1. If you have a house that uses stone or slate (As is common in North Wales and other parts of the UK) then it doesn't matter how big the house is, the wifi won't go through them.

2. Most Wifi uses 2.4 GHZ band. Live in a busy area, with lots of neighbours close by? Their wifi will effect your speeds. Because this network frequency is so busy it effects your speeds and signal. So using a Wifi extender can help even if you live in a small modern house that's in a city.

3. Some people have no choice but to have their router near their TV or in a crowded area, despite not being recommended. It's advised that people put their router in the centre of the house, but many people have it in a corner instead. As a result the signal is poor and a wifi extender helps.

4. Baby monitors, cordless phones and other devices use 2.4GHZ wave. As a result it interferes with your speeds. So a wifi extender would help.

5. Humidity and large amounts of liquid slow down your wifi signal. Live in a humid country? You're going to get slower speeds. A wifi extender would help.

6. Mirrors. Have a lot of mirrors in your house that are big? It's going to reflect the signal away from where you want it to go.

That's 6. There's probably another 10.

I could live in a small house in the middle of a humid city, with a big bathroom mirror and a baby monitor, as a result my connection would be poor.

And this is why I just left it at ok. Pointless bickering back and fourth.

If your house is made out of stone it will not transmit a signal very far, no matter how good it is.

If you have a large fish tank in your house, a router will not transmit a signal very far, no matter how good it is.

A better router won't fix many of the problems I've stated above. Only an extender would, in terms of hardware.

But as I said. Ok.

guess you dont have a problem in your semi but trust me try an old stone house with 3' thick walls these are a godsend!

Obviously never tried to use Wi-Fi in a farmhouse, cottages or granite buildings. The walls kill Wi-Fi signals dead - no matter what router you have. Its simple, the signal can't penetrate the walls. Even repeaters/range extender will not fix the problem.

In addition, although there are 13 channels in Wi-Fi, only 3 are actually unique ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYDLxNatI54 ). All others have overlap, and as mentioned - the frequencies are flooded (especially with Wireless N using 2 channels, consumer items like baby monitors, etc.). This results in slower speeds, unreliable speeds or drops. These do not suffer this problem.

Salfordgirl is right, you clearly don't set up routers on a regular basis.

There is also the security issue if your paranoid, hacking WEP and WPA can be done relatively easily nowadays with the right tool. Having a wired connection makes this harder.

Baffles me why people buy these - providing you don't live in a castle and you have good broadband and a good router' you shouldn't need these in the first place!

I'll bet theirs loads who've bought similar whilst using their crappy ISP router!

Just saying :smiley:

guess you dont have a problem in your semi but trust me try an old stone house with 3' thick walls these are a godsend!

I too have stone house with 70cm thick walls - have bt infinity and homehub 5 at 40mb/s and yet wifi still doesn't get beyond 2 rooms - so yes these certainly are essential for some of us for sure

But ok what? If you think what I've said is nonsense explain.....

1. If you have a house that uses stone or slate (As is common in North Wales and other parts of the UK) then it doesn't matter how big the house is, the wifi won't go through them.

2. Most Wifi uses 2.4 GHZ band. Live in a busy area, with lots of neighbours close by? Their wifi will effect your speeds. Because this network frequency is so busy it effects your speeds and signal. So using a Wifi extender can help even if you live in a small modern house that's in a city.

3. Some people have no choice but to have their router near their TV or in a crowded area, despite not being recommended. It's advised that people put their router in the centre of the house, but many people have it in a corner instead. As a result the signal is poor and a wifi extender helps.

4. Baby monitors, cordless phones and other devices use 2.4GHZ wave. As a result it interferes with your speeds. So a wifi extender would help.

5. Humidity and large amounts of liquid slow down your wifi signal. Live in a humid country? You're going to get slower speeds. A wifi extender would help.

6. Mirrors. Have a lot of mirrors in your house that are big? It's going to reflect the signal away from where you want it to go.

That's 6. There's probably another 10.

I could live in a small house in the middle of a humid city, with a big bathroom mirror and a baby monitor, as a result my connection would be poor.

Which website did u copy & paste that lot from? I'll cut to the chase with this - have a look at your router! All well & good buying wifi extenders such as these however if your router isn't as good as it perhaps should be' such as the ISP routers ( Home hub etc ) then you'll really not gain as much and you've forked out for extenders that are only as good as the router feeding them the signal.

Incidentally I had a BT home hub on BT infinity - the wireless coverage was awful! I bought similar extenders and the wifi improved slightly!
I did hours of research on loads of broadband forums and the answer that continued to come back was - invest in a better router.

I did and now get full wifi throughout the house - the wifi extenders I bought were returned & cost refunded.

Yes these have their place but I would suggest looking at your source of broadband first ( your router ) before rushing out to buy these as I am led to believe a lot of wifi problems begin at the router & not always the house / property.

And this is why I just left it at ok. Pointless bickering back and fourth.

If your house is made out of stone it will not transmit a signal very far, no matter how good it is.

If you have a large fish tank in your house, a router will not transmit a signal very far, no matter how good it is.

A better router won't fix many of the problems I've stated above. Only an extender would, in terms of hardware.

But as I said. Ok.

I'm not bickering - just giving my opinion based on what I experienced & did to resolve my particular problem.

If what you've said is right and based on what happened to me - why did my wifi improve twofold ?

It worked for me based on what I researched - all I'm saying is to those that may be having similar problems as I did - check your router.

Ok :smiley: