Does your watch need a wifi?
If not, this is more appropriate for some other part of the forum.
Good morning all.
I’m hoping an IT wiz might be able to suggest something for me.
We live in a 4 bed detached house with solid walls.
We have Vodafone broadband and get very strong speeds downstairs - 75mbps.
The issue we have is upstairs. The WiFi kept dropping out on some devices upstairs so I bought a TP link WiFi extender and put it on the landing to help the upstairs devices, however the speeds are much much slower than downstairs and occasionally the signal drops out even though the devices are connected to the extender.
Can anyone suggest what I can do? When I recently took the contract out Vodafone guaranteed that every room would get good signal - I haven’t spoken with them yet and not sure where I will get with them if I do make a complaint - what will they suggest?
Thanks guys.
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Does your watch need a wifi?
If not, this is more appropriate for some other part of the forum.
How strong your wifi signal will be in all parts of your house will depend on the layout of your house.
An extender is the best thing to use, but as you state, the wifi speeds will never be the same as from the main router.
Vodaphone saying that they can guarantee a strong signal in every room may require you purchasing more equipment/ going onto a higher price plan.
I live in a 3 bedroom detached house, my router is upstairs, so the signal downstairs isn't great. I purchased 2 extenders a few years ago which now help to cover all parts of the house, and the outside front and back as well.
You may have to do something similar if Vodaphone don't do anything for you.
Thank you for the information. I have spoken to Vodafone and they say I may need to move my BT point closer to the middle of the house so that the router can be more central to the house.
Can anyone recommend Any other devices other than the TP link WiFi extender as it doesn’t seem to work that well for me.
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I suggest you get a mesh system. Google or BT make good, easy to use systems.
My Victorian 4 storey house now has great coverage.
Means turning off the WiFi on the Vodafone router and connecting it to your own WiFi. Or ditching the Vodafone equipment entirely.
Eero
Orbi
Google mesh
-not in any special order.
All good systems. Helps if you have the other base stations (called satellites) connected via ethernet too.
Yes-one disc plugs in to your router, and "talks" to other discs dotted around the house which pass on the wifi signal. I have tried many options (extenders/plug in TP link etc etc) and this is the best-fantastic wifi across the whole house. Really only needs a small amount of technical expertise-I'm not saying it's idiot proof but pretty darn close!
I have a similar issue in my home, which has wifi extenders all over the place.
Can someone please explain in idiots terms what the difference between a 'mesh' and 'wifi extenders' is, as they amount to the same thing in my brain?
Ta.
In basic terms -
* an extender simply repeats what your wifi network is saying and is dumb - so it's slower and less effective because of the time needed to literally duplicate the 'message' your wifi is trying to send and receive.
* A mesh network is your wifi network and therefore can communicate between units more effectively - on more expensive kit - there is a hidden channel (backhaul) that all it does is communicate between the units and therefore it does not have to compete with your devices for bandwidth.
Mesh systems - each node (little BT disc or whatever you use) can talk to another node. So you can get the best connection wherever you are. Your signal may got through more than one node on the mesh.
Extender - talks to your router and recast the Wifi signal from where it is in the house.
to the OP - thick walls - Ethernet is best.
Normal WiFi with extenders are independent WiFi networks around the house which all happen to have the same name and password. Mesh is one true network.
Usually if you have a WiFi box upstairs and another one downstairs when you go upstairs your phone will have to disconnect from downstairs and connect again upstairs. Two different networks, just happen to have the same name and password. If you go upstairs and your connection is pants you'll turn the WiFi off then on which means your device will connect to the strongest signal, which should be the one upstairs.
Another thing about extenders is they sacrifice speed for distance. Mesh doesn't, you get speed and distance.
Mesh WiFi is one true network with repeaters of the same network dotted about. They just manage the connection better by being one big network and talk together in a smarter way.
Deco probably does the same thing but the three I listed are the ones I've heard of.
I have these two in a 6 bed semi which is really a 4 bed semi with a loft and it works well. One downstairs in the hallway and the other (connected by ethernet) upstairs in the loft.
https://www.netgear.co.uk/orbi/rbk50.aspx
There are probably better ones and worse ones at different price points but these work for me. Orbi have newer ones now for WiFi 6 which you may or may not care about.
We used to have Devolo extenders as we had the same issue as the OP, but the problem with those - with iphone at least - was when moving around the house the phone wouldn't automatically connect to the strongest signal, so we were forever having to switch over manually on our phones when we went upstairs/downstairs etc.
A year or two ago we switched over to BT Whole Home, where the 3 boxes all act as one (mesh). When it's working it's very good, although we have found that it drops out occasionally and needs resetting.
My own personal experience (I'm no expert) is that this is not necessary.
I have an ethernet connection from virgin router to BT mesh disc one, and then 3 other discs around the house just with a power supply and talking to each other wirelessly. I have thick walls, and 4 floors.Excellent fast coverage-so much so that I haven't had a single call or text from the kids about wifi since it was installed
Thanks for the replies chaps and my apologies to the OP for the thread 'hijack'. I thought it might be helpful for us both to understand the issue.
^^^
This is my main issue (but with an iPad as well), so it sounds like I need to move with the times and switch to a mesh.
Just to add, I fitted a mesh last weekend - took all of an hour and it’s superb....
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Is there a reason BT whole home is ALOT cheaper than eero, google systems?
It seems like I need to buy a mesh system. I don’t mind spending £250 on google but the BT whole home is £99 - are they the same thing?
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Are all the mesh systems mentioned above compatible with a 4G router?
Just out of interest (as I work for an ISP) how do Vodafone “guarantee” the service in e dry room? It’s impossible with just the router
To tell you to move the router to the middle of the house Is funny - do they mean the router - I’d buy a longer lead from the router to the master socket? Or do they mean get your master socket moved which is £100 from BT Open reach - neither will guarantee the fix btw
It’s just trial an error
Off a 75mbps (if that’s a true Ethernet reading from the router) that’s a fair speed - so I’d suggest Ethernet up what you can near your router that’s fixed (eg tv) to release as much WiFi as possible
We think line extenders are best but everybody’s circumstances and properties are different and you’ll have a mix of both copper and fibre as not a full fibre package there for that speed
Good luck either way - I’m fortunate to have a full fibre to the premises so no issues
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I think they mean they are going to get BT to move the BT master socket to the hallway by the front door - this is central to the house (I won’t be able to connect anything via Ethernet here though).
Currently the BT master socket is in the office which is the ground floor bottom corner room of the house. I was thinking - could I run an extension cable from the BT master socket in the office to the hallway or would this extension decrease WiFi strength due to being an add on? Thank you.
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Mesh 100%. Helped me out in my home, we use the BT ones linked below.
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RRWL39N/
We use the larger Black BT discs, got 5 of them now, and they work very well.
Last edited by junglebert; 3rd December 2020 at 17:14.
Yea it's the mini ones that I have. It's the only mesh system I've had so I can't give a fair comparison, but I struggle to think what more I would want them to do. The internet is as fast at the top of the house as the bottom which was the goal for me. That said, there's only two of us in the house and our broadband isn't super fast to begin with. It's not slow by any means, but we still can't get fibre despite living in zone 6 London..!
Broadly... yes - you'd want to turn off the wifi on the home router.
If people are doing this on a budget - the TP-link deco M4 are well regarded:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=mesh%2Bnetwork
Last edited by Alansmithee; 3rd December 2020 at 17:56.
[QUOTE=Alansmithee;5606015]Broadly... yes - you'd want to turn off the wifi on the home router.
I've left the wifi on on my home router (Virgin)-my BT mesh works fine. I have read that some routers can interfere with the mesh system though if the wifi is still broadcasting.
Are the white BT discs 'Whole Home' the same as the black BT discs 'complete WiFi'?
Stonewood - I installed the Deco system some months ago.
It is mid price in terms of what's on offer in the market, but I got it partly because it's almost idiot proof, as I really am not very tech savvy. It also has features that are easy to use.
There is no complicated set up, or fiddling with your system (I have a Vodaphone router too) and once all in place, it's great. Never go back to extenders again.
If you want to pm me, I would be happy to talk you through any queries you have, should you decide to use the Deco system (mine cost around £149 - and had 3 disks which for me was enough - similar house to yours).