Wifi Extenders

[Ian J]

I think that I've dropped a clanger. I have two separate routers A Sky router downstairs which gives me access to Sky Q plus Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and a Virgin Broadband upstairs in my office.

I have a number of Alexa devices dotted around the house running on a mix of the two broadbands but as I wanted have them all on the same broadband I upgraded the Virgin Media to their top of the range and rejigged all of the devices to use the new router.

I also bought a TP Link wifi extender to increase the signal downstairs from the upstairs but this is where I think that I have misunderstood what exactly they do. I was expecting that they just rebroadcast the original signal but I have a sneaking suspicion that you have to log the devices into the TP Link's own wifi thingie which if so defeats the object of having all of the Alexa devices on the same wifi network.

Have I dropped a clanger?

 

[Higgsy]

From my experience, TP LInk provides its own WiFi that you log into on a separate Password etc.

I know with my BT broadband, I can request extenders that you dot around your house.

maybe worth giving sky a ring

 

[Higgsy]

Just looked, booster mentioned at the bottom of this page.

https://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/

 

[Mr D]

TP Link router or TP Link booster?

The router is more powerful than the old BT wireless - gives a much stronger signal in the house though that's also a signal possible 100 plus metres away.

 

[Ian J]

TP Link router or TP Link booster?

TP-Link TL-WA850RE N300 Universal Range Extender, Broadband/Wi-Fi Extender, Wi-Fi Booster/Hotspot

 

[Nico Albrecht]

safe yourself the hassle with the virgin media hub and the tplink extender. Toys at best. If you want a solution that actually works well and you setup once and dont go back get yourself 2 Ubiquity wifi AP used from ebay ( under £30 each ) set one up downstairs and one upstairs after that turn off the wifi on the virgin hub.

The 2 x AP will create a wifi mesh and 1 single wifi SSID broadcast and devices roam between them with no issues. Use the virgin hub as a router and dhcp server and leave the rest to the AP's

The AP are setup and controller via the Ubiquity phone app.

 

[Craig Bird]

Wireless extenders are rubbish, the Ubiquiti Unifi solution suggested by @Nico Albrecht may work well but Ubiquiti also do a home line of "Whole House WiFi" devices in a range called Amplifi - They are great and can be setup in under 10 minutes to form a complete wireless mesh - https://amplifi.com

 

[Alan]

Just a word of warning - the Sky Q and Sky Minis and the Sky Router also try and set up their own mesh - and it isn't good, and in fact it is awful and iPhones andMacs often grind to a halt when moving between devices in the mesh. The only solution I found it to turn off all the Wifi on the Sky boxes and hardwire them ( with Power line adaptors ). Hundreds of support posts on the subject.

 

[Craig Bird]

JThe only solution I found it to turn off all the Wifi on the Sky boxes and hardwire them ( with Power line adaptors ). Hundreds of support posts on the subject.

I live in a detached house and previously had some networking issues, after much troubleshooting I realised the connectivity issues were related to my powerline adapters somehow connecting to my neighbours network - It's very confusing to navigate to your gateway and find you have a Virgin hub..... when they are not your ISP - Never used any ethernet over power solution since!

 

[Ian J]

Just a word of warning - the Sky Q and Sky Minis and the Sky Router also try and set up their own mesh - and it isn't good, and in fact it is awful and

The Sky man fitted an extender upstairs when he installed the router for Sky Q downstairs 18 months ago and it actually seems to work quite well but it's the Virgin router that I wanted whole house coverage for.

The new upgraded Virgin M350 seems to be working quite well at the moment and the extender that I bought seems surplus to requirements. Unfortunately I chucked the box away so can't return it to Amazon but there again it was only £16.99

 

[Nico Albrecht]

it's the Virgin router that I wanted whole house coverage

That's the problem what people do not understand. wifi is a 2 way radio signal. It doesn't help if your wifi access point is broadcasting with a strong signal and is visible. At some stage the connected devices need to send data back on a much lower radio signal strengths and this is where it all goes to shit.

You need a wifi mesh over both floors with a 3rd party solution.

 

[Ian J]

Thanks Nico (as usual)

I'm having a few more Alexa controlled bits and pieces installed and if the router is overloaded I will go down the route that you suggested

 

[Karimbo]

I am with nowtv, they are a brand of sky and their hardware is pretty much the same. The wifi on these are extremely poor and the hardware doesn't seem to be able to handle too many concurrent connections at the same time it seems.

I tried to get an aftermarket router fitted, but sky use a special authentication method called MER, this is very specific to sky and nobody else in the world uses this so very few devices support it. So I opted to use the nowtv modem router as a modem and use a tplink routermodem as an access point.

The tplink has AC750 and can reach everywhere in the house. If you are technically inclined you can do that too and won't need to add additional boosters and accesspoints around the house.

Just have one good access point in the centre of the house, connected to the main routermodem with ethernet cable and disable the wifi on the main router modem so it doesnt interfere with the access point.

 

[billybob99]

Wireless extenders are rubbish, the Ubiquiti Unifi solution suggested by @Nico Albrecht may work well but Ubiquiti also do a home line of "Whole House WiFi" devices in a range called Amplifi - They are great and can be setup in under 10 minutes to form a complete wireless mesh - https://amplifi.com

I can vouch for this, I have the AmpliFi gamer’s edition, some good low latency **** going on.

 

[SYN]

Wifi extenders aren't that great but Ubiquiti is an overkill for 99% of people at home as well.

Take a look at the many mesh networks now available at low prices that work great out the box with minimal configuration like bt whole home (don't need bt to use it!) / tenda nova. Depending on your package, your ISP may even provide their own mesh extenders for free these days.

 

[Ian J]

I also bought a TP Link wifi extender to increase the signal downstairs from the upstairs but this is where I think that I have misunderstood what exactly they do.

As an update I started to have problems with the RCD tripping in the middle of the night cutting out all of the power sockets. My initial thoughts were it could be the new electric hob or garden floodlights that had recently been installed but it turns out that the culprit was the TP Link wifi extender and I have had no further problems since disconnecting it