Help me revamp my wi-fi....

[JonathanRyan]

I have some elderly BT AC 1200 Whole Home disks. They pick up the 600 ish MB Virgin fibre and feed it around the house. They work OK, but there are 2 problems

1. There's some sort of weird drop off in the bedroom my wife uses as study. We suspect one disk may be faulty. She gets c140 meg on a good day but this can drop to 20ish. She uses Teams throughout the working day and RDP into various work servers via VPN. Faster would be better.
2. They are ugly and awkward. They have to be within 6 feet of a power socket and have to sit on a flat surface - it's not possible to wall mount them. This means the possibly fault one has to be balanced on a radiator on the landing.

I'd like to replace with something future proof and ideally ceiling mountable. It's a largeish 5 bedroom house. Cable comes in in the living room and feeds to a downstairs study via Cat 6. In the study there's a hardwired Whole Home disk that meshes the wi-fi to 2 more receivers - one in the dining room and one on the landing. Cheapest would obviously be more Whole Home disks but we'd prefer a neater form factor.

Internet is very important to the way we live our lives (both need constant high speed connection through the day) so prepared to pay enough to get this fixed for the next few years. Work laptops tend not to have ethernet sockets now (!) so prefer a wireless solution to both studies.

 

[LancsMak]

Two options here really.

Either go for a Mesh system (TP Link's Deco system is well reviewed and has various options) or one or two full blown access points like Ubiquiti kit.

For what you're describing I'd say mesh personally.

 

[JonathanRyan]

For what you're describing I'd say mesh personally.

Thank you - is that because Deco is good enough and Ubiquiti costs more? Or is there anything else that should put me off Ubiquiti (apart from the whole director stealing company data thing )

 

[LancsMak]

You're more about having coverage all over the house and potentially needing to focus on specific areas rather than blanket ING the place for high number of users etc. Also, deco is more user friendly to set up.

 

[srichards]

Loss of speed could also be interference from a neighbour's wifi as well. It's worth looking around with your phone to see what wifi networks pop up and see if there's one with a strong signal in that bedroom that could be causing a problem.

 

[gman]

I used to have BT gear, but found it not the best. I now use Eero and it's a fantastic bit of kit. Small form factor, great range and seamless MESH. The app has tons of features but very easy to use. You can wall or ceiling mount with a cheap additional bracket sold on Amazon, but I've never felt the need as it has great coverage and discreet.

Only downside is the router unit (which is of identical size and looks) only has two ethernet ports. Here's one of the MESH units.

 

[Humphrey]

The balancing on the radiator is probably a major problem for it, by sticking a transmitting/receiving unit on top a huge chunk of metal it is going to play havoc with it. It will be reflecting the Wi-Fi back into the unit and acting as an attenuator to the incoming signal, both together will seriously degrade the speed. Think of the Faraday Cage effect. We have the same problem at work as all the internal walls are metal skinned plasterboard, impossible to get a mobile signal or Wi-Fi from one room to the next.

 

[GeeJay57]

I’ve just ordered this Netgear Orbi mesh system which was/is on offer on Amazon. It’s Wi-Fi 6, so not the latest spec, but should be ok for what we need.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Orbi-Triband-System-RBK763S/dp/B0BCKMBXJH/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.m8SrSRubdQfxynxpO5VHj7L-A1Jw_mKnbwH1nremQIYZNOs0gwfip0b1_rrCYRic_7KT0nQrOI7z2vZuwtxyXAKQRO2-Zkvfb9-ptir3FNchoI-KcbHCilc6GXkU0bHz4N_wvzqDHcjpg3hjtXT5acmAd-xjJbvpgT0MhHn9QW84RX47hq21PiPonZS4DW-KyyK3ICmGZULRcvA-vG8dw-44YRp3JxyjqZdmoQX240Q.ILatjN0QW8Tt8C-Yccw-fjitF6ApReFpW7KlDcSb6PE&dib_tag=se&keywords=netgear%2Borbi&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1735305449&sr=8-3&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.9c21b5d8-763b-46f5-a19a-62aef163feca&th=1

 

[Craikeybaby]

USB-C - Ethernet dongles can get around the lack of Ethernet on modern laptops. I have my desk set up with a monitor/docking station so that it is only one connector to do video/Ethernet/power/keyboard when I dock my laptop. For something in a fixed position, I prefer wired Ethernet wherever possible.

 

[Brentor]

Cheapest would obviously be more Whole Home disks but we'd prefer a neater form factor.

Are they still available? Probably from suppliers other than BT.

I’m still using BT Wholehome BT AC2600 which is fine for our 4 bed house apart from one of the 4 discs always seems to be the one that disconnects. Much better coverage than it was pre Mesh.

Have you tried switching your discs around if you think one might be faulty?

Not much help in recommended a different system.

 

[TimHughes]

I agree, wired may be part of the solution, no? It’s always going to be faster and more reliable and makes sense when the location is fixed like the study.

 

[JonathanRyan]

Thanks for all the thoughts on this - I'm still deciding what to do. Couple of answers....

Are they still available? Probably from suppliers other than BT.

Have you tried switching your discs around if you think one might be faulty?

Mine are still available from BT / Amazon. I may end up sticking with them.

I'll try switching them round - @Humphrey 's poiunt on the radiator is very interesting though - I'll play.

I agree, wired may be part of the solution, no? It’s always going to be faster and more reliable and makes sense when the location is fixed like the study.

Possibly. It's an awkward cable run to wire it and the Infosec team at my wife's firm have some odd ideas - it's possible they have blocked USB - Ethernet adapters. (Yes, I know how crazy that sounds....). I think a good option would be to look into whether Homeplug is now fast. Homeplug from the router to her study with dedicated wi-fi in the room might fix the problem if it could sustain say >100mbps.

Meanwhile, these look tempting.

 

[TimHughes]

Homeplug AV2 or G.hn look to be quite fast. I’ve not tried them.

 

[realspeed]

Quote "There's some sort of weird drop off in the bedroom my wife uses as study." simple answer, MOVE THE WIFE

 

[hunnymonster]

... and the Infosec team at my wife's firm have some odd ideas - it's possible they have blocked USB - Ethernet adapters. (Yes, I know how crazy that sounds....)

They sound like they are keen on protecting the organisation from the behaviour of their users & mostly preventing themselves appearing in court (or at the local dole office).

 

[Brentor]

Infosec team at my wife's firm have some odd ideas - it's possible they have blocked USB - Ethernet adapters

My last firm before I retired blocked all laptop usb sockets. This was to prevent client confidential information being copied onto memory sticks. There were various other security measures.

 

[TimHughes]

Controlling USB makes sense to prevent data loss or introduction of malware. Doesn't need to be a complete block. Security policies can be implemented that selectively allow networking devices.

 

[steve_lyt]

Have a look at the ubiquity Wi-Fi, i have 2 and my Wi-Fi doesn’t slow down

 

[JonathanRyan]

They sound like they are keen on protecting the organisation from the behaviour of their users & mostly preventing themselves appearing in court (or at the local dole office).

My last firm before I retired blocked all laptop usb sockets. This was to prevent client confidential information being copied onto memory sticks. There were various other security measures.

I'm sure they mean well. The goal is probably to prevent exfil of confidential data (they have some fairly odd email security) and injection of malware. That could easily be blocked by restricting the Mass Storage policy. But I suspect they have actually disabled all USB in Bios which is a little draconian.

Either way they don't want us connecting unapproved hardware ;(