WiFi extender needed

rodderss

I livI live in a bungalow.All the walls are made out of block.Some rooms find it very hard to receive internet signal.The Wi-Fi is in the kitchen.What's the best extender available

Deagol

Probably best way to extend Wifi is to use powerline wifi adapters. Simple to setup and easy to move about to find best coverage.

Something like these:

Powerline Adapter

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123975296#Comment_123975296

+1 on that recommendation.

rodderss

Do they work if plugged into an extension lead or adaptor

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123976313#Comment_123976313

Yes.

dam099

Powerline can be very hit and miss speed wise and devices may not roam well from point to point with those kinds of extenders.

They are the easiest to set up so if you can buy from somewhere with an easy return policy worth a try.

Alternatively as you are in an bungalow if you have easy access to the attic you may be able to run Ethernet up to the attic from your router and then back down to any rooms that are blackspots. Then use a mesh system but connected with Ethernet rather than wirelessly meshed or ceiling mounted access points like the UniFi ones.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123977593#Comment_123977593

4 Powerlines with builtin wifi ~100 quid. Can be ordered from Amazon and be here by Wednesday. Can be set up by a complete technophobe(no offence @rodderss ). Your idea, involves access to the attic, drilling holes in ceilings, probably crimping their own ethernet cables, will be an eyesore unless they install ethernet faceplates. Or, hire an electrician to do the work which will cost a few hundred if they can find a sparks to do it for them.

Deagol

That was why I plumped for powerline adapters. From the OP's question I surmised he wanted a quick and simple DIY solution that a novice could use.

Banzai600

We have been using Deco for a few years, one up and one down, even though the signal is strong - app is intuitive enough, would recommend. not the cheapest but solid

dam099

The OP was told the best way to extend WiFi is to use powerline wifi adapters.

This may be the best solution for the OP in terms of balancing ease of installation, cost and performance but the performance element of that trade off will likely not be the best available.

Generally for WiFi, I would see performance as being in order of poorest to best as:

1. WiFi Extenders using WiFi backhaul
2. WiFi Extenders using powerline backhaul
3. WiFi Mesh system using WiFi backhaul (dual band)
4. WiFi Mesh system using WiFi backhaul (triple band)
5. (WiFi) Mesh system using ethernet backhaul or Wired Access Points using ethernet backhaul

I did suggest the OP try the suggested WiFi powerline solution from somewhere with a good return policy and see how it goes, but if its not performant I offered an alternative.

By way of example in my parents house which sounds similar to OP's i.e. bungalow with block walls I installed a 3 unit Deco S4 system (currently runs €117 on Amazon) in access point mode with the first unit beside their ISP router (with the ISP router WiFi off). This is at one end of the house.

I then ran one wire to the attic from it (which fortunately was able to be done inside a cabinet so out of sight) to the second unit which was placed on the attic floor towards the middle of the house, and then wired on from it to the third unit, again on the attic floor but at the other end of the house.

This gives good coverage in every room (previously the far end of the house was a complete dead zone) with speeds of 200-400Mbps depending on the room and roaming is seamless. Powerline to powerline would be doing well to get 200Mbps depending on your wiring and chances are devices will hang on to the current extender for dear life.

So for €117 plus €20 of ethernet cables a much more solid solution (at least in my view).

*Given the block walls I didn't suggest a Mesh system with WiFi backhaul as it may struggle but that is as easy to install as powerline. Also I would potentially flip the order of items 2-4 above where walls are very thick.

Quay_Koncept

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123979963#Comment_123979963

Hi Dam, very interesting just wondering I googled for instance the Deco AX3000 Whole Home Mesh Wifi 6 System, apparently it can handle over 150 connections, am i right in assuming these are not concurrent connections, ie, what would be the max amount of clients (devices) one of these could handle concurrently.

o1s1n

I also live in a bungalow, really old with solid walls, very long and narrow, with my router at the front of the house.

Was going to go to extremes running LAN cables through the attic but thought I'd just try a standard wifi signal booster and it's actually worked surprisingly well. Have it plugged in a hallway in the middle of the house that has only one wall between it and the router. Full bars of signal now in the back of the house.

One of these jobbies, a TP Link Extender

TP Link Wifi Extender

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123980020#Comment_123980020

I am not familiar with that device and the Deco device in my parents house would get nowhere near those numbers. When all the family are visiting with their kids it might get to 25-30 devices. Some of these might be idle but there could be 7-8 kids all streaming or gaming on mobile devices and no-one complains anymore about poor WiFi.

What is your use case that having a large number of concurrent devices concerns you? If its a lot of IOT devices you might be OK as most tend to only transmit low volumes of data.