Fibre Broadband

SpartanKiller

Hi all,

I've just switched over to Sky Fibre broadband, they ran the cable up to the house, through the ESB box outside and up into the Attic. So the router is up in the Attic, I tested the speed and it's nearly 500mbps at the router.

But once I come out of the attic onto the first floor and especially downstairs I lose all strength. So I hooked up a TP link Deco (AC 1200 Mesh M4Vi), 1 to router, 1 top stairs, 1 downstairs), but I'm losing the majority or 80% of the wifi speed.

Are there any extenders that will give me more WiFi speed? Only getting between 50 and 100 at the moment.

I know best option is to drill hole in wall and bring it through downstairs.

Thanks

GreyAlien

Each hop on the wifi is going to half your wifi speed, simply due to the fact it is not a full duplex connection (the link takes turns sending and receiving, not doing both simultaneously. Wired connection is full duplex, it can send and receive at the same time. Think walkie-talkie, versus a telephone call.)

So the router in the attic is going to get 100% speed. The next hop to your AP on the top stairs will be 50% less, then the hop from top stairs to downstairs will be 50% less again, making it 25% of the original speed. This isn't factoring in signal loss from distance either, so speed would be less again on top of that.

At least that is my understanding of extending wifi via wireless. Like you said in your post, a wired connection is going to be the better option, or failing that, try and remove one of the wifi APs and see if the signal strength is enough.

RobiePAX

You could consider TP-Link powerline extenders.

As the name suggests they send the internet signal through power lines. So electricity wires become your network cables.

Great workaround if you don't want to drill holes. Something like one below. But there are plenty of variants. I've been using few for years. Result is the same as if you pulled a long cable.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Passthrough-Configuration-TL-WPA8631P-KIT/dp/B08LW5VPPV/ref%3Dmp_s_a_1_4?adgrpid=53226072716&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.5HhkNJGObPWqeSZX9gg8gyoV5ZN4V-XNePp03DjTXR5G2VJsp7zkVINJKoPaOqCSwAodp8pfviSxq1m7x-cleDQHxP1mrEU_nYMA3FCcidObjNdsSIW4whrricyJUrc6nwIjLSjUXStK5hSBvFBDjiHLSuMfA2EzxjgdpVTioHR2TAFaflmAzr5Xs0ixCo84JeuQX3RNp7o6p1mnweJmRw.DuWC1mtRGp06u4t-OgAiX8T0-q6nYdy8Kfosx4HxAQU&dib_tag=se&hvadid=606387466223&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=1007883&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12801515425770211822&hvtargid=kwd-300165026083&hydadcr=11839_2382895&keywords=tp+link+powerline+extender&qid=1719963876&sr=8-4

shmeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122333195#Comment_122333195

"Result is the same as if you've pulled a long cable"

??

Couldn't be any more from the truth. You will never get full speed through Powerline extenders.

The only way to get the same speed at all AP's is wired connections, no other way.

First off, I'd move the router down out of the attic, is there much slank on the fibre cable coming in? Usually they leave a nice bit rolled up from what I've seen over the years.

SpartanKiller

Yes there's a bit of the fibre cable rolled up. I was going to get a few metres of cat5e cable and move the sky router down to the first floor, drill a hole down through the ceiling into the hotness and out near a socket, plug in the sky router there

SpartanKiller

Drill out onto the landing from the hotpress i mean

GreyAlien

Yeah. I'd forget about powerline networking. The results are pretty poor, even worse with the Irish/British type of electrical wiring we use. Even to this day there's some that claim wild speeds, yet still only have a 100mbps network port.

Moving the router does sound like the best option via cat5e, no need to touch the fibre line itself. If any dirt gets into the actual fibre cable, it can cause issues.

shmeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122333953#Comment_122333953

Whatever you are more confident doing, a roll of cat5 is easy from the ONT box. You have great flexibility with the cable so.

shmeee

PS. @SpartanKiller , how did the router end up in the attic in the first place? The installer was just doing it their way and that was it?