Wifi Extender

WifiExtender

Hello,

Looking for some help and advice for getting my wifi now that I am working from home. My home has Eir Fibrepower to the door! However at the back of my house where there is an extension the connection is so patchy, zoom calls break up on me, etc. I was wondering what I can buy to improve the stability and quality. Moving the router or moving closer are not options.

babelfish1990

WifiExtender wrote: »

Hello,

Looking for some help and advice for getting my wifi now that I am working from home. My home has Eir Fibrepower to the door! However at the back of my house where there is an extension the connection is so patchy, zoom calls break up on me, etc. I was wondering what I can buy to improve the stability and quality. Moving the router or moving closer are not options.

Leave the Eir router where it is, and add a Mesh WiFi system to ensure seamless WiFi coverage throughout the house. You can add as many nodes as required - 3 nodes generally cover most houses. If you have Cat5/6 wiring you can connect the nodes via this - otherwise you will need to use WiFi to hop between the nodes. Switch off the WiFi in your Eir Router, and use the Mesh system to give you a single SSID throughout the house. Connect the first node to your router, and then position the second node inside the main house, but with no walls between it and the first node. Preferably shoot the WiFi through a hallway, or door or up a stairwell. When you have fibre-to-the-home, it is worth investing in good connectivity within your home, to match it. TV Boxes need to use 5GHz WiFi, which means you should aim to have a node in each room where there is a TV Box.

Don't be tempted to try to use home-plug extenders - they are very unreliable - particularly if your extension is on a different power ring to your main house, as is often the case.

Bravobabe

Hi All,

Recently moved to Eir Fiber Optic (from Eir Fiber to box)
Original setup was TP Link plugs with wifi boosters which gave reasonable* workable wifi throughout the house and into the back garden (*between 20-50mbps).

New router gives me wifi speeds of 500+ in the room, but a lot lower around the house (between 20 - 200 depending on room and not out into the garden).
There is no WPS button on the new router - so can't use the push button method to set that up that way.

The house is 25+ years so no Ethernet cabling (although I might be willing to get this done - if you have any recommendations).

Any suggestions to improve the coverage?
- Try the TP plugs (via software)
- TP mesh system or similar
- other?

Thanks

Happy_Harry

Bravobabe wrote: »

Hi All,

Recently moved to Eir Fiber Optic (from Eir Fiber to box)
Original setup was TP Link plugs with wifi boosters which gave reasonable* workable wifi throughout the house and into the back garden (*between 20-50mbps).

New router gives me wifi speeds of 500+ in the room, but a lot lower around the house (between 20 - 200 depending on room and not out into the garden).
There is no WPS button on the new router - so can't use the push button method to set that up that way.

The house is 25+ years so no Ethernet cabling (although I might be willing to get this done - if you have any recommendations).

Any suggestions to improve the coverage?
- Try the TP plugs (via software)
- TP mesh system or similar
- other?

Thanks

Not sure how big your house is, but maybe just a new router will do the trick?

I have a 3000 sqft house (dormer with concrete walls inside) and found out that a router I bought last year actually covers the whole house bar half a bed room - 2.4Ghz band that is. 5 Ghz obviously has less cover.
I get about 40-50 Mbps on that WAN point and I don't see it drop below 20 anywhere on 2.4Ghz band- mostly I get as much speed on 2.4Ghz as on 5 Ghz.

Funnily I noticed it also seems to cover both front and back garden- I didn't speed check just use the wifi analyser app to look at signal strength in different areas of the house. And when I say cover I mean -67Dbm or better.

That is a TP- link AX50, roughly 100 quid now - you can always order one on Amazon and if it doesn't meet your needs, send it back

babelfish1990

Bravobabe wrote: »

Hi All,

Recently moved to Eir Fiber Optic (from Eir Fiber to box)
Original setup was TP Link plugs with wifi boosters which gave reasonable* workable wifi throughout the house and into the back garden (*between 20-50mbps).

Any suggestions to improve the coverage?
- Try the TP plugs (via software)
- TP mesh system or similar
- other?

Thanks

I wouldn't recommend home plugs. Their performance can be temperamental. The best solution is wired Ethernet in as many rooms as possible, with wireless access points at several locations to provide seamless coverage. Ubiquiti Unifi is a good solution, and can be powered POE so you don't need mains power at each access point. Just add an Ethernet switch at your hub, and connect to your Eir router.

Next best solution is a Mesh (eg TP Link Decos). Add as many access points as you require, and they can connect wirelessly for the time being. Connect the first Access Point to your Eir router, and configure in Access Point mode. Add more access points to provide full coverage. 3 will do most homes. If you get a chance to wire them in the future, you will improve performance. Choose a model with spare Ethernet points, so you can drop local wired connections for TVs etc.

Either way, switch off WiFi in your Eir router and let your new access points create one seamless SSID for the whole home. Do not add any additional routers as this will cause problems.

dubrov

As above, the best solution would be to run an Ethernet cable from your router to the other side of the house and connect it to a POE worries access point (ideally installed in the ceiling). The original router will cover one side of the house and the new wireless access point the other.

Failing that mesh systems seem to work well.

Homeplugs are cheap but can be flaky depending on your electrical wiring.