Noob - Increasing my WiFi connectivity

Tim Nelson

Tim Nelson

Tim Nelson

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Joined
20 Jun 2020
Posts
7
Hi all - this is my first post so forgive me being a noob!

At home I have a simple modem provided by my service provider EE. We’ve probably had that modem for a good couple of years now. We live in a very old house that has quite thick walls and in our area, the maximum speeds we can get from EE at the moment are 36mbps. However, when I’m sat at my desk in one corner of the house - I’m typically getting 10-12mbps max and my devices in that corner of the house are reading 1 bar of connectivity instead of 3.

So, I’m looking for advice on how to improve the speeds and connectivity.

I’m not sure whether to get an updated modem from EE or do I buy a branded modem that’s going to be better quality - and what should I be looking at?

After this I’m guessing I need to look at investing in a mesh system round the house?

Any help would be much appreciated!


Thanks
 
Just replacing what you have like-for-like will probably only give you a small improvement. Thick walls and wireless don't work well together, especially on 5GHz.

A mesh system may be a better solution but, by default, the backhaul is going to be wireless which will still get blocked by the walls. There's no way of knowing without trying it.

Are you willing to install network cables?

Have you considered Powerline adapters (including the typoe that have built-in wireless)?
 
My neighbour has a home office down at the bottom of his garden. He was unable to get any wireless signal so he tried Powerline adapters (with wireless) and has full speed and no drop-outs.
 
I’ve heard of Powerline adaptors but don’t know much about them and wondered how they compare to mesh systems and other options.

So Powerline adaptors seem to be the way to go! This is brilliant, thanks guys. Do you need an adaptor in each room?

Paul_RD - you’ve answered my next post already. After figuring out how to sort the house, we were looking at trying to get WiFi into a small garden office. We are having power put into there via a 10mm armoured cable. I take it, that as this is connected to our mains supply (albeit via 3 Phase) that Powerline adaptors will provide connectivity to The garden office?
 
Tim Nelson said:
that Powerline adaptors will provide connectivity to The garden office?
Click to expand...
Only if they're on the same phase, and then only if you're lucky.

For Powerline adapters to work well they want to be on the same circuit (breaker) and not too far apart.

For a garden office, I'd expect to have to install a network cable (copper, or preferably fibre) or use wireless.

If you're getting power installed get the network installed at the same time.
 
Tim Nelson said:
I’ve heard of Powerline adaptors but don’t know much about them and wondered how they compare to mesh systems and other options.

So Powerline adaptors seem to be the way to go! This is brilliant, thanks guys. Do you need an adaptor in each room?

Paul_RD - you’ve answered my next post already. After figuring out how to sort the house, we were looking at trying to get WiFi into a small garden office. We are having power put into there via a 10mm armoured cable. I take it, that as this is connected to our mains supply (albeit via 3 Phase) that Powerline adaptors will provide connectivity to The garden office?
Click to expand...
My neighbour has an armoured cable fed from the consumer unit in the house.
He just plugged the Powerline adapter in the mains socket in the office as if he was in another room in the house.
The Powerline can't tell that its at he bottom of the garden.

If you have a split consumer unit with dual RCD's, I'm not sure if they would have to be on the same RCD. My neighbour is out at the moment or I would have asked him.
 
Thanks both! Lots of food for thought.

bremen1874, in any of my previous houses I would network the house, but this house is listed (I.e pain in the backside and expensive) so was hoping to avoid cabling and handle across WiFi.

Paul_RD - we’re having to put the outside office on its own separate phase - will this stop us from using Powerline adaptors in the garden? If you could check with your neighbour - this would be amazing!

thanks so much for your help guys
 
Tim Nelson said:
separate phase
Click to expand...
Separate phase or just a separate customer unit?

If it's a different phase they will not work.

Some people can't get Powerline adapters to work between adjoining rooms, others get them to work out to the garden. It's a complete lottery.

If you're having the work done for the mains get the connectivity sorted properly at the same time (even if that just means installing ducting to you can cable it later on). Crossing your fingers and hoping that Powerline will work for you isn't a great idea.
 
Separate phases does sound strange, as bremen1874 suggested, a separate consumer unit may be more likely.
Where are they planning on taking the mains cable from to go to the office?
 
So we have a 3 phase system in our house and we’re utilising one of the phases for the summer house/office + BBQ area as there’s a few things that we’re going to be running including lighting and sockets at the summer house.

The feed is coming from house and there will be a 3way external consumer unit at the summer house.

Ok, so it sounds like the only way to get connectivity up there would be to run an Ethernet cable from the EE modem (Currently sitting in the middle of the house), up the garden to summer house?
 
A cabled solution is guaranteed to work, and to work at decent speeds. In theory, you should use fibre to avoid differential earthing problems, but people seem to get away with using copper for this sort of thing.
 
With thick walls, best way to improve WiFi is to run cables to each area that you want better WiFi in, then add a WiFi access point in each area.

Unifi APAC Lite.
 
Thanks Bledd but that could be difficult due to the nature of the house.

bremen1874 - thanks for all the advice. I’ll look into running fibre outside. Back to my original question for the interior of my house - am I right in thinking Powerline adaptors will still work as the inside of the house is on the same phase?

Aside from running cable to each room (which is a big, complex job) Powerline adaptors sound like my best option?
 
Powerline adapters are definitely worth a try.

Buy them from somewhere with a good returns policy as there's no way to know how well they'll work for you ahead of time.

Also, keep your expectations reasonable. The fastest adapters, under the best circumstances, will only manage a few hundred Mbps. If you're just wanting them to keep up with your 38 Meg broadband there's a fair chance they'll be okay.
 
Bremen - A few hundred Mbps is the stuff of dreams...! I can only think about that when they upgrade the local exchange.

But granted, I take your point about the good returns policy!
 
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