Better in house Wifi....

Jelster

Jelster

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I have BT Broadband, connected via Ethernet it's brilliant, but even with 2 of their "Wifi discs" in the house, my download speeds are pretty poor. I can't get full fibre here out in the sticks, but do get "normal" fibre broadband. I'm sure it can me improved with a better router and maybe a couple of Wifi points around the house (bungalow).

Anybody with experience of putting another router on a BT connection?
 
A router will only give you the speeds that the line is capable of, what is your current speed ?
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
A router will only give you the speeds that the line is capable of, what is your current speed ?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Most of the modem/routers dished out by ISP's are really cheap and nasty. It's not a guarantee but a better router can definitely improve speeds slightly and most definitely improve Wifi and Wifi speeds around the house with a good mesh setup.

I've used Netgear Orbi, Google Wifi and TP-Link Deco M5 and the M5 are by far the better system and faster than Google Wifi by around 5mbps which is a fair bit when you only have 70 to start with. The Netgear was set back after a month as it kept crashing.
 
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Nikon f1.8 said:
A router will only give you the speeds that the line is capable of, what is your current speed ?
Click to expand...

Having sold Internet services for 25 years I think I know where the limitations are :rolleyes:

I get 70MB to the router, but wireless performance from the BT hub, with the number of devices we have in the house, is pretty poor. We have 2 phones, 2 iPads, 4 computers, 2 Sonos speakers, the Sky set top box, the TV, the CCTV system, games console, and a couple I've probably forgotten.....
 
I’m lucky enough to have fibre to the home courtesy of OFNL. We get 900mb and by using the Google nest hubs, one in the garage, one under the stairs and one on the middle floor we get fast speeds all throughout the home and garden.

We have the old gen Nest/Google hubs, not the wifi6 enabled ones
 
I'm with Virgin now, but was previously with BT (no full fibre, hence the move to VM)
I'm also on a TP-Link Deco mesh system, but the M9+ rather than M5 - both have now been superseded by newer models in the range with ever faster WiFi.

Basically you switch off WiFi on the router, and use it purely as a link to the internet. The Mesh system takes over everything else - so you just have a single gigabit Ethernet cable from the router to the main mesh unit.
This also has the advantage that if you switch suppliers there's no hassle of setting up your network again.
I have 3 units, one in the front downstairs room near the router, one diagonally opposite at the back of the house, and a third up in my 2nd floor office linked to the main unit via gigabit ethernet. Gives reasonable coverage throughout the house, but obviously some sport are better than others.
Also includes both 2.4 and 5Ghz, in both main and guest networks (so any visitors can connect to the guest network for internet, but are isolated from any work devices).

Things to look out for in a mesh system are multiple gigabit ethernet ports, ability to connect by ethernet as well as WiFi, dedicated Backhaul WiFi Channel.
 
With our system I found the best solution to be our Mesh system. We are using a VM router rather than a BT one, but the Mesh system is BT and is not a current model. What speeds are you getting?
 
If you have ethernet wiring then I would suggest unifi, if not mesh would be the better option.
 
Id go with Unifi for better WiFi as well. Not sure why you mention wanting a different router, if like you say you sold internet for 25 years and know where the limitations are yet admit to getting I presume the full speed at the router.

What speeds are you getting via WiFi?
 
robj20 said:
Id go with Unifi for better WiFi as well. Not sure why you mention wanting a different router, if like you say you sold internet for 25 years and know where the limitations are yet admit to getting I presume the full speed at the router.

What speeds are you getting via WiFi?
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Because I had read that the Wifi from the normal BT Hub was pretty pants. I think the issue mainly is that the hub is at the front of bungalow, and the study (where I need the bandwidth) is at the opposite corner at the back, so the signal has to travel through 3 brick walls to get here (no stud walls in the place).
 
I've been with BT for many years, and wasn't a fan of their provided home hub, particularly for the lack of useful parental controls at the time. I ended up with an Asus wifi5 router (AC5300) which has been perfect, and gave a stronger signal throughout the house and coped with 20+ devices without issue. A few years ago, I also got ethernet connections in most of our rooms, and the Sky box, Smart TV, home PCs etc now connect using this. It made a big difference as only phones, ipads and smart devices now use wifi.

Over recent years we've slowly upgraded to some wifi6 compatible phones and ipads, so I bought an Asus AX11000 Pro ROG Gaming router (https://dongknows.com/asus-rog-rapture-gt-ax11000-pro-review/) which isn't wifi 6E, but has excellent coverage and throughput. We now get 700+Mbs download over wifi. Currently on Amazon for £349.

There were parts of our house which didn't get a strong wifi signal (only 1 bar), due to the number of walls and floors in between, so I used the old router and configured it in AI Mesh mode, connecting it via an Ethernet cable and locating it in the loft at the diagonally opposite corner of the house. The old router is just wifi 5, but I now get 500Mbs download in all rooms, and 300+ outside in the back garden where we struggled to get any wifi signal at all, and devices would swap/buffer frequently between wifi and 4G.
 
Jelster said:
I get 70MB to the router, but wireless performance from the BT hub, with the number of devices we have in the house, is pretty poor. We have 2 phones, 2 iPads, 4 computers, 2 Sonos speakers, the Sky set top box, the TV, the CCTV system, games console, and a couple I've probably forgotten.....
Click to expand...
Can any of those be wired?
 
Jelster said:
Because I had read that the Wifi from the normal BT Hub was pretty pants. I think the issue mainly is that the hub is at the front of bungalow, and the study (where I need the bandwidth) is at the opposite corner at the back, so the signal has to travel through 3 brick walls to get here (no stud walls in the place).
Click to expand...
But you also mentioned the WiFi discs so where are they located.
I mean 70mb isn't exactly ready so none of the standard supplied equipment should struggle with that, you might just need to place the discs better.
 
Jelster said:
Having sold Internet services for 25 years I think I know where the limitations are :rolleyes:

I get 70MB to the router, but wireless performance from the BT hub, with the number of devices we have in the house, is pretty poor. We have 2 phones, 2 iPads, 4 computers, 2 Sonos speakers, the Sky set top box, the TV, the CCTV system, games console, and a couple I've probably forgotten.....
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are in a similar situation that I was in not so long ago. Although my 70Mbps connection usually only got around 50Mbps if lucky and it was also servicing a variety of phones, tablets, computers, games consoles etc. Inevitably, I somehow got the dregs of whatever bandwidth was left. I had two BT WiFi discs and from memory I think the range was ok-ish.

I was fortunate to have Full Fibre available and what a difference it has made. I'm now using an Eero router and three MESH range extenders and it's fast and seamless. Shame you can't get full fibre though. I don't think their range is quite as far as the BT Discs though.

I do have an ASUS AX5400 which is dedicated for VR. I'd be happy enough to do some range tests with it and see how many walls it can go through etc if you are interested.
 
robj20 said:
But you also mentioned the WiFi discs so where are they located.
I mean 70mb isn't exactly ready so none of the standard supplied equipment should struggle with that, you might just need to place the discs better.
Click to expand...
I have found that the disks need to be fairly close to the router to work properly. Currently, for the study, I have put the disk on an extension lead and it's sitting on a chair in the hall. Bring it into the study and the light turns amber and the speed drops right off. However, the hall is narrow, so I have to put the chair and the disk out there when I come into the study and then bring it all back in again afterwards..... The other disk is in the loft providing network for my CCTV recorder and 4 cameras.
 
Jelster said:
I have found that the disks need to be fairly close to the router to work properly. Currently, for the study, I have put the disk on an extension lead and it's sitting on a chair in the hall. Bring it into the study and the light turns amber and the speed drops right off. However, the hall is narrow, so I have to put the chair and the disk out there when I come into the study and then bring it all back in again afterwards..... The other disk is in the loft providing network for my CCTV recorder and 4 cameras.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need an access point that you can run with a network cable and put it at the other side of your house.
I use WiFi out of necessity so just for things like phones.
Anything that can be wired is wired.
 
robj20 said:
Sounds like you need an access point that you can run with a network cable and put it at the other side of your house.
I use WiFi out of necessity so just for things like phones.
Anything that can be wired is wired.
Click to expand...
I've been thinking the same. Running a cable into the study onto a 4 port hub will allow me to network the 3 computers in there (it's also my amateur radio shack} and a port left over for the wifi disk to enable Wifi. It's just getting the cable though the loft and down into the room that is the issue, the roof pitch is really low, I can't even stand in the centre of the loft...
 
Jelster said:
I've been thinking the same. Running a cable into the study onto a 4 port hub will allow me to network the 3 computers in there (it's also my amateur radio shack} and a port left over for the wifi disk to enable Wifi. It's just getting the cable though the loft and down into the room that is the issue, the roof pitch is really low, I can't even stand in the centre of the loft...
Click to expand...
Get some plumbers/electricians rods cheap of eBay. That will help no end get the cable where you want it. It's well worth it in the end.
 
robj20 said:
Get some plumbers/electricians rods cheap of eBay. That will help no end get the cable where you want it. It's well worth it in the end.
Click to expand...
I've got a set of drain rods in the garage, thanks for the tip.
 
Hardwire is the much better solution especially as full fibre will eventually get rolled out

I use an external grade Cat5e cable and go out through the walls where the fibre router is, up the side of the house, into the loft, then across it and drops down through the ceiling of my home office (upstairs). Being a two storey house going outside is an easy solution, I do though have one cable that drops down from the loft, next to an internal soil pipe which then comes into internal garage, I then go through the garage wall for an access point in the hall. My CCTV is PoE so needs to be hardwired.

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