless network off that router to connect to. (both routers will need the same IP range 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 255.255.255.0 as an example

I have this done with a sky q bok downstairs and an old sky hub broadmand router upstairs

niallb

I've used two of the common mesh kits recently and they're very easy to work with.
If you got one of those and left the cameras on the Virgin Wifi, I could see this helping a lot.

The Google Wifi ones are a bit temperamental to get started with, but it could be because I set them up the week before
they decided to change the app you needed to work with them.

I've helped two people with large awkward shaped houses to set up Nova MW6 systems from Tenda.
They're cheaper than the Google ones and each have an ethernet port you can use as well as wifi
which is helpful with Sky Q .

Two problems you may run into with Tenda is that you can't seem to change the channel on them,
so if you live in an area with busy wifi neighbours you may get stuck.
They operate only on CH6 in 2.4GHz and CH40 in 5GHz.
If your virgin is the only competitor, you'll need to change that to something like 2 or 11.
They also only allow one device to be wired to the internet, whereas the google ones can all be cabled back if available.

Basically if you get a pack of three, you'd put one plugged in at the front of the house beside your modem,
one in the middle of the house maybe upstairs and the third towards the back.
Run a diagonal through the house unless you're aware of some walls being worse than others.

You install an app on your phone and scan a label on the bottom of them to set them up,
but if you buy the multipack they come pre-paired.
The Google Wifi units are managed within the Google Home app.

xckjoo

budhabob wrote: »

Hi folks,

Firstly I like tech, but I don't necessarily know an awful lot about the key components to make it all tick.

Working from home these days and our WiFi is struggling. Setup at present is a standard virgin wifi router with tplink powerline extender in the kitchen .

We have a good bit of smart tech:3 x nest cameras, nest heating, tplink smart bulbs / plugs.

At present the wifi tends to drop at times and struggles for full coverage (70year old house with mostly solid block walls).
So I'm looking for advice on what is my best solution? New router, mesh, or....? We had the house rewired 4 years ago so this can't be invasive solution or I'd be shot.

Thanks in advance,and sorry for the ramblings.

Is it your WiFi that's dropping (network disappearing) or is the network grinding to a halt (speed going to zero)?

budhabob

xckjoo wrote: »

Is it your WiFi that's dropping (network disappearing) or is the network grinding to a halt (speed going to zero)?

Mainly the second, but it can be at random times, not necessarily when there would be a heavy load. We might wake up in the morning and all the nest equipment will have dropped connection.

budhabob

niallb wrote: »

I've used two of the common mesh kits recently and they're very easy to work with.
If you got one of those and left the cameras on the Virgin Wifi, I could see this helping a lot.

The Google Wifi ones are a bit temperamental to get started with, but it could be because I set them up the week before
they decided to change the app you needed to work with them.

I've helped two people with large awkward shaped houses to set up Nova MW6 systems from Tenda.
They're cheaper than the Google ones and each have an ethernet port you can use as well as wifi
which is helpful with Sky Q .

Two problems you may run into with Tenda is that you can't seem to change the channel on them,
so if you live in an area with busy wifi neighbours you may get stuck.
They operate only on CH6 in 2.4GHz and CH40 in 5GHz.
If your virgin is the only competitor, you'll need to change that to something like 2 or 11.
They also only allow one device to be wired to the internet, whereas the google ones can all be cabled back if available.

Basically if you get a pack of three, you'd put one plugged in at the front of the house beside your modem,
one in the middle of the house maybe upstairs and the third towards the back.
Run a diagonal through the house unless you're aware of some walls being worse than others.

You install an app on your phone and scan a label on the bottom of them to set them up,
but if you buy the multipack they come pre-paired.
The Google Wifi units are managed within the Google Home app.

I was wondering about the mesh systems, they certainly read positive, i just didnt know would i be as well off buying a better router aswell.

xckjoo

budhabob wrote: »

Mainly the second, but it can be at random times, not necessarily when there would be a heavy load. We might wake up in the morning and all the nest equipment will have dropped connection.

Is there any logs you can check to see what's going on when the connection drops? Either on the router or Nest stuff. Not sure why they'd be losing connection at night. Not really familiar with Nest stuff either though so won't be able to help too much here.

Do you have these connection issues when you are under heavy loads? I think the first thing you need to determine is where your problem lies. Is the issue with the network not reaching everywhere, or getting too congested or something else. Or else roll the dice and see if throwing a load of things at it will fix it If you pepper the house with a number of mesh routers (preferably wired back to the main router) you should be fine but there's a chance something else will be causing problems. Powerlink adapters could replace ethernet, but there's potential issues with them that might catch you.