Anyone got any recommendations for a decent range AC router please? I bought this one recently - NETGEAR R6220-100UKS AC1200 1200 Mbps (802.11ac), but sent it back as although it promised to extend my wireless range it didn't perform even half as well as the Buffalo Airstation WHR-G300N V2 that I'm hoping doesn't die on me! Sorry to hijack, this sounds a good deal. Heat.

(Assuming the range is OK of course!):smile:

The AP which I've connected via a 15m Ethernet cable to my router had exact instructions which said to set its address to 192.168.100.1 or similar. The 100 means (I think) that it's on a different subnet from devices connected to the 192.168.1.1 based main router.

Glad to hear it. Some devices are good at roaming, some are not. Oddly enough iPhones have a reputation for being absolutely terrible at roaming between access points (or, depending on how you look at it, very good at holding on) so either that's improved with newer iPhones or your signal upstairs from the downstairs point is really really poor (below the threshold for the phone to jump to the other one).
As you point out automatic roaming is much more likely to work if you use the same SSIDs, otherwise as you also point out the device will try very hard to stay on the "same" network rather than switch to what it sees as a totally different one.

The different subnets suggestion is a very odd one. I'd suggest the opposite to be true or you might lose access to some of your local devices on the network. Did you mean wireless channels rather than subnets? The WAPs don't have to be on different channels but it could be advantageous for range/coverage.

I recently added an extra access point to my loft. Experimented to see if my iPhone phone would 'roam seamlessly'. I ensured that the main router and AP had different wireless channels and found that:
1. If SSIDs are differently named, phone 'locks' to last manually selected access point even when it's weak.
2. If SSID names and passwords are identical, auto roaming to strongest signal seems to work fine. So long as the same band, eg 5gHz, is selected on the phone.

They have to be on different subnets (per the 2nd APs instructions), not yet hit issues with accessing wireless printer or Skype dropping call when APs switch, be interested to hear of any known snags.

Devices probably won't hop between the two. So for example if you have one WAP upstairs and one downstairs your device will tend to stay 'stuck' to the one where you first connected, completely negating the point. Having the other network differently named means you have to manually switch, but at least you *know* you're connected to the best one.
If you're looking to replace the sky (or BT or TalkTalk or whatever) wireless you could either turn the supplied modem/router into modem mode and use this as the router, or you could simply turn the sky (or whoever) wifi signal off but continue to use it as router, and set up the wifi on this (using it as a WAP). You could of course leave the sky wifi transmitting and set up a new wireless network with this, then set some devices (perhaps the local static ones) to use Sky and some (lets say phones/tablets) to use this one. So many exciting options.

Give the new router the same name and access code (& authentication) as the main one and you can enjoy 'semi' seamless networking, where the whole home is covered by the one WiFi instead of multiples.

http://www.hometoys.com/article/2012/04/demystifying-wi-fi-roaming-what-you-need-to-know-to-avoid-costly-mistakes/1812/

This looks like the specs for this router. 100Mbps only on the LAN. This it absolutely fine if you are only using the internet on the hardwired devices as you would be needing fas BB to use it more than it can supply. If transferring within the network, you will probably want gigabit LAN,

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That's the thing my wireless is great on the sr102 I have but it's the software that is limiting not enough port forward and speed of wireless too slow and out dated. I have about 5 sky wireless hubs from collecting sky 2tb boxes for the hard drives so will rip one apart and have a look at the mod anyway as I have other wireless routers with aerials I could use.

Will this work with a sky router it does seem very cheap wonder if it is any good

Sorry what I mean is you can turn the sky router into a modem only mode then plug it into the dlink the problem I have is port forwarding on the sky router you can only set a small amount and also sky router no 5ghz and 150 speed wireless. Think I will need to spend some descent money to get what I want.

Any router can be turned in to a wireless access point. So the Sky router stays as the main router and this router would be setup as a wireless access point.

There are two main types of consumer routers which are cable routers such as the one in this deal and ADSL/VDSL routers for ADSL and/or Fibre.

I thought I could turn the sky router into a modem then this would work although I did try that once before and the router messed about and then reset itself so I gave up. Was looking into getting the sky q router but people are moaning about wireless on that

You will need something like this http://www.ebuyer.com/720796-tp-link-ac750-wireless-dual-band-adsl2-modem-router-archer-d20
They also called adsl routers

It won't work without a modem. You need model router with RJ11 Socket for sky

I've always wondered if gigabit adds unnecessary cost to a device like this.

It has modern speed wifi, if I don't *need* gigabit, I'd rather pay slightly less.

(Unless the 10/100 stated is wrong!)