How to extend/improve my Wi-Fi coverage?

yasen78

yasen78

yasen78

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Joined
20 Mar 2012
Posts
101
Hello I am clien tof Virgin and using their SuperHub gives me a lot of headache.

I can hardly get a Wi-Fi signal on my laptopn on the room next to the one where the router is. Not to mention the second floor bedrooms. In the one above the room with the router I get a signal, but on the rest sometimes you can not even detect the network.

My question is how to fix that? I do not wan to use powerline networking devices. I was thinking of:

1. swapping the setting of the router.
2. Use a wireless extender like this one - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-030-TP
3. Get a different router with better coverage and put the Virgin one in modem mode.

Any help? I would prefer advices from someone who had the same problem and actually managed to fix it. The house is a 2 floor / 3 bedrooms house.

Thanks
 
You mean several? Can i go with a cheaper WAP? DrayTek AP700 is out of my budget.

Can you explain more, please. I am not really familiar with that stuff.
 
The wireless signal from my main router drops out like you wouldn't believe, 2.4 and 5GHz, but that's the price of living in a place with 19" thick concrete walls! I have two wireless access points; one is a Netgear WG103 in the bedroom fed from my D-Link DIR-855 router over TP-Link homeplugs! Not fast by anyone's measure, but enough to stream media to my Pi. The other is a Netgear ADSL router I inherited from my father in law when he moved to cable, a DGND3300v2. Completely over the top for an access point as it is a full ADSL2+ home router, but you can shut down enough of it (DHCP server, auto dials etc) for it to function as a very effective 802.11n access point. That's fed from cable put through the wall to my machine room with wall boxes either side.
Simply do some reading up. Have a look and see what you can get cheap, like any old Linksys box, and look up the manual to see if you can switch off things like it's in-build DHCP server, any DSL dialler, and it should work OK as an access point.
I've never had much success with wireless extenders. I know the new ones are meant to be better, but considering the issues you can have with connectivity over one wireless hop, two is just a pain to troubleshoot. I say take your backbone as close as you can to where your black spot is, and stick a cheap AP on the end.
FYI: I have the Virgin router in modem mode already as it's signal was even worse than my D-Link 855. Also, I was dubious about the powerline stuff as where I live is Victorian built and the electrics probably not re-done since the 30s, but it seems to work OK, and to the bedroom the signal has to go through the fusebox and off some weird extra spur with it's own separate fusing!
 
And that Draytek is a bit pricey, although the brand is very good. Ask friends and family if they have any old home routers you can have. It's becoming more commonplace as people just use the routers their providers give them, or check Freecycle in your area.
 
Ok, so if I switch my Virgin SuperHub to modem mode ( cause its Wi-Fi signal is awful ) and plug any decent Wi-Fi Router/Access point to it, I should be able to get better signal?

Any suggestions for a goog AP, not too pricey but with a good signal. with external antennas if possible?
 
Last edited:
RoyMi6 said:
I had this exact problem.
Click to expand...
Me too ... never used the super hub wifi as I already had a linksys wrt54 I was using with the previous VM modem (I was on XL 20Mb and only eventually gave in to getting a superhub when area got upgraded to XL 60Mb and also by then they'd introduced modem mode).

wrt54 was ok-ish for wifi but couldn't cope with full speed on wired at 60Mb so upgraded to RT-N56U. Wifi still ok-ish but as two solid 1900s walls between living room and router got some variability in signal and it couldn't reliably stream iPlayer to a Nexus7 .... so as I already had a wired connection through to the living room I bought a TP Link TL-WR702N and used that as an extra access point in living room and that's now great - the "nano-router" has several modes it can be set into - one is to plug it into a wired network an act as an access point. It can also be set into a wireless repeater mode. Its also tiny (match box sized) and sits beside our TiVo getting power from the TiVo USB port!
 
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