WiFi Signal Boosters

[duncs500]

Anyone able to recommend one of these that's cheap and cheerful but actually works? Seems to be plenty of cheap options but very mixed reviews.

Got a camera for the little one that keeps dropping out due to the weak WiFi signal. It's not that far from the router but goes through a few walls etc. Shouldn't think speed matters that much.

[mik]

Paging @Beany

Our provider is BT who provide upto 4 booster discs if you have coverage gaps.

[Beany]

Paging me won't help, I'm a bit vague on wi-fi these days. Extenders were always a bit pish though.

The correct answer is to use the Timculator and Economics to swap out everything for a good mesh setup

[RobYob]

Bought the three pack of BT disc boosters to supplement an EE Router and absolutely no complaints about the hardware.

The BT software is cack but you don't actually need it unless you want to restrict access, to setup it just works on connection of a wire from the router to a disc and then all the discs self sync.

[Shlergen]

Mesh is worth it imo, it's solved all of my issues. I binned off the BT router and replaced with a TP-Link Wi-Fi VDSL/ADSL Modem Router & TP-Link RE300 AC1200 for not massive money.

Cameras work and now have seemless connection throughout house. I am sure there are better setups but it works well.

[KiwiDave]

The correct answer is to use the Timculator and Economics to swap out everything for a good mesh setup

This.

I put a three node Synology mesh system in our place and it's FG.

[Simon]

Google have just launched Google WiFi (not to be confused with Nest WiFi). It's £189 for 3 pucks.

[duncs500]

The camera was £26, I'm not spending nearly £200 just to make it work better.

[KiwiDave]

YDIW

[RobYob]

I was going to say the BT 3 mini disc mesh solution is about £75 but they appears to have gone up to £110 now.

[DeskJockey]

The camera was £26, I'm not spending nearly £200 just to make it work better.

Don't you know how the Timculator works? First you need to spec a pro level CCTV setup, justifying spending thousands on cameras by arguing that watching the munchkin sleep in anything less than 8K is tantamount to neglect, then build out a full mesh WiFi 6 infrastructure that'll reach to the pub, for those "need to nip out, but baby is asleep" moments.

[Mito Man]

Whenever I need WiFi somewhere I just grab a length of cat5 cable, connect it to the router or switch and add another router. It is the cheapest way to do it and the best but also requires chasing cables through walls and the loft if you don’t want it to look shit.

[Simon]

But it's good practice. If something doesn't 'move" (TV/computer/printer etc) then put in on the wire, not on WiFi. WiFi is for things that physically get moved around.

[duncs500]

The house does actually have wired sockets in most rooms, but I don't know how you make them work.

The guy who activated the BT said you had to pay your provider to hook them up somehow.*shrug*

[Mito Man]

Eh? If your place is prewired with ethernet then usually all the cables from the various rooms go into an ethernet switch in a cabinet in a cupboard. Then you just use a patch cable from your router to the correct ethernet port on the switch which is going to the room you want. No weird voodoo paying crap.

[DeskJockey]

The house does actually have wired sockets in most rooms, but I don't know how you make them work.

The guy who activated the BT said you had to pay your provider to hook them up somehow.*shrug*

There should be a patch panel somewhere in the house where all the network sockets terminate. All you need is a bunch of network cables and an 8port unmanaged gigabit switch. £40-50 should sort it out.

Plug the ports on the patch panel to the switch and run a cable from the switch to the router (either using one of the network ports in a room or directly from the switch if it is located in the same space).

After that you can run cabled network devices and get them internet access.

[duncs500]

Hmmm, I haven't seen a patch panel. They might just be phones lines apparently, in a 'daisy chain' if you can't find a patch panel. You'd think with a new house they'd be smart enough to put network rather than phone, but apparently not.

[DeskJockey]

Can the camera run wired connections? Forgot to ask. An alternative, if it can, is to buy a pair of home plugs that runs network over the electrical sockets.

[mik]

Can the camera run wired connections? Forgot to ask. An alternative, if it can, is to buy a pair of home plugs that runs network over the electrical sockets.

That. Our house was wired with cat5, but the plug locations don’t suit. We have a gaming computer and my work laptop hard wired using Solwise homeplugs.

[NGRhodes]

Can the camera run wired connections? Forgot to ask. An alternative, if it can, is to buy a pair of home plugs that runs network over the electrical sockets.

That. Our house was wired with cat5, but the plug locations don’t suit. We have a gaming computer and my work laptop hard wired using Solwise homeplugs.

My Homeplug does Wifi. I did try a cheap Tenda, but the Wifi kept dropping, upgraded to an ASUS kit which is brilliant, the backhaul over the mains connects at 400mbps, which is plenty for my measly 60ish mbps internet connection.