UKC

Can anyone with a more technical understanding of wifi tell me if its possible to extend the wifi range in my home? And how do I do it?

My wifi router is in the front ground floor living room. I get strong wifi coverage in all rooms bar the upstairs back bedroom. The wifi signal in here is currently weak/intermittent and I need to increse it to a stable and useable level.

Any ideas how I increase the wifi coverage in that room?
Thanks

In reply to Alan M:
Buy a wifi repeater.

In reply to Alan M: i used one of these, works well

EDIMAX EW-7438RPN 300MBPS WIRELESS N UNIVERSAL WI-FI EXTENDER / ADAPTER

In reply to Alan M:

Can buy plug in wifi booster thingys, that should do it

In reply to Alan M:

Turn off wifi, use an Ethernet cable instead.

In reply to DaveN:


Home Plug? (And doubtless others...)

In reply to Muel:


Usually you can have both, BT hubs etc have 4 Ethernet sockets on the back which can be used to plug into - there's no setting up to do either.. you jut end up with cables running round the house. A lot cheaper and simpler than buying a wifi repeater though.

In reply to Muel:


Unfortunately that isnt an option as the router is in the front room down stairs, the room I need the internet in is upstair to the rear of the house. Plus I doubt the other household members will appreciate a long cable running across the living room up the stairs and across the landing etc.

In reply to all:

Just had a look on amazon wifi repeaters/boosters seem reasonably priced.

Do they work universally with all routers etc or do I need to get a specific device to match my wifi router? Reading the amazon reviews there appears to be many varied views.

Thanks

In reply to Alan M:

Extend the socket somewhere nearer, more central to the house then move the router to that socket? Could do it to try out, telephone ext cables are pennies

In reply to Alan M: BT Homehubs seem to be a bit tricky to get to work with repeaters - I gave up in the end.

In reply to wilkie14c:


I am considering having it all moved to the hall (center of the house). As its the virgin fibre optic stuff would I need to get virgin in to do the relocation?

In reply to Alan M:

I presumed wrongly you were on phone line, dont worry though, I've got virgin too, I moved my socket and took an extension from the box, buryed it in a wall and fitted a tidy socket for our router. Its shielded co-axl <foil wrapped to block magnetic interference> and you can buy sky cable and the like off the reel at B&Q. Screwfix do the screw on ends dead cheap. No harder than extending a telly really.

In reply to Alan M:

I think that if your wife is good in the kitchen but rubbish in the upstairs back bedroom then that's just one of those things you've got to live with I'm afraid.

In reply to JLS:


Nicely done!!

Unfortunately/fortunately in other peoples eyes I'm not married but I am being banished to the back bedroom as apparently its no longer acceptable to use the dining room for work and university/study purposes!!

In reply to wilkie14c:


Doesnt sound overly hard then I've installed a few tv ariels and extended a few over the years. To be honest I'll try a booster first and go with the relocation second due to the hassle of hiding the cable.... I know now I wont be allowed to just pin it to the wall or around the top of the skirting boards etc.

In reply to Alan M:

http://www.7dayshop.com/7dayshop-network-500mbps-mini-homeplug-powerline-et...

Powerline adapters - they use your existing mains circuit to extend your network to anywhere that's near to a mains socket.

I've used them to avoid having cable everywhere and for connecting to non-wifi enabled stuff (like TV and sky box), plus getting network connections in wifi blackspots in the house.

It works perfectly

In reply to Alan M:

Been having poor coverage issues in our house since we installed wifi broadband.

It's an old house with thick walls, so even rooms next door to the hub didn't get great signal.

Your post inspired me to nip into PC world to look at range extenders and they had a netgear option reduced to £29.

Installed it earlier and on the ground floor it seems to have made a great improvement.

In reply to Alan M:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-a-wifi-antenna-out-of-a-pringles-c...

In reply to all:

Thanks for the advice especially in relation to the wifi booster/extenders

long term I will be moving the router to a more central part of the house but short term I went for one of these http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/networking/networking/other-networking-soluti...

I now have a signal which is good enough for general internet browsing/emails etc.

cheers