Best Wifi Extenders to use with 3rd party Router

[cgfw201]

We had fibre installed a couple of weeks ago. Working fine, but only reaches half the house from the BT Smarthub.

I've swapped it out for a Netgear Nighthawk for 2 reasons, 1 to boost the range and 2 because I need the extra ethernet ports for Hive, Hue and other smart home stuff. 

I've got a Netgear powerlines setup which is excellent and gets the signal to about 70% of the remaining dead spots, but still got no wifi in the kitchen, and if I move the powerlines into the kitchen then there's no wifi in the living room.  I live in a weird old house with a massive chimney up the middle which is what kills the signal i think.

BT sent me some black discs to fix this but it turns out they aren't compatible with 3rd party routers, so sent them back.

What's my next best option? Am I right in thinking another powerlines booster would need another powerlines hub and all the rest of it, or would I be able to just get the transmitter bit which goes into a plug socket?

If not something which catches and retransmits (is that a word?) the wifi signal to the kitchen..

[licquorice]

Powerline extenders work on the basis of one 'master' connected to the router and as many 'slaves' as you need plugged into sockets where required. Just buy another slave to match the ones you already have.

[cgfw201]

Ah that is good news. The one I have seems to be unavailable, are you able to recommend one which would work?

**Link deleted**

[licquorice]

Please delete the link, it is against forum rules to link to e-commerce sites.

In theory, all powerline adaptors using the same standard should be compatible, but in practice that is not always the case. I have no experience of the Netgear devices so can't recommend anything compatible.

If starting afresh with multiple adapters, have a look at the TP Link options. https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/

[cgfw201]

So I bought the TP link ones but can't for the life of me get them to pair up with the Netgear ones.

Anyone got any ideas?

[licquorice]

I did warn that although they should connect in theory, in practice it isn't always the case. Did you factory reset the Netgear devices before trying to add a TP Link slave?

[cgfw201]

im trying to avoid that as there's so many devices connected to it all. speaking to tplink support at the moment, hoping it's the one-button easy fix that some people seem to say it should be

[Les-Gibson]

Have you still got the Smarthub?

If so, and if you can get an ethernet cable to it, then you can configure it as a Wireless Access point

[cgfw201]

seem to have worked it out. bizarre series of app downloads and button presses and it now seems to be hooked up and working.

[licquorice]

👍👍