Most ISP-supplied broadband routers can be 'hacked' to work as extenders to supply Wi-Fi at the far end of a cabled CAT5 run, it's just a matter of finding and setting-up the right options in the software. Let me know what spare kit you've got lying around, and I can probably walk you through.

 

By WiFi extenders, do you mean the ability to advertise the same SSID across both AP's

Other wise it is simply a matter of plugging in an AP (as opposed to a "routing" AP) this will supply the layer 2 connection to the LAN and the BB router will supply the IP addressing

I don't find it an issue having two SSID's (and I have a specific technical reason for it anyway)

Certainly no need for plug in extenders if you have cat5/6 cabling

 

Router doing Ips same SSID is kinda the best thing because when you have simpletons round it's easy to log them in once then that's it. My house I have front room, fun pit ( bedroom ) and bangers which is back of house on works adsl.

 

I have a main Vdsl router, which feeds the upstairs stuff - PC Nas Xbox etc with one feed going off to powerlines for the downstairs

Downstairs i feed into an old Linksys router running DD-WRT and from that i feed out to the TV, skybox, and DVD player

Cheaper than buying an ethernet switch, but may have to do that at some time

Mart

 

Quick update.

I took Littleted's advice and splashed out on the Linksys WRT 1900 AC. It was a doddle to put the virgin superhub into modem as was the set up of the new router.

I have a couple of issues

1) Sometimes the speed is great ie 30-75mbps however sometimes in the same room it will drop all the way down to 2-3 mbps. Why would this be?


2) One room is always a black spot (and was with BT and when using the Virgin hub for wifi). I have a hardwired Cat6 ethernet output in that room and so could use a wireless access point. However I'd still like to retain the hard wired ethernet capability for other devices.

So do I use an ethernet switch in these circumstances? In other words do I plug an ethernet switch into my ethernet socket and then plug the wireless access device into the ethernet switch?

Thanks for your help

 

Yes

To late now, but personally I would never pull just one cable thru - it is a no brainier to tape two together and pull through a pair, at least you then have one extra or redundancy in case one fails etc

 

Traffic management?

 

The thing to check here is whether signal-strength is dropping in line with download speed, or whether something in the chain is losing connection entirely. How long do the slow-downs last?

 

For your cat 6 question correct just wire a extender in to the end of the cat 6...

If your using wifi and it's a speed drop, check that the wife or something isn't also using it further up the house, I know in the old world of wifi the signal is only as good as the weakest link, so even if u have 5 bars your kids may be on 1 bar in the attic thus cause it to drop down.....

If your hardwired its prob traffic shaping from Virgin at rush hour

 

Thats some bloody agressive traffic shaping if it is that I would be changing ISP if they are throttling speeds by that much.

 

yeah true i don't think they go that bad....

he needs to check on the wire if its the same, if not it'll be wifi interference...

 

Thanks.

Lots of strange goings on, both wifi and wired.

1) Wired. (Lets call it media room). I wanted to stream a film on box that a friend has lent me for a few days. I check the download speed before starting and it's about 25mbps. More than enough for streaming but I'm paying for 100 mbps and it's a wired connection!

Nobody else in the house was using the internet (as far as I'm aware) at that time although some devices may have been passively connected ie phones etc.

After I've watched the film I decide to watch a couple of music vids via youtube. The vids start buffering and so I check the speed and it's about 6mbps! That's with a wired connection ffs.

Obviously I'm very disappointed given I spent money hard wiring the house so that I wouldn't have this problem.

I'm assuming there is an ethernet switch up in the loft that then feeds all the rooms. Could this be at fault, just not up to the job?

2) WiFi

One room definitely is a not spot so I know poor signal strength is to blame for low speeds. In other rooms where the speed drops temporarily I'll have to measure the signal strength. What's the best way of accurately measuring that?

The channel for the router is on 'auto', should I manually try different channels if it's a signal issue?


Thanks for your help

 

First thing to do is to check the speed directly from the router. Plug a laptop in via ethernet and then do a speed test. That will give you the throughput from the router. If it is high and what you expect to see then the low speeds seen through the house are due to internal hardware/wiring issues.

 

Thanks mate. Working late today but will check asap.

 

No problem, always the first place to start is at the router to see what you get directly off of that. If it's a crap speed coming off of that then reboot it, test again and if still crap then it's time to call the service provider.

 

Be worth doing a malware check first and secure any open wireless networks

 

Ok I'm really confused now.

Yesterday I wired my mac into the linksys and it measured about 25mbps, not bad but I think I'm paying for 100 (or at least 50 anyway).

So I rebooted the linksys and the virgin hub and measured again. This time I got about 45.

This is where things get really odd. I got to the media room and and wire up the macbook to the ethernet outlet and it measures about 18. I then plug in my media streamer and it's measuring as low as 2mbps! Even my phone, connected by wifi, measures about 8.

I have no idea wtf is going on.

 

What was the time delay between checking the other devices? When you said you rebooted the router and then got 45mbits, that could mean you've hopped onto another gateway within Virgin which is less busy, less contention, so better speeds. Or it could mean there is traffic management issues at your exchange, sorry Virgin hub. Only Virgin can help with that. Either way I would be raising a ticket with Virgin You shouldn't bee seeing a 20mbit or more drop between devices like that imo. Also if you are paying for 100mbit how come you're satisfied with 20, 40 or whatever, you should be getting close to the 50 or 100 (how come you dont know? lol) taking into account any device limitations etc, I would be livid