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Wifi range extension

br48 — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 22:14:05 GMT

We have BT wifi in our apartment, which is in a large very-solid converted Edwardian mansion. There is a bookable Guest Room (some 15 meters along a straight corridor from our apartment). Visitors staying in this guest room can receive our wifi, but only just. We are wondering what would be the best way of getting good reception of our wifi there, presumably using a device that we would place there temporarily just when we have a visitor using the guest room. (It would not be possible to install anything in the corridor.) I would be grateful for suggestions as to the best approach, and recommendatinns on specific devices that we could purchase to solve this problem.

Re: Wifi range extension

licquorice — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 07:10:20 GMT

A cheap and simple solution would be a powerline hotspot such as https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa4220-kit/

Re: Wifi range extension

br48 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:31:54 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply. Unfortunately we are trying to connect between parts of the building that are on totally separate electrical circuits.

Re: Wifi range extension

gg30340 — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:58:53 GMT

Buy a mobile broadband package and router. Install the router in the guest room as and when you need it.

Most if not all mobile providers offer them.

Re: Wifi range extension

spile — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 06:36:17 GMT

I’d hardwire UTP to the second room. Place a wireless point (or repurposed router) in the guest room.

Re: Wifi range extension

br48 — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 13:59:34 GMT

Hi - thanks. An interesting possibility, though I'm not sure of the economics of it for my situation. I'll investigate.

Re: Wifi range extension

br48 — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 14:03:26 GMT

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to be able to lay cable to the guest room. Thanks.

Re: Wifi range extension

gg30340 — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 14:20:33 GMT

Presumably when you say "a bookable guest room" the room is not actually your property and like wise the corridors leading from your apartment to the guest room

If that is the case it will obviously rule out running Ethernet cable from your apartment to the room and the use of powerline adaptors.

It limits what you can do.

You could try the following but because of how the discs connect to the BT Hub and depending on the distance and the thickness of the property walls it might not be an improvement on the signal that is already being received from your BT hub in guest room.

You could try moving your BT hub as close as possible within your property to the guest room or you could try getting one the following

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi | BT Shop

and place the disc into the guest room as and when needed.

If you have the BT Smarthub you could also consider getting the BT Complete Wifi package and again place a disc into the room as and when needed.

Complete Wifi | Wifi Extender & Booster | BT

If you have a BT Smarthub 2 and do not want to change your package, the BT shop sells the discs for both of the above systems.

Re: Wifi range extension

br48 — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 14:41:15 GMT

Hi - Many thanks for your continued interest in my problem. At the moment the solution I'm experimenting with is a TENDA Home Mesh WiFi system. The pair of units arrived yesterday and at first seemed to work very well. Installing a mesh unit in the guest room turned a minimal (one little bar) wifi signal availability to my iPhone into a maximal (three bars) wifi signal availability! However an internet download speed test went down from 56 to 36 megabits per sec when using the mesh, though this was still categorized as very good. But since then I've started having connection problems from the iPhone with the second unit and am fairly confused as to what is going on. I've been getting "unable to join the network" and "try again later messages" though it's showing a strong signal. (You'll see from my above description I'm not an expert in these matters! 🙂

However I'm about travel to a distant funeral so it will be a few days before I can investigate further - probably by resetting everything and starting again from scratch, since I'm assuming the problem is due to something I did.

Re: Wifi range extension

Keith_Beddoe — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 15:11:35 GMT

@br48

Make sure you update the firmware on the Tenda units, as the latest firmware fixes a reported security issue on Apple wireless devices.

If you only have two units, with one connected to the home hub using an Ethernet cable, then the other unit should link itself to the first unit, and show up on the app.

You would normally run the Tenda units in bridge (access point) mode, if you are connecting to the home hub, otherwise it can cause issues.

If you are using a separate modem, then the default router mode should be fine.

Re: Wifi range extension

spile — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 06:01:13 GMT

I’d get a price to run cable around your building if you don’t want to do the job yourself.

Re: Wifi range extension

gg30340 — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 07:28:57 GMT

If you read the OP's first post it would appear that the OP's apartment is within an old mansion. The guest room is not his. It is a room that can be rented to all the apartment owners in the mansion. He can not run Ethernet cable along the shared corridor so it seems unlikely that he will be allowed to run Ethernet cable along the outside of the building or any where else outside of his own apartment

Re: Wifi range extension

spile — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 06:37:32 GMT

I did but couldn’t see a reference to the property ownership. I am sure the OP can interpret and adopt suggestions to their own circumstances.

Re: Wifi range extension

br48 — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 09:03:40 GMT

Hi:

You are of course correct.

In fact all is well now, touch wood - I've obtained a two-node Tenda AC1200 Whole Home Mesh Wifi System, and this has greatly improved the Guest Room wifi.

Many thanks for all your excellent assistance - you definitely deserve your "Distinguished Sage" status! :- )

Cheers

Brian Randell

Re: Wifi range extension

br48 — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 09:08:39 GMT

Many thanks