Wi-fi range extender

[Danny McG]

I'm having problems in one of the kids rooms with a patchy signal from my WiFi unit.
It's the furthest away from the box so I'm thinking of getting one of those range extender things, you plug them in and link the signal and then leave it plugged in
I don't know much about this so has anyone got advice please?

 

[mosaix]

I use ASUS extenders. They work well. I'll find the model number later.

There are two kinds. Ones that transmit a signal through the household wiring and another that picks up the WiFi signal and amplifies it.

My ASUS extenders are the second kind. My house is two houses merged into one. Each of the old houses has independent fuse boxes so there's no connection between the two using the the household wiring.

 

[Parson]

I also use an Extender of the signal kind. (Calix - "Gigasphere"). It works very well. My grandson moved in with us about a year ago and he's a gamer. So we had to upgrade our WiFi to 250 mbps download and 150 mbps upload. --- It seldom tests that high --- The range extender allows a much higher speed to where the signal was weak before. He is now happy, so we are happy.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I recently bought a TP-Link Powerline adapter which helps in my folks old stone built house

This one

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/tplink-tlwpa8631p-av1300-wifi-powerline-adapter-kit--twin-pack-10222016.html

 

[mosaix]

I recently bought a TP-Link Powerline adapter which helps in my folks old stone built house

This one

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/tplink-tlwpa8631p-av1300-wifi-powerline-adapter-kit--twin-pack-10222016.html

That's exactly the kind that won't work in my house.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

That's exactly the kind that won't work in my house.

A problem with these powerline adapters is that they have to be on the same circuit (or phase as I've found being referred to) I recently had to have my house rewired, going from a single ring for all my sockets, to separate socket rings upstairs and downstairs. I use these powerline adapters so my downstairs work-from-home computer can connect to my upstairs modem using ethernet cable. I was concerned that they would not work because of these separate rings, but it turns out OK because they're on the same phase/circuit

 

[Matteo]

I started to look into this while ago and became rather confused with all the info - seems one type will "split" the signal into half strength??. So would also welcome some advice.

WiFi is upstairs and we often have a weak signal when viewing Netflix on the tv downstairs and using the phone (e.g., on one bar now...).

 

[Parson]

I started to look into this while ago and became rather confused with all the info - seems one type will "split" the signal into half strength??. So would also welcome some advice.

WiFi is upstairs and we often have a weak signal when viewing Netflix on the tv downstairs and using the phone (e.g., on one bar now...).

This is the situation I have. My grandson has a bedroom in the basement and at first the router was upstairs. He used the extender downstairs and it worked, but when we upgraded we moved the router downstairs and the extender upstairs. We stream without difficulty, except for the rare times the router or the extender needs to be reset.

 

[Danny McG]

I tried a cheap one from Argos (under £20) first, thinking nothing to lose really ...It's perfect!
A bit of messing about initially because I had to download a free app, then register my router to that app and then register my signal booster.
Then I linked the two and immediately my signal strength in the bedroom went from 2 and a half bars to maximum!
No more complaints from the bratoids.