replace virgin media router or use powerline adapters/extenders

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domart

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ok so long story short I have virgin 200mb, and, the signal strength is pretty rubbish, go too far from the router and it drops off pretty sharpish to the point where the TV in the living room doesn't get a stable 1080p signal over netflix, and same in the back bedroom. The flat is a 1 floor tenement with some pretty thick walls

Living in rented accomodation the only options I have really are to upgrade the router and use the old one in modem mode, use powerline adapters, or wifi extenders? anyone got any advice on what might be the better option? or should I just try one and see, just dont want to waste money on the wrong thing, and if getting a really great router would provide good wireless over the whole house that sounds pretty sweet but i dont know if something around the £50 range is going to be much of an improvement
 
A friend of mine uses Powerline converters with his VM router and they work well. Ill ask him which one's he uses if its helpful.
 
I also found the Virgin router pretty bad for wifi signal strength (This was a couple of years ago so maybe it's got better since). I used my own Netgear router and disabled the wifi in the Virgin box - vast improvement.
I've also used powerline extenders which were very hit and miss and wasn't impressed. If you try them, make sure you don't have any spurs and don't use multi-socket extensions - plug straight into the wall at both ends.
 
Give virgin a call and get them to increase the signal strength, which they can do remotely.
 
Tolly16 said:
Give virgin a call and get them to increase the signal strength, which they can do remotely.
Click to expand...

Sorry that's not right. They can check the signal strength and quality of the line going into the house, they can try to balance the line if they see issues, but the majority of the issues at this point would probably need an engineer visit. We have a power booster on the line despite being 200 yards from the cabinet, but then we were having HD tv breaking up.

For wifi signal around the house, the superhubs aren't the best at distance. The new ones are slightly better
You can log into your router and ensure the 2.4Ghz is set to 802.11b/g/n and the 5ghz is set to mixed and the 5Ghz is set to 802.11a/n/ac mixed. There's no setting on these routers for adjusting wifi signal strength like some more expensive routers.

I use TP-Link 600Mps powerline adaptors as these were the best ones around last year. I see they have 2000mps ones now. They are brilliant, you can use many of them and they have a decent app to set them up/control them. Some also act as wifi points, so I've one downstairs for the virgin V6 box to plug ethernet direct in as it gives a better result. I then have one for upstairs that connects to the V6 box in the bedroom and acts as a wifi point also. Then another that feeds the network in the cabin office in the garden.
 
When I was on Virgin I found that putting the router in modem mode and using a third party router to deal with the wifi and wired side worked best. The wifi on the Virgin box is or was rubbish. I used a Buffalo router (sorry can't remember the model number) which was reliable and the wifi was good.
 
Just a thought but can you raise the router up?
Also you can get an coax extension cable and relocate it
 
Just a prewarning on powerline and the faster vm speeds. My tplink 1200mbps powerline maxed out at 80mbps so never saw the full download speed of my connection.

Typically powerline speeds are a fraction of the advertised, your Milage will vary depending on environmental factors such as internal cabling.
 
Ok from the sounds of it seems like a new router is best?

I did go into the router settings and changed it to cast separate 2g and 5g networks thinking that the better range of 2g would be advantageous but tbh it really didn’t do much
 
I had a TP link for my virginmedia in the lounge and it worked fine. However I also had them for the back of the house with a wifi extender too and it was a bit of a pain. Switched to a Netgear Orbi system which is a bit pricey but works very well. If you've got a bit smaller place just a router might do the trick. Google for reviews on what is the best of the bunch at the moment.
 
Also remember that just having a single strong ap/router isnt really ideal to solve coverage issues. It may be able to broadcast a further distance but you'll still be at the mercy of your devices and their own transmit power back to the ap.

If you can put in several smaller ap meshed or with a cable backhaul that would most likely yield better results.
 
I've got Virgin fibre though I only pay for 100meg.

I have these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01FFBN4MO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
(Bought on recommendations here and a little cheaper than that when I bought them).

Just run a speedtest over the wired connection and it's hitting the 100mb cap. A cheaper version should provide plenty of bandwidth for 1080p.

If you do that and it still doesn't work then call Virgin. We had an engineer round to tinker with stuff and it worked miracles.
 
I have a devolo 1200 power line in our gaming room. The router is on the other side of the house and I'd tried loads of wifi extenders with little success. The devolo works really really well - the kids have zero issues with the speed for the PS4 ( we're on VM100meg too ). It's a bit pricey but to shut the kids up, it's worth it
 
Mr Bump said:
Just a thought but can you raise the router up?
Also you can get an coax extension cable and relocate it
Click to expand...

We have the router on a longer coax cable and put on top of the bookshelf in the office, front right room of the house. This gives decent coverage around the house.

neil_g said:
Just a prewarning on powerline and the faster vm speeds. My tplink 1200mbps powerline maxed out at 80mbps so never saw the full download speed of my connection.
Typically powerline speeds are a fraction of the advertised, your Milage will vary depending on environmental factors such as internal cabling.
Click to expand...

upload_2018-1-26_9-14-36.png

This is my 600Mb setup, showing the speeds. Note the 170Mbs which is the garage link. It goes from the house over a 100Amp cable into the garage and intoi another fuse box. That has 4 circuits. Two for the garage, different rings as we have a 30 year old chest freezer and tumble in there so I have separate circuits for tools/welders etc. The other two circuits run to the cabin in the garden, one for heating and lights, one for sockets.

If I put the powerline adaptor in the cabin it falls to 80Mb, so it runs from the garage and there's an ethernet cable between the two. It also means I can run a Cisco high range wifi access point in the garage for full garden coverage and it just reaches to the pub :)

The 375Mb circuit goes into the lounge for the V6 box there. Things to note is they are much better in their own socket, don't put them in an extension lead.

Wifi coverage depends on your house build. We have all brick walls downstairs - brick for the central walls upstairs but then plasterboard dividers. As such we don't have a signal issue like you would say in a large stone walled cottage.
 
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My Virgin box used to work very well. With the box placed carefully centrally in the biggest room in the middle of the house I got good wifi nearly all over the three storey house and halfway up the back garden. Then it started getting worse and worse. The reason was that lots more of the neighbours have started using wifi. To begin with I could see four or five other wifi's from inside my house. Now in the evenings I can see 20-30. I can tell from the addresses they're using that many of them have started using more than one wifi broadcaster, presumably because of poor reception problems. When they move more than one room away from the broadcaster.

What's worse the local bus company has introduced free wifi on its buses and there's a bus stop outside my house. If I'm watching a video or TV on the computer it will often pause when a bus is standing outside and overpowering my wifi with its own.

What often works as a temporary solution when it gets bad is simply to power my Virgin box off and on again. That causes it to automatically search for the least congested channel to broadcast on.
 
My wifi coverage seemed to deteriorate after having gas/elect smart meters fitted. Coincidence maybe?
 
chris malcolm said:
My Virgin box used to work very well. With the box placed carefully centrally in the biggest room in the middle of the house I got good wifi nearly all over the three storey house and halfway up the back garden. Then it started getting worse and worse. The reason was that lots more of the neighbours have started using wifi. To begin with I could see four or five other wifi's from inside my house. Now in the evenings I can see 20-30. I can tell from the addresses they're using that many of them have started using more than one wifi broadcaster, presumably because of poor reception problems. When they move more than one room away from the broadcaster.

What's worse the local bus company has introduced free wifi on its buses and there's a bus stop outside my house. If I'm watching a video or TV on the computer it will often pause when a bus is standing outside and overpowering my wifi with its own.

What often works as a temporary solution when it gets bad is simply to power my Virgin box off and on again. That causes it to automatically search for the least congested channel to broadcast on.
Click to expand...

Which Hub have you got? I had an issue with my Superhub 2 that would show the SSID was available but connectivity and bandwidth was terrible. I had to repower the router to get it to work again, but then it wouldn't register, needing a call to support to push the registration.
I then got the latest Superhub 3 - slightly better wifi range than the 2, but I still maintain for the V6 box, unless really close to the router, your better with with an ethernet connection.
 
Byker28i said:
Wifi coverage depends on your house build. We have all brick walls downstairs - brick for the central walls upstairs but then plasterboard dividers. As such we don't have a signal issue like you would say in a large stone walled cottage.
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Absolutely. Powerline will also depend on your house build, but most will never get near the rated speed.

Personally I found placing mesh nodes around the house gave better results.

Al1944 said:
My wifi coverage seemed to deteriorate after having gas/elect smart meters fitted. Coincidence maybe?
Click to expand...

Zigbee (the wireless protocol used by a lot of smart meters) will use 2.4ghz which is the same as your router. So like cordless phone base units you should not put your smart meter display near your Internet box.
 
neil_g said:
Zigbee (the wireless protocol used by a lot of smart meters) will use 2.4ghz which is the same as your router. So like cordless phone base units you should not put your smart meter display near your Internet box.
Click to expand...

Most routers these days have channel interference detection so they can select another channel. The Virgin Superhub 3 has this done automatically, but you can manually set if you like
Click Advanced settings then Wireless and then Wireless signal, Tick the box next to Manual which will enable the drop-down menu and then choose a channel. There are different options for 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels
 
Byker28i said:
Most routers these days have channel interference detection so they can select another channel. The Virgin Superhub 3 has this done automatically, but you can manually set if you like
Click Advanced settings then Wireless and then Wireless signal, Tick the box next to Manual which will enable the drop-down menu and then choose a channel. There are different options for 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels
Click to expand...
I'd still suggest rule of thumb to not place sources of interference near to routers. Just asking for bother.

You'll still have some sort of disruption while the router decides on remedial action, and whether it's actions actually help or not.
 
Before splashing any cash, have you spun up Wi-Fi Analyser on your phone and check for interference from neigbouring networks? It could be that switching channel or using 5G might solve your problem?
 
I've used both to good effect with Virgin - as per the post above the Virgin router/hub is utter rubbish. Mine had poor signal, dropped the connections and oddly in router mode could never muster more than 20mb download on a 100mb connection - but in modem mode gets a solid 105mb.....go fgure!

Anyway, Virgin hub + Asus RT-AC87U is doing the business for me at the moment. Seems stable apart from the Virgin end once in a while.
 
I have netgear power line adapters ( the ones with WiFi) and got them through virgin.

The ones from virgin were slightly better value than amazon so might be worth checking virgin media website if that's the route you take.

The fact they sell them at all says something about the quality of their router!
 
Unicronatron said:
I have netgear power line adapters ( the ones with WiFi) and got them through virgin.

The ones from virgin were slightly better value than amazon so might be worth checking virgin media website if that's the route you take.

The fact they sell them at all says something about the quality of their router!
Click to expand...
Or sometimes one wireless node will just not be enough due to environmental factors.
 
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