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:

You better buy these then Gordon - there for you! Honestly :smiley:

Can anyone recommend a good router that's not too expensive to replace my Plusnet one then?

Agree on both sides here.

A lot of people will buy extenders when part of the issue is the router.
Routers provided by ISPs tend to be neighbour friendly with low gain and small antennas. Thats all well and good if you live in an small modern house but anything else and signal begins to suffer.

A decent router will have external antenna, some directional and usually operate at max level permitted. A router upgrade would solve a lot of peoples issues.

Then you have the people who stay in large or traditional construction houses. It dosent matter what router you buy, the radio signals will not give full coverage. Even if you could increase power output to reach further rooms, the signal would be distorted closer to source.

Personally I would run cat5e from main router and have secondary router set as access point but realise thats not feasible or cost effective for everyone.

Gordon - as a matter of interest why do you keep editing your OP's ? It's like you can't quite make your mind up or something else?

Stick to your guns - theres no right or wrong here fella - just different opinions! :wink:

Na, spelling mistakes. Don't check it before I click the post button.

Mmm' ok if you say so.

I'll leave it with you :laughing:

​I bought an Asus after being sick of the awful coverage using my homehub/plusnet/talk talk isp routers.

the connection is more reliable but the range is not much better at all. I live in newish house with all walls made of paper except 2 load bearing ones. the signal doesn't even make it 7 meters with these walls in the way.

I get a good signal when I'm sat outside on the drive though :smile:

What model did you get?
Im not sure about yours or if its still there but there was an option to increase TX power output in settings. Im using different firmware now so cant check.

Also check what position the external antenna are in as moving around can help.

Ive also found that if your device supports 5ghz it will mostly try to connect to that even if the signal is poor.
5Ghz has a poor range and penetration compared to 2.4Ghz.
If you go into your router settings and if both SSID for 2.4 and 5ghz are the same, change the name of one slightly and your devices will now have the option of connecting to either.

I've had/have Draytek, Linksys, TP link, BT routers but don't get great wireless because I have too many neighbours all with wireless. Sometimes I can pick up over a dozen other routers.
Now I only use wifi for tablets or phones.
I get around 200mbps down 150mbps up with powerline adapters according to the powerline app.

"Baffles me why people buy these"

Baffles me why people think that other people aren't capable of making an informed choice and some of the millions of people who buy things might actually have bought useful goods for themselves.....

and as my children say when arguing..... "just saying".......

Oh and by the way..... Thanks OP ..... Hot

do the 2 satellites also accept a proper Ethernet cable or are only wireless??

Ethernet and wireless

What you actually did was try to suggest that there is no use for these things and you were called on it, expertly.

A post genuinely trying to provide useful, contextual information would not look like yours. You can tell because HUKD is littered with them.

Called on it expertly? :laughing:

Expertly by who exactly?

Clueless reply ' called on it ' - did you bother to read all the comments or did you just jump on the bandwagon as quite a few do at the last minute with nothing to contribute to the actual thread.

The two wifi units each have two RJ45 cable connectors - as per the photos on other sites (eg eBuyer @ £99)

Looks like a really hot deal. (Even if I don't personally need it. As with so much else!)
However it is said to be "instore only" AND the OP forgot to mention which store (s)he had found the deal in ... so I don't think it makes sense to vote until the deal is confirmed somewhere, anywhere, but specified.
So, I am not voting just yet!

thanks op for the post.

i bought the powerline 500 kit yesterday and it worked a treat. I already had a wi-fi extender and now i get good signal through my mansion. :stuck_out_tongue:

Maybe worth mentioning that the BT units are said to be fully Homeplug AV compatible, and so should interoperate happily with other brands of such mains-networking kit.

Has anybody found this £39 offer in any named store location? (or not?)

OP here - I bought from Farnborough Currys PC world last night - they had 2 more on the shelf at the time but looked like a nationwide offer price (but definitely in-store only)

Here comes the grammar spelling nazi: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_14.htm

I've got hold of a BT Homehub3 and now I have a 5, happy with them.

BT Homehubs are usually locked to BT. Not sure they work with Plusnet (which BT now own, but continues as a separate business).
The only exception is the Homehub 4R - the R indicated it was an unlocked retail version.

No, they work just fine, both the 3 and 5. I am on Plusnet, was ADSL now fibre (FTTC).

Thanks - good to know someone has tried with Plusnet.

Found this article - They work with Plusnet (which is ApacheUK provider)and BT.
Unfortunately, other ISPs can only use them as access points.
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/networks/8046/how-to-use-the-bt-home-hub-5-with-another-isp

That's the link, yes.

There seems to be a lot of confusion in this thread about wifi extenders

Just to clarify, these are powerline wifi extenders, meaning that the connection from the router to the powerline adaptor is over the homes electrical wiring not over wifi, as such the wifi speed of the router is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is the electrical wiring, which is unpredictable at best, for most people, and ethernet speed from the router, which is unlikely to be a factor unless you have ultra fast fibre to the home, as opposed to the far more common fibre to the cabinet that most people have with speeds around 38mbps.

Using something like this would be akin to using an ethernet connection to a second router and using the wifi from the second router to boost the signal by creating a second wifi hotspot

The only time when the wifi speed of the router would be a factor would be if you were running a setup with a wifi extender that connected to the router by wifi. these exist and are pretty much only useful if powerline won't work in your home. If you were using one of these then yes, the wifi speed of the router would have a massive impact on performance, but that won't be a factor with a powerline extender.

That said, this is a site for saving money. So quick tip, I work in broadband tech support for an ISP, half my job is dealing with wifi issues. I almost never recommend wifi boosters that use wifi, and only recommend powerline adaptors as a last resort for most people, because I'm a cheapskate and wouldn't like being told I had to spend more money.

The best solution (if ethernet isn't an option of course) is to first try changing the wireless channel on your router. It might not work but I can say that by doing that or moving the router I can solve most wifi problems for customers in under 10 minutes. In fairness though, most of the problems people have are speed related and channels are always the way to go with that, for range issues changing channels can and often does improve range but with thick walls etc it doesn't always work.

These devices are handy, and they certainly have their place, but I wouldn't recommend people pay for them unless they try sorting the issue first, even if it doesn't solve the issue completely it will probably get you a slightly faster broadband speed.

As for the guy suggesting replacing the router, be wary of that advice. Yes it can help, and many ISPs routers are garbage, but bare in mind that some ISPs require you use their routers, you can often find ways around that, and often it's not too difficult, but you do run the risk of ending up with a paperweight if they decide to block it. Also the people above saying that there's a good chance it won't fix the problem are correct. It might, it might not, same as changing the channels or moving the router or using one of these. I'd recommend starting with the free options (changing channels etc) then moving on to a powerline if that didn't solve the problem, as the powerline probably will, if your electrical wiring supports it. If not then either a better router or using a second router as a wireless access point would be the next choice. If neither of these were possible then the wireless range extenders that connect by wifi would be my weapon of last resort.

Could my new Sky router be the problem I'm facing?
I live in a house with poor reception upstairs.
(Not sure if we have thick floors but the wifi seems to be awful in some areas
but ok in others upstairs....can't work out what's causing it.)

Mobile to wifi connection is the worst affected.
Maybe it's device specific?
I should probably test a computer near the same area
to check if it's the device or something in the area causing the problem.:stuck_out_tongue:

Lmao

Wow. What was a cracking deal turned into a full blown debate!

Also worth mentioning half of this isn't so easy at all if you rely on tablets for Internet. I know many who don't bother with a PC or laptop anymore.

Powerline the way to go for me. Great deal. Heat!!

Is this a national deal or store specific?

Assuming your on standard ADSL broadband, you need to watch with Sky. They refuse to give out the broadband login details, so buying a 3rd party (ie Non-Sky) router can lead to problems (as you need these details to set up the new router). There are ways to uncover the settings (google it), but it depends on the age of the router from Sky.

Alternative to swapping router:
You could use something like these powerline adapters that create a wired connection to the problem spot. These units have wi-fi access point built in. These do not communicate with each plug or the router using wi-fi, but the electrical wiring in your house. The wi-fi on these is for communication between your wireless device and the powerline adapter only. The powerline adapter then communicates this connection to the router through the electrical wiring.

or a Range extender (aka repeater).
A repeater is situated somewhere between your router and the problem area. It acts like a relay between your devices in the problem area and the router. This is purely communicating using Wi-Fi. These help were the signal is weak. They do not help where the walls simply don't let the signal through (as the repeaters signal still won't get through) - this is were you would definitely used powerline adapters.
Example:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WA854RE-Universal-Extender-Configuration/dp/B00KVIXCCO/?tag=hotukdeals03-21

Does anyone know if you can turn the wifi off on these? And just use them for the 2 Ethernet out ports?

yes, anyway they are at £24 in sainsburys and £18 for the single receiver and satellite

Which Sainsbury store?
Online (& in Folkestone stores) the only BT-branded products offered by Sainsburys are landline phones.

And in the BT Shop online Flash Sale, you can, right now, get the powerline + 1 wifi set for £50.
http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-mini-wi-fi-home-hotspot-500-kit-079029-9N14.html


If you know where Sainsburys are selling the same product for just £18 (about 65% less than BT's Flash Sale price), why keep it to yourself?

EDIT - typo fixed!

Great deal! i bought these exact ones from amazon 2 weeks ago for £49.99, the single was reduced to £33.99.

2 mile wifi?:confused:

anyone had any problems with the wifi signal from the extenders ? bought these off amazon a little while back, and worked fine and was getting 20-30 mbps but now dont get more than 0.25-0.5 mbps - have tried rebooting and reinstalling but still the same. normal wifi comes through at 100mbps if closer to the virgin hub. thanks.

As a matter of interest why do you keep editing your posts? :wink:

As a matter of interest why are u even bothered on a post that's 4 months old ?


Bell end