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Advice please wifi

SWANECO
Rising Star
Posts: 59
Thanks: 5
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Registered: ‎27-07-2013

Advice please wifi

Hi

My WiFi shows 38meg at the PC, ethernet cable.

All goes well to you go through the kitchen door, drops to a variable speed of between 0.6 and 12meg, measured with OKLA.

Tried all sorts including turning off lights, even ring mains.  No improvement.

I am thinking of something to plug into the router then the mains and set up a sort of Wifi at the kitchen.  They  are on different ring mains though.

Any suggestions please

Thanks

 

6 REPLIES 6
mikelahey
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Registered: ‎24-11-2015

Re: Advice please wifi

The option that is guaranteed to work is to purchase a wireless access point and locate it in the kitchen, You would then run an Ethernet cable from the router to the access point.

The downside of this is that you would have to put up with the ethernet cable running along the skirting boards or find some way of concealing it.

Powerline ethernet adaptors with a built in wireless access point may work, but there is no guarantee that they will work across different circuits. TPLink say that their adaptors will not work across circuits, however I have them working in my house on different ring mains, but there are no guarantees that this setup would work in your house.

paul_blitz
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Registered: ‎20-07-2016

Re: Advice please wifi

I have a pair of TPLink mains ethernet units, to connect upstairs to downstairs. When it works, it's fine, but there are, for whatever reason, regular dropouts.

 

So I am about to replace it with a wire......

Baldrick1
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Re: Advice please wifi

If you want a reliable full bandwidth connection go for a Cat 5e (or Cat 6) cable between your router and a wireless access point. If you want a permanent professional job fit wall sockets with RJ45 sockets and hide the cable. The bits aren't expensive and it is well worth the one off effort in terms of eliminating future dropped/slow connections and all the frustration that involves.

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SWANECO
Rising Star
Posts: 59
Thanks: 5
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎27-07-2013

Re: Advice please wifi

Hi

Many thanks for the advice.

It seems that the consensus is to hardwire the router to an access point.

I am going to see if i can get the extension supplier to agree it will run on different mains, failing that I will wait for technology to advance.  Not long ago 56kbs was rocket science

shermans
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Registered: ‎07-09-2007

Re: Advice please wifi

The problem with a mains-based network adapter or Home Plug or TP Link is that they work well when they work but there are intermittent drop-outs, lasting only a few seconds.  The more complex the house wiring circuitry, the less reliable they are.  I have spent a month experimenting with all of them - BT, TPLink, etc. - and they are all as good or as bad as each other.  I do have complex demands, admittedly, but there is absolutely no doubt that the only reliable method is an ethernet cable from the main router to a slave WiFi router.  You can buy a WiFi router from as little as £10.

 

If your signal is weak, it may be that your router is getting tired and needs replacing.  If you have been a customer of Plusnet for any length of time they will usually give you a free replacement WiFi router for the £5 cost of postage to keep you on side !  In that case you could use the old WiFi router as the slave for your ethernet extension.

The process is quite simple.  On the slave WiFi router, you have to DISABLE DCHP, otherwise it will not work - the active DCHP is on the master router.  You need to change the IP address to a different IP address from your master router, of course.  I use the same SSID for the master and all the slave WiFi routers (I have three slaves as it is a very long thin house with thick walls), and the devices seamlessly transfer from the weakest to the strongest radio signal.  All of these settings are easily changed in the parameters of the router.

I recently asked two BT Openreach engineers separately which they would recommend, ethernet with slave WiFi router or mains network adapters.  Both unequivocally said ethernet and dismissed the network adapters. 

VileReynard
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Advice please wifi

All laptops and many other devices will accept a ethernet wired connection.

So you could use a wired connection with your slave router.

A wired connection will give you a stable, maximum speed connection.

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