Broadband range

Hi, my Broadband reliability is good, but there are a few rooms in the house away from the router where signal tends to be very weak. Is there an easy way to widen strength without having lots of boosters plugged in?

Hi Arfur,

I see this has been open for a few days without reply.

May I ask, is yours a large house? Or do you have solid brick/concrete/metal walls internally?

WiFi relies a lot on line of sight, and signal penetration through materials. If you were to stand at the other side of a brick wall to your router, you’d notice the signal would be poorer than if you were a further distance away but in clear line of sight of the router. This is because the material of the wall/s in between is too dense for the signal to pass through effectively.

In reply to your question, to boost the signal, you may require a router or wireless access point with stronger antennae. I would recommend an access point, as opposed to a router with better antennae, as an access point is designed purely for WiFi, and gives an overall better wireless experience. Placing the router or access point in a more central location in the house is another way to get an even coverage.

Meraki (by Cisco) have a fantastic new consumer-friendly access point, the Meraki Go GR10. Easy to set up and manage via a mobile phone/tablet -

https://www.meraki-go.com/meet-meraki-go/wi-fi/

However, if your house has solid walls or is relatively large, you may require several APs/boosters.

Powerline adapters are also a good shout - small devices that connect to your home’s mains power, that use your electrical wiring as a network, and come in various flavours, including ones that give off WiFi.

I hope this helps.

Andrew