V-Flyer

Hi,

According to Virgin broadband my home address should have up to 100MB line speed. However, the wifi signal is very poor in both our kitchen and upstairs. I believe the thickness of our walls is the problem Even using Skype in the sitting room (where the Super Hub is located) is pretty poor

Can anyone recommend a good wifi booster/repeater or any other suggestions greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Might want to consider something similar to these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0067GS29W/r ... pe_vfe_dt1

There are other manufacturers, plus some caveats about your home electrical circuit.

First option is to run wires if you can.

Second option, some of the mains power line adaptors might work.

Try those before you buy anything else, hope this helps.

Most of the WiFi routers UK ISP's supply are of a very poor quality. Sky broadband routers are as bad (even the newest one they have just started offering). The BT broadband one isn't much better either.

Very few, if any, of the ISP supplied routers are even dual-band.

Another option, especially if you use several Apple devices is to use use an Apple AirPort Extreme base station.

You just plug these onto your existing router, disable the WiFi on your Virgin router and use the AirPort as a WiFi access point. Your Virgin router does the rest.

I have the Time Capsule version of this (which is the same WiFi base station but with an included HDD) connected to my Sky broadband router.

mitchja wrote:Most of the WiFi routers UK ISP's supply are of a very poor quality. Sky broadband routers are as bad (even the newest one they have just started offering). The BT broadband one isn't much better either.

Very few, if any, of the ISP supplied routers are even dual-band.

Another option, especially if you use several Apple devices is to use use an Apple AirPort Extreme base station.

You just plug these onto your existing router, disable the WiFi on your Virgin router and use the AirPort as a WiFi access point. Your Virgin router does the rest.

I have the Time Capsule version of this (which is the same WiFi base station but with an included HDD) connected to my Sky broadband router.

Seconded.
I received my Virgin Media SuperHub on Saturday and disables the router function letting my Time Capsule take care of the wireless function.
According to www.speedtest.net I am getting downloads speeds of 62Mbps over 40ish using the SuperHub alone.

Im due my upgrade to 60MB and will pay for a engineer to install it as I have no idea at all

Cheers guys.

Numerous Speedtests suggest I'm actually getting 32MB approx. instead of the advertised 100MB!!!! Conclude I need to address that issue wtih VirginMedia as there's no booster/repeater that can rectify poor speed

Advertised speeds are up to? 32mb compared to 100mb seems a tad slow but can I ask does it make a significant difference to your internet experience?

stevebrass wrote:Advertised speeds are up to? 32mb compared to 100mb seems a tad slow but can I ask does it make a significant difference to your internet experience?

I apologise for my lack of IT knowledge I'm a fisherprice user! My primary problem is my wifi signal is almost non existant upstairs and in our kitchen. Even using Skype in the sitting room where the SuperHub is located is always problematic due to slow connectivity.

Hence I thought a wifi booster/repeater might solve the problem however, now I've concluded the actual problem is with my ISP. Or am I wrong?

MMOOLL2 wrote:Hence I thought a wifi booster/repeater might solve the problem however, now I've concluded the actual problem is with my ISP. Or am I wrong?

Have you connected directly to your router via a cable and run a speed test to eliminate the impact of wi-fi limitations?

pjh wrote:[quote="MMOOLL2Hence I thought a wifi booster/repeater might solve the problem however, now I've concluded the actual problem is with my ISP. Or am I wrong?

Have you connected directly to your router via a cable and run a speed test to eliminate the impact of wi-fi limitations?[/quote]

No. I conclude therefore to get an accurate speedtest I need to do that? I'm still bemused why I get slow connectivity in the room where the Superhub is located? Cheers

Interference from other appliances or other WiFi networks? When you look for WiFi on your computer, do you get a lot of networks found? Might be worth changing the WiFi channel on the router.

Try siting the router away from other appliances that use 2.4GHz band - e.g. DECT phones/base stations, videosenders, wireless doorbells, wireless alarm systems, baby monitors as many of these items can interfere with WiFi signal broadcast, especially if located in close proximity.

First thing to do is whatever device be it ipad or iphone or whatever you use for skype, is to use this device and do a speedtest http://www.speedtest.net, or similar, they have apps for apple devices. When you see the speed from this over your wifi let us know the results. My poor 4mb adsl connection is quite capable of holding a skype conection, so if you have 32mb bandwidth with virgin thats plenty.
As chappy above says microwaves, fridge/freezers, dect phones in fact anything electrical could cause the wifi signal to be poor or indeed drop.

I'm still in the dark ages. We haven't got cable in our area (!), so that leaves us with little choice. I did think about going over to BT's Infinity (as apparently that will run on copper wire from the exchange), but as they weren't able/prepared to offer me a reasonable discount, I decided to shoot myself in the foot and remain on just broadband...

Thanks for the explanations and suggestions. Looks like I've got some re-arranging to do so fingers x.

Cheers

I had a simlier issue at my house. We have just the standard broadband via normal phone line. No sky or virgin media cable. The WiFi router is in one of the front bedrooms. The signal at the back of the house is very patchy and using the phone on the WiFi is no good. Laptop is ok as I guess the aerial is better. We wanted to extend the signal further out to cover the patio. What we got was a ring main device by Devolo. Just plug in to router and nearby plug socket, plug the other WiFi unit into another socket in what ever area you want the WiFi and that's it! It's works extremely well and has extend the signal for us even half way down our garden! Highly recommended product. Had it about a year now with no problems at all.

To take advantage of that 100Mb speed, you'll need to be connected to your router via ethernet cable, as most WiFi networks run at speeds a lot lower than 100Mb. Even 802.11n with its promised speeds up to 300Mb rarely hits 50Mb - and that's assuming your laptop also supports 'n'. To check the actual speed of your connection, plug directly into your Superhub with an Ethernet cable and run speedtest.net to see what you're getting. If that's over 90Mb, then your connection is probably fine, and the problem is either with your laptop's WiFi not being particularly fast; the Superhub doesn't have 'n' WiFi turned on, or there's interference (such as other WiFi networks) on your channel.

Possibly not related but this weekend I upgraded an older laptop from Vista to Windows 7, and the download performance on the laptop tanked mightily. It took more than a few tweaks to recover the performance...

I just bought some of the d-link powerline extenders. Absolutely delighted with the ease of operation and the simplicity. I shall be looking for some more in the Jan sales.