Another WiFi boosting question

[Little Jim]

Wi-Fi reception in our house is so-so.  It was improved by replacing the router last year but it is still pretty rubbish to non existent in the kitchen as well as the far end of the living room.  Not only is our house brick and blockwork but it is also long and thin with the router in one corner and the kitchen diagonally opposite.

Would I be better off getting a couple of the Wi-Fi extenders that plug in to the mains and run the signal over the mains cables or the sort that seem to boost the signal with some sort of magic?  Or, indeed any other method.  I would add that it need to be pretty idiot-proof and simple to set up.  TP Link seem to do pretty well in on-line reviews and have been recommended on here before, but they seem to do both types of booster I've mentioned above.  I know that the ones using the mains cabling to transmit the signal work best when all on the same ring main and I can achieve this on the ground floor of the house.  Thank you.

[PaulF]

I run the TP link ones that work via the mains and they work very well. In fact I have one on a separate ring main from the router that shows no discernible loss in quality.

[Canardly]

Agree re TP link.

[pcolbeck]

+1 for TP Link. They just work.

[fuaran]

An ethernet cable would be better than using the mains. Depends on how easy it is to run cables around the house.

[pcolbeck]

An ethernet cable would be better than using the mains. Depends on how easy it is to run cables around the house.

Always but unless you want to drill holes everywhere or pull up the floorboards then Ethernet over mains for the win. If its for web browsing and streaming iPlayer or Netflix etc then its faster than your Internet link by a factor of 10 usually so its good enough.

[Little Jim]

Thank you for all your plies - looks like it is the TP Link plugs then.  I don't fancy trying to get Ethernet cable around the house as we've got solid floors rather than floor boards.

[Whitedown Man]

I already have one TP-Link device (big thumbs up - works brilliantly) but would like to add a second (my house is made of some WiFi repellent material imported from outer space, or something). However, the instructions that came with my current  TP-Link device say that they only work if plugged directly into a wall socket, not if plugged into a four-gang (or whatever) extension lead. Are these instructions telling me the truth?

[jsabine]

Based on a sample of one (in my MiL's house), they seem to work adequately plugged into a four-way, but are probably a touch better plugged into the wall.

[Kim]

Based on a sample of one (in my MiL's house), they seem to work adequately plugged into a four-way, but are probably a touch better plugged into the wall.

Similar limited experience of them here.

It's RF voodoo, so the only answer is to try it and see.

[Quisling]

I have been using TP link powerline adaptors for the last 3 or 4 years in both the hard wired ethernet cable version and more recently for remote wifi capability in my office off up the garden.  They work very well but you should consider the following

1. I have had to replace 2 or 3 units.  They seem to have a relatively short working life of a couple of years or so.
2. They definitely don't like working if they're plugged into extension leads but they do seem to work fine on different ring mains okay.
3. They can emit a bit of a high pitched noise and/or otherwise irritate with flashing LED lights.  In short, you wouldn't want one plugged in at night if your router is located next to your bed!

Otherwise, pretty good value and generally function reliably once they're set up.

[ian]

The TP-Link plugs work OK on adaptors (not the surge filtered ones) but there will be a performance hit. Better to plug them into a mains socket. I've had the same bunch for several years (ostensibly the 500Mb/s versions). I did test them once and they maxed out about 170Mb/s over a mix of recent and ancient (1960s) wiring. Only issue I have is that, for some reason, an iMac doesn't wake them from sleep (the Minis do) so my wife has to flip the power switch but that's a bit of a #firstworldproblem. There may be a setting but it's non-obvious. Also, there is no Mac configuration utility but then the seemed to work fine just by pressing the pair buttons. If the LEDs bother, turn it off or deploy some sticky tape.

[Morat]

They also drive radio hams mad because they spread lots of RF interference but if this was likely to affect you, I guess you'd probably already know.

[Little Jim]

So I've finally got round to sorting this out - you really shouldn't rush into these things....

...and I bought a couple of Google Wi-Fi units instead.  These are (apparently) a mesh Wi-Fi system.  I have no idea what that really means, but one unit plugs into the modem/router (you have to turn the Wi-Fi off on the to make it just a router) and the other unit just plugs in somewhere else in the house.  Set up was ridiculously easy, so much so that I could have done it on my own without having to ask my wife.  As it was I let her do it and watched so that I could criticise if it went wrong, but it was very easy and quick.  There are a few controls included (it's all app based rather than via a website) so you can limit the kid's use of it both in terms of time and amount and you can set up a "guest account" for visitors if you really want.

Wi-Fi now works over the whole of the ground floor of the house which is a vast improvement on before.  By way of testing I just looked at the wi-fi strength on my phone and even in the far corner of the utility room it was "fair" and I could easily open the BBC website on my phone whereas before it would have been a complete waste of time.

[The_Mikey]

They also drive radio hams mad because they spread lots of RF interference but if this was likely to affect you, I guess you'd probably already know.

Most good devices have been designed with selective filters to ensure they don't add to the noise on the ham bands, and this works sometimes, although there's still a lot of bad equipment out there...