Best Solution To Increase Wifi Strength

Rowan88

Rowan88

Rowan88

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Glasgow
Hi,

I have a Sky Hub in my living room but upstairs in my bedroom and son's room I don't get a great wifi connection. It does work but when watching streams through chromecast etc it stutters a lot.

I tried buying a TP Link Wifi Extender from Argos but after putting it at the top of my stairs and trying at the bottom it didn't make much of a difference.

Its an old house (1940) and has brick/plaster walls.

What is my best option at having a better connection upstairs:

1) I was going to just run an ethernet cable upstairs but as the chromecast only runs on WIFI (unless I buy the ethernet adapter) it seemed like a last resort.
2) Run an ethernet upstairs and plug in a spare Netgear router I have for WIFI access.
3) Powerlink adapter (either with WIFI or without and buy the chromecast ethernet adapter)
4) Other....

What do you guys recommend?

Thanks
 
3mins and my solution is solved, love this forum! :)

Thanks again... ordered some ethernet cables yesterday, will let you know how it goes.

I'm assuming when its in "access point" it uses the same SSID as the downstairs router and it will only connect to whatever one you get a better signal with? You don't need to keep reconnecting depending on where you are?
 
Yes you'll need to configure the SSID and WPA2 key to be the same. It's up to the client to switch networks to get a better signal.

PS 'access point' mode might not be an option on your router, or might be called something different. With mine (Asus) it allows you to use the WAN port as a extra LAN port instead, which is handy as I have 4 ethernet devices in my TV cabinet
 
How would I go about setting it up, do I just plug the Netgear router from WAN into a spare port into my SkyHUB and set it up from there?

I log onto my Sky Hub and check my WNR2000 as IP 192.168.0.22 but it doesn't load up the Netgear setup page when I type it in :(

Ah... I also just realised, I am with Sky now which is fibre but runs through my phone line and my old router was DSL when I was with Virgin Media, can I still use it?
 
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To do the initial setup you're best plugging a PC directly into a lan port (not WAN) on the netgear and disconnect everything else.

Yes it will work fine.
 
OK I done that, changed the wireless SSID to the same as my Skyhub, made No password (as wireless repeater said it wouldn't work with one).. Went to "Wireless Repeater" on the Netgear setup and set the Broadband MAC from the Skyhub as the main base to connect to.

Now I have disconnected my Netgear from my PC and have it sitting on just the power AC just now.
 
I've hit the reset button on the Netgear, I will try again.

I will check a few youtube videos and forums and see what I can sort out.
 
It came up something when I was trying to enable "Wireless Repeater" about certain passwords you couldn't use, and it basically named all of them.. I will post a screenshot in this post in a few minutes.

UPDATE:

netgear.jpg


I plugged Netgear WNR2000 into my PC via Ethernet (used one of the four lan ports). Went to router setup and into “LAN Setup”. I unticked the box for “Use Router as a DHCP Server”.

I then went into “Wireless Repeating Function” and ticked to enable. I got a pop up saying “Wireless Repeating Function cannot be used with an auto channel. Please change the channel … “.
On the Wireless Setup screen I called my SSID the same as my network but added _EXT just for now. Changed channel to “5” and used security “WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]”.

I went back into “Wireless Repeating Function” and when I tick it I get this error:

“The wireless security options “WPA-PSK[TKIP], WPA2-PSK[AES], WPA-PSK[AES] and WPA/WPA2 Enterprise are not available if you enabled Wireless Repeating Function. Please change your security before you enable Wireless Repeating Function”.

So the only other option I have is WEP or NONE.
 
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Is there an other way I can do it without using the Repeater function then? I don't really want to have one of my routers un-secure and lets others connect to my main one.
 
Unless using enterprise kit, I always find using repeating modes less than satisfactory.

I'd rather run your router as an Access Point connected via ethernet to your router but with its own SSID. The chrome cast need only know the credentials for this new access point and while you might consider it a faff to switch wireless networks on tablets/phones as you move from downstairs to upstairs, at least you can force it to be on the strongest wifi signal rather than relying on the consumer hardware to do its thing properly & automatically switch.
 
Honestly, I've always found the best way to make WiFi better is to not use it. It's fine for casual use but I've never had trouble-free WiFi. My current router has excellent WiFi but it's still not as good as wired Ethernet. With anywhere that isn't a flat you basically need multiple access points (one per floor, for example), all connected via gigabit Ethernet.
 
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