Extending wifi coverage

mavers · 9 Feb 2017 at 19:49

Looking to extend the range of my wifi coverage from my sky fiber router. Range is pretty poor, no access in the loft and very poor towards the back of the house (router is in the living room).

Doing a bit of research, looks like potential solutions are to replace the router, powerline adapters or an access point.

In terms of access points, Ubiquiti looks like it gets good reviews. Is there any difference between lite and LR products, bar the range?

Also, is it best to connect the access point by ethernet to the router, and switch the wifi off, so wifi just propagates through AP?

Open to suggestions, happy to spend upto 100 quid for a solution!

brendy · 9 Feb 2017 at 19:56

I had a similar problem, I used a home plug and moved my bt router to the middle of the house using the house wiring to connect the bt box to the openreach box. Works well I have to say and minimal extra cost.

Brumboy · 9 Feb 2017 at 20:04

NETGEAR Mini N300 is a good one. Use it currently and have no problems whatsoever, full signal everywhere. Just put it roughly half way between the the end point and the router.

DIABLO · 9 Feb 2017 at 20:14

Rossuk89;30488133 said:
NETGEAR Mini N300 is a good one. Use it currently and have no problems whatsoever, full signal everywhere. Just put it roughly half way between the the end point and the router.

No range extender is ever good, it halfs your bandwidth along with power line adaptors they should only be considered as a last resort.

mavers;30488083 said:
Looking to extend the range of my wifi coverage from my sky fiber router. Range is pretty poor, no access in the loft and very poor towards the back of the house (router is in the living room).

Doing a bit of research, looks like potential solutions are to replace the router, powerline adapters or an access point.

In terms of access points, Ubiquiti looks like it gets good reviews. Is there any difference between lite and LR products, bar the range?

Also, is it best to connect the access point by ethernet to the router, and switch the wifi off, so wifi just propagates through AP?

Open to suggestions, happy to spend upto 100 quid for a solution!

Are you planning on putting the AP in a different part of the house to the Router? The other difference between the Lite and LR is a 150Mb more potential bandwidth on the 2.4Ghz.

mavers · 9 Feb 2017 at 21:22

Thanks for the quick replies.

DIABLO;30488182 said:
Are you planning on putting the AP in a different part of the house to the Router? The other difference between the Lite and LR is a 150Mb more potential bandwidth on the 2.4Ghz.

Most likely in the same place. Where the router is located gives good signal in the front room and the bedroom above it, bar that it really is poor in the other rooms. Solid brick walls being the majoright obstacle!

Price wise there is only 15 quid difference at the rainforest

DIABLO · 9 Feb 2017 at 22:01

In that case it will probably make a difference but it won't be world changing because the AP is limited to the same max transmitting power as every other AP. WiFi is a 2 way street, so the AP could be sending out a strong signal to devices but is unable to hear the reply as the transmit power of the clients are too weak.

joeyjojo · 10 Feb 2017 at 10:12

^ In other words, you want a second access point located far away from the current one to cover the dead spots, connected by cable.

Also if you have a lot of brick walls you might want to forget 5 GHz - it's much less penetrating than 2.4.

bemaniac · 10 Feb 2017 at 13:47

A set of wireless homeplugs like Devolo DLAN500 series will be good for your situation. Having tried many brands these seem to be the least likely to go wrong at some point or require technical support.

mavers · 11 Feb 2017 at 14:01

Didn't think of wifi being a 2 way street. Just assumed the router was rubbish. Parents have virgin media and their router is definitely better, and has the same amount of brickwork to contend with!

Checked the channels and there isn't other networks interfering. Might potentially look to set up the AP in another room. Imagine it will be a case of isolating the dead spots.

Will have another look at the home plugs.

mavers · 15 Feb 2017 at 22:35

Thoughts on replacing the sky router with tp link ac1900 vs ubiquiti lite AP?

bremen1874 · 15 Feb 2017 at 22:55

Assuming there are no MER issues with the TP-Link it's going to be down to personal preference.

Do you want something to mount to the ceiling (with the associated cabling) or something to sit out on a flat surface?

mavers · 16 Feb 2017 at 01:11

bremen1874 said:
Assuming there are no MER issues with the TP-Link it's going to be down to personal preference.

Do you want something to mount to the ceiling (with the associated cabling) or something to sit out on a flat surface?

Flat surface... as it will be in the living room

bremen1874 · 16 Feb 2017 at 01:18

If that's the case then the UniFi APs aren't going to suit you.

Just replacing what you have with something 'better' (TP-Link or not) probably isn't going to get the coverage you're talking about in your opening post either.

mavers · 16 Feb 2017 at 17:26

I'm very pessimistic with the sky router (sr102). Did a few tests and managed to get good signal in most bedrooms. Issue I have is dead spots in the back bedroom. Literally 30mbps in the upstairs landing, down to 1mbps in one of the bedrooms.
Contemplating having an AP in one of the bedrooms.

mavers · 28 Feb 2017 at 20:58

UPDATE.

Went with the unifi LR access point. Decided as a first pass to connect it to my router directly and switch the wifi off.
Fantastic. Thought first of all I might want to connect the AP in a different location, but this works perfectly, both range and speed have improved significantly. Should have upgraded sooner!

DIABLO · 28 Feb 2017 at 21:14

Nice to see it worked out for you.

BigT · 1 Mar 2017 at 15:12

mavers said:
Went with the unifi LR access point. Decided as a first pass to connect it to my router directly and switch the wifi off.
Fantastic. Thought first of all I might want to connect the AP in a different location, but this works perfectly, both range and speed have improved significantly. Should have upgraded sooner!

Interesting. Do you also get those good speeds in places where you previously had no coverage? Reason I ask is that while the UAPs are great (I have two), often some of the increase is also down to the fact they are more easily located in places where your router wouldn't go, like on a ceiling in the centre of the property. The benefits aren't always so great just lying next to where your router was.

mavers · 1 Mar 2017 at 21:28

It's right next to the router, my plan was to move it if I wasnt satisfied with the results. I think the sky router is just very poor.

Range is better, and in the rooms where I had no wifi, I'm getting at least 8mbps.

When the weather is better I'll check the range in the garden.