Wifi Signal Problems.

Haunter · 19 Oct 2015 at 20:41

Hey,

After recently solving my Xbox 360 Sound problems I've now encountered a new problem where the Wifi Signal is Poor to Terrible! currently.

Now I live in a bungalow and the router is located in the front room on one side of the house, however the items that are using Wifi are in bedrooms on the other side of the house.

Virgin Media wanted to charge me around £50 for a Signal Booster which I thought was over priced & found my self coming here to see if there was a cheaper alternative to increasing my signal.

It's mainly used for gaming & streaming on the Wifi (Obviously be much better wired, I know)

An do the 2Ghz channel make much difference from the 5Ghz channel on the wifi too?

bremen1874 · 19 Oct 2015 at 21:01

5GHz is potentially faster than 2.4GHz; the problem is 5GHz is far worse at going through walls when compared to 2.4GHz.

A few suggested options:

Put the Virgin hub into modem mode and attach a router with better wireless performance.
Run a single cable to a sensible location and connect a wireless access point to it.
Try Powerline adapters (with or without wireless).

Haunter · 19 Oct 2015 at 21:22

Buying a router with better wireless performance would be quite expensive wouldn't it?

I've just read up on the Powerline Adapters, they seem like they could work well.

bremen1874 · 19 Oct 2015 at 21:30

A decent router would be relatively expensive.

Powerline adapters are a bit of a lottery. For some people they work really well, for others they're a disaster. Unfortunately there's no way to know without trying them so buy from somewhere with a decent returns policy.

A cabled solution would be the preferred option, but I appreciate it isn't always possible. Don't forget that network cables can be routed around the outside of the house as well as internally. If Virgin have already drilled the walls half the work is done.

Haunter · 19 Oct 2015 at 21:32

Yeah the router is a no go I think.

Thank you for the advice regarding the 'lottery' part of it.

An I'd much prefer a cabled solution but it's not totally viable in this scenario sadly. Is there any makes I should look for in general with the Powerline Adapters or is that a lottery across the board?

bremen1874 · 19 Oct 2015 at 21:42

Powerline is a lottery in general.

I'd suggest that you try looking at AV600 & AV1200 adapters rather than the older AV200 or AV500 adapters as they're based on more recent chipsets.

If you're just after good enough rather than perfection you've got a fair chance that Powerline adapters will work for you.

Do your research and then come back with any specific questions.