OV9

GG. wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 10:44 am The recent other thread on IT related matters reminded me that the forum hivemind may be able to help me with an issue I have...

As you know we've recently moved in to the new place and Virgin media fibre broadband is all hooked up... in the study. This doesn't really reach all that far - not bad on the ground floor but the kitchen is L/G with absolutely no reception and upstairs barely much better.

Happily the previous owner installed a switch and ethernet routing to unifi access points on the walls in various rooms. I have plugged in the Ethernet cable to the switch which should in theory distribute the feed to the access points but despite downloading the Unifi app I haven't had any success in getting them to show as visible / connect to them.

Any ideas or do I have to get "a man" to come and help?

Jimexpl wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 1:02 pm

GG. wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 10:44 am The recent other thread on IT related matters reminded me that the forum hivemind may be able to help me with an issue I have...

As you know we've recently moved in to the new place and Virgin media fibre broadband is all hooked up... in the study. This doesn't really reach all that far - not bad on the ground floor but the kitchen is L/G with absolutely no reception and upstairs barely much better.

Happily the previous owner installed a switch and ethernet routing to unifi access points on the walls in various rooms. I have plugged in the Ethernet cable to the switch which should in theory distribute the feed to the access points but despite downloading the Unifi app I haven't had any success in getting them to show as visible / connect to them.

Any ideas or do I have to get "a man" to come and help?

You need a unifi access point manager / cloud key when there's more than one unifi point - is there one?

I can do an OV9 special rate to send "a man" round, but we need to know if an additional bit of kit needs buying.

Simon wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 1:03 pm Any lights on the APs? They're PoE right? Are they getting power?

Mito Man wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 2:42 pm I think I’d just bin the lot and start over.

Jobbo wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:14 pm If I were setting up from scratch I'd go for something like Unifi with ethernet cabling, but since I wasn't I got a set of Netgear Orbis (main plus 3 satellites) which I'd say is not as good as I expected based on the reviews and pricing.

Thing is, if you've inherited a system then you're always going to be uncertain about it; it might be that it's not too expensive to replace the access points and main router because the cabling is already in place. So I'd consider that as an option; if you set it up then you're always going to be better placed to fix something later on.

Rich B wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 2:46 pm i got a new router the other day, i tried for bloody hours to pair my old extender thing to it and failed. i spoke to the provider and they confirmed the old one wouldn’t work with the new router (and nicely sent me out a new one!)

But the moral is, some new kit just won’t work with old kit.

GG. wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:32 pm

Jobbo wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:14 pm If I were setting up from scratch I'd go for something like Unifi with ethernet cabling, but since I wasn't I got a set of Netgear Orbis (main plus 3 satellites) which I'd say is not as good as I expected based on the reviews and pricing.

Thing is, if you've inherited a system then you're always going to be uncertain about it; it might be that it's not too expensive to replace the access points and main router because the cabling is already in place. So I'd consider that as an option; if you set it up then you're always going to be better placed to fix something later on.

I haven't fully counted up the access points but there may be c. 6/7 and with the cost of the switch I think it would end up being a >£1,000 bill so keen to try and retain the existing kit if I can. Hopefully it can all be fully reset and repurposed even if that involves me getting an engineer out to look at it.

My second issue is that I can't easily get a dish installed for Sky TV... owing to local restrictions I can't mount on the front of the house and the rear aspects are all blocked by trees so the only option is all the way up on the flat roof of a dormer and I may still be asked to (re)move it if it is visible from the road and someone complains... I've been quoted another grand to install that so its not really a gamble I want to take.

On that basis I'm looking at cable / streaming TV options from Sky and Virgin but they're all crap these days and don't offer any recording function so for things like F1 they seem hopeless and you're just reliant on the streams being available (which according to threads online, they often aren't)...

Mito Man wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:25 pm What Jobbo says, the hardest bit has been done, which is routing all the cabling.

GG. wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:32 pm [On that basis I'm looking at cable / streaming TV options from Sky and Virgin but they're all crap these days and don't offer any recording function so for things like F1 they seem hopeless and you're just reliant on the streams being available (which according to threads online, they often aren't)...

GG. wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2026 3:32 pm I haven't fully counted up the access points but there may be c. 6/7 and with the cost of the switch I think it would end up being a >£1,000 bill so keen to try and retain the existing kit if I can. Hopefully it can all be fully reset and repurposed even if that involves me getting an engineer out to look at it.