Any wifi techies out there?

Just had SkyQ multi screen fitted today. It's very cool as an upgrade. However, our broadband isn't the best as we live in the countryside....around 3.0Mbps.

We have the main 2TB box in our living room, separated by a wall and door from our hallway, where the main BT router is (approx 10 feet). Through the hallway, into the open plan living/dining room, we have another Q box receiver, approx 25 feet in distance, but again, walls and door in the way from the main router in the hallway.

In the extra room is an XBOX that my younger lad seem to want to constantly play, in the evenings, after an hour of study....

It worked perfectly well when ther Sky engineer was here earlier...but it's a little slow now he's on the Xbox....therefore, I was wondering whether I can get a booster or wifi system to boost the main signal in all the rooms.

We're not on BT Infinity as we have no cable in our area...yet.

Any advice on the best boosting devices to buy?

if they are all in the same ring main (i'e not in the kitchen or garage, or separate upstairs and downstairs), get homeplugs (powerline adaptors). essentially sends ethernet through the leccy lines.

if they are outside that, there's a whole host of wifi extenders you an get between 10-15 quid a pop. 
I have a range extender with the option of ethernet cable on it, so it can act as a wireless (wired) connection for some devices.

if you can do homeplug, it is better than the wireless ones...

Cheers Moon. Reading up, I think HomePlug may be the best option, unless anyone recommends anything better?

I'm assuming, all I do is buy a main HomePlug that connects into a plug where my router is in the hallway...then buy other remote plugs that I put into normal sockets throughout the house, without any other connection, and the main plug connects them? Have I got that right?

depends on the kit, usually goes from router into the homeplug in the wall socket...
then out of another socket into the device.  the kits usually have 2 plug things and 2 cables to connect.

check they are compatible with your broadband, and some don't like extension leads, so need to be in the wall etc..

Now you've confused me....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-Configuration-UK-TL-PA4010KIT-V1-20/dp/B01BECPIMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507071913&sr=8-1&keywords=homeplug

and have a look at the details...

Homeplug is definitely one of the better options if you're on a budget. If you get the right kit, you can get one that has it's own wifi as well, which is what I use to get my lad on his PS4 connected as he's on the wrong side of an extension through a very thick wall.  You might have issues if you have old wiring, or an outdated fuse box or other such nonsense, but in general it holds up pretty well.  Just don't get Netgear ones: that's what I did and they can be a bit flaky. I believe the Devolo ones are the best ones, and TP-Link tend to review well and aren't too pricey.  Also, if you can get pass-through ones, you don't have to sacrifice a power socket either.

If you want to spend more, you could go for a Wifi Mesh system, like BT Whole Home Wifi, which is three boxes that you plonk around the house and they are supposed to be the best alternative, but at £200 quid for that one (and that's the cheapest option right now), it's not exactly cheap.

Cheers Leo.

We're on BT so was looking at possibly getting the BT Whole Home WiFi...£200 is a bit pricey, but if it boosts it significantly in each room, happy to pay it.

The Whole Home Wifi doesn't require you to be with BT, but you might want to look into whether there's a deal they have where you can get it cheaper. It can't hurt to try!

One thing you will need to know is that it should replace your existing wifi, so you would want to turn off the wifi on your router.  Not hard to do, but you still need to keep the router.  There's more expensive ones, like the Google one (and another one, but I can't remember the name of it) which can replace your router as well, but those are nudging £350 and you only get two boxes, not three.  It depends on whether you're willing to spend extra to ditch your existing router, which I'm not because I already dropped £100 on the one I've got.

I'm seriously considering the BT solution, but it'll be a while before I can actually afford it, sadly.

And ignore all the cheap Homeplug options

https://www.devolo.co.uk/

Are the best.  I tried Tp-Links and Netgears and while they worked, speed was poor and tp-link especially gave up after about 9 months, but I get 70mb down my dlan 500s from Devolo now (a few years old too  but on 24/7 for about 3 years now)

Thanks Scott. Might look into these as a better alternative. I'm guessing I can connect it through the main plug by my router via a LAN, then just plug n play basically, in any room that needs boosting?

Is there any issues with the house wiring that you've come across?

We live in a barn conversion and next door, was an open plan living/mezzanine bedroom, that the original owner's son was living in. Since 2014, we've got next door as well and knocked through, using his old place as our living room and me n the wife's upstairs mezzanine bedroom. 

The electricity was originally on 2 separate boxes, for bill purposes. However, I'm sure the electricity is now just down to our main box. Would wiring come into this with these products...as I want to buy one for each room in the house.....5 bedrooms, 3 living rooms and a separate study area...so don't want to be splashing cash on something that may not work.

You'd need the electrical wiring to be terminated at the same fuse box, ideally. Beyond that, you're going to struggle.  Also, the more of these homeplugs you use, the slower they all get - it's like the old Ethernet hub principle, in a way, in that the more there are, the more they get in each other's way.  You might be better off getting wireless ones and distributing them more sparsely, so you get a bigger blanket of wifi coverage.  As BB said, Devolo is probably going to be your best bet; I've got four Netgear ones and they are a bit too temperamental.

That said, if you want so many connections, it might be worth going down the route of running Ethernet cables instead and using a switch to distribute the signals. Sounds to me like such a big place, you're going to find any home based solution will be unsatisfactory at some level.

Yeah, that's what the Sky guy said who fitted the Q boxes the other day.

He mentioned about the main boxes....problem is, we have a main box in our bedroom, that controls what was in the original extension, then another box in our utility room that controls everything that was originally in our house....so 2 separate boxes.

As for running Ethernet cables....not something I want to get into, as it'll be a nightmare trying to cover both down and upstairs with cables.

Thing is, I have 3 or 4 options....so may have to be a little realistic and choose 2 or 3 areas to cover and hope that will improve it overall.

I always have to take the cheapest option given funds available..
in my house though, the router moves with the computer.. so I'm always wired in  )

Moonchester wrote:I always have to take the cheapest option given funds available..
in my house though, the router moves with the computer.. so I'm always wired in  )

Hey, I'd take that option Moon....but I've got a 20 year old doing Uni work and a nearly 18 year old doing A'Levels...plus then there's the missus who has her Ipad doing work when she actually gets home 'from work' 

I'm quite happy, as my computer and laptop are about 1 foot from the main router....but now we have SkyQ being wireless in 2 rooms as well....I'm sort of stuck for bandwidth and wifi coverage, and we live in the countryside without cable....so the original signal isn't starting from the best possible place.

blueboy wrote:As for running Ethernet cables....not something I want to get into, as it'll be a nightmare trying to cover both down and upstairs with cables.

I can understand that, it's not the easiest thing to do and you have to work very hard to hide cables (the old wife approval factor).  But if you're on two separate fuse boxes, you might be left with no choice.  It might be worth identifying where the key areas are in the house that need access and just run cables to those.

Judging from what you've said, maybe one of the mesh wifi options (like the BT one I mentioned before) might be the best option if running network cables isn't an option you want to consider.

blueboy wrote:
The electricity was originally on 2 separate boxes, for bill purposes. However, I'm sure the electricity is now just down to our main box. Would wiring come into this with these products...as I want to buy one for each room in the house.....5 bedrooms, 3 living rooms and a separate study area...so don't want to be splashing cash on something that may not work.

You will know quite quickly if they were on separate circuits because the homeplugs will not talk.  It's the problem we find trying to use them as a quick an easy fix with work, several circuits around the building so they don't talk.

I have a cheap pair sat in my car from work, happy to send you those to test if you want?

That'd be great Scott. I could try them out and see whether they work.

I'll PM you my address and send them back once done.